University of Virginia Library

Doing Their Own Thing

Any university, as a center of learning,
research, and education in general, has a
certain obligation to the outside world to
put its resources, both tangible and intangible,
to work in order to help resolve
or ease some of the innumerable problems
that fill that world. As an institution which
is inevitably involved, not necessarily by
choice, with making the privileged members
of society more privileged, such a university
has a moral obligation to share its
privileges in efforts to make the underprivileged
members of society less underprivileged.

In response to recognition of this obligation,
a number of universities and colleges
across the country are setting up or
have already set up some sort of course
or program in urban affairs or community
problems in which participants actually go
out into "the world around them" to meet
the problems face to face. Thus the world
outside becomes something of a laboratory
in which the student carries on his learning
process.

In a long article, "Service Experience and
Educational Growth," in this spring's Educational
Review, Donald J. Eberly explains
the thinking behind such endeavors.
He opens, "American colleges and universities
have been slow to recognize the
relevance of service activities to the
educational process. Almost universally,
they commend the service activities to their
students but seldom take the extra logical
steps of awarding academic credit for and
funding such activities." To support his
charge, he makes reference to a table which
shows that of 623 institutions which replied
to questions in this area, 93 per cent said
they gave moral support to such activities,
but only 13 per cent awarded academic
credit for them. The University would certainly
fall into the former category.

Except for the Upward Bound program,
the University is not officially connected with
any service programs of this sort. There are
local efforts—such as the Westminster
Tutorial Program, the Big Brother project,
and Hope House—through which students
participate in community service activities,
but they must do so on their own time,
at their own expense, at some time between
fulfilling their obligations to the University.
Thus the University is certainly among the
slowest "to recognize the relevance of service
activities to the educational process."
Thus the University is failing miserably to
fulfill its moral obligations to the less
privileged elements of the world about it.

No less important than the moral obligations
involved with such activities is the
gain which students can derive from participating
in them. Mr. Eberly outlined this
concept: "The rationale for developing a
service curriculum can be identified in the
philosophical statements of William James...
James stressed the dependence of cognition
on feeling and experience. Without
them, one can do little more than acquire
a bundle of facts; he can know about something,
but he cannot know it." An article
in Newsweek Magazine also expressed the
concept: such programs "may help to show
that the problems that seem so clear in the
university are not always so susceptible of
solution when you get over there on the
other side."

Perhaps the best testimony of the effects
of such activities on those who have participated
in them is found in their reports.
Mr. Eberly offers several examples: "One
intern in such a program decided to shift
his career in accounting toward a more social
emphasis on economic opportunities
for the underprivileged. The counselor of
an intern in law reported, 'My impression
is that he was quite deeply affected by
what he saw, heard, and did...He has
volunteered to do research work on the
legal problems of the poor.' And another
intern said at the end of his project, for
which he worked a month beyond his last
pay check, 'Above everything else I got
out of this project, I have learned that there
are civic responsibilities, part of which I
must accept as I enter my profession.' "

These and innumerable similar reports
have shown that service activities can be
of utmost importance to a student in his
academic career, in his overall development,
and in planning the rest of his life. On top
of this benefit, again, immeasurable social
good is done by the activities.

Mr. Eberly specifically describes what he
feels differentiates a service experience from
any other kind of work experience. He
says, "Because service for one person is a job
for another, the experience must be defined
primarily as a relationship between the
activity and the person performing it. A
service experience...combines the following
characteristics, to a greater or lesser degree:
(1) the accomplishment of the activity
contributes to the welfare of others; (2)
the psychic income associated with the
activity is sufficient to overcome its low
level of financial reward; (3) the activity
provides the performer with a basis for
balancing materialistic and humanitarian
considerations when he chooses a direction
for his career."

He then explains that "a trio of forces
gives shape, support, and stability to a
service curriculum." The first force, he says,
is the community's need for service. Anyone
who has been to Garrett Street, or to
the surrounding counties, or who has made
any effort to realize what some of the problems
of our community are knows that
this first force would be very strong one here.

Mr. Eberly's second force is the students'
desire for personal commitment and societal
involvement. "Today's youth," he says,
"wants to do things that are real. He
wants experience. He wants to live. His
emotional needs will not be met in the offices
of government or business, but in a
direct personal link with someone in need."
That the youth of the University are motivated
in these directions is illustrated in their
willingness to take part in the few service
activities which are available here now.

He continues, "The third leg is in place
when the faculty recognizes the educational
value of the service experience. Firsthand
experience has long been considered essential
to the study of the physical and
biological sciences...The pros are recognizing
that so long as there is a will to serve
and an appropriate assignment, young people
in....college can derive significant educational
value from the service experience."

There is one other aspect of faculty
recognition of the needs in this area—
consideration of a warding academic credit
for participating in service curricula. This
is necessary to enable students to give
whatever activities they may choose the
time they deserve; further, it can be a
motivation for some students to undertake
such activities, which, again, have been
shown to be of inestimable value to the
students and are thus worth their while.
It seems only logical that an area where
there is so much knowledge to be gained
should carry just as much weight toward
someone's degree as do the more formal
elements of his education. The service
activities complement the formal parts of
education perfectly, and should thus be
recognized as just as valuable, if not more
valuable. Education is "a process which
cannot properly be carried on if confined
to the campus limits; it must fully embrace
the world of experience as well as the world
of academe," says Mr. Eberly.

The feasibility of establishing a service
curriculum at the University will be discussed
tonight by a panel of University and
city officials (see story, p. 1). We hope
many interested people, both students and
faculty, will attend in order to achieve
further enlightenment in this area. We hope,
above all, that the panel will realize the
need for, and worth of, such a curriculum
at the University, and then that such a
program can be set up in the near future.
The educational school, the School of General
Studies, a revision of the proposed
Department of Urban Studies, and the
Center for Advanced Studies have all been
suggested as channels or means through
which such efforts could be directed.

This is an excellent opportunity for the
University to broaden its curriculum to keep
up with a broadening world. The benefits
to any students involved would be immeasurable,
and the benefits to the community
and to the underprivileged involved
would be immensely gratifying to all persons
concerned. Until such a program is
instituted, we are not unlike the ten talent
man of the Bible. Until we make use of
our "talents" and privileges for the welfare
of our less "talented" fellows, we are
shirking the responsibility and trust vested
in us by the very fact that we have the
"talents." In short, we must be "our
brothers' keeper."

Let us conclude with the remarks with
which Mr. Eberly concludes his article;
"The important thing is to ensure that all
students have an opportunity for involvement
with their fellow man in a conceptual
framework that permits the greatest amount
of learning to occur."

We hope that this "important thing"
can be realized here.