By Laura Goble
Last week, over 1200 students from 11 campuses participated in a common day of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Never before has such a large and diverse collaboration of colleges and universities organized to celebrate the only national holiday designated as a day of service.
I was disappointed that last week's article about the MLK Day event seemed to applaud those students who skipped class to participate rather than challenge those students who could have participated without missing class and did not.
According to the registrar, over 1000 University of Portland students were not registered for class and available during the rally hours, several hundred were available for the entire day of service.
The United Way and Hands on Portland support a weekend of service in honor of MLK Day. This year, over 2000 individuals worked on nearly 100 different projects on Saturday and Sunday prior to Monday's holiday.
How many students that could not participate in the organized event on Monday looked for alternatives? How many actively look for ways to serve the community in an ongoing way?
As a service-learning professional, I certainly believe in pedagogy that integrates service with academic learning. However, such initiatives take careful, intensive planning and organization with community partners, students and faculty members.
Because this year's event was new and involved collaboration with 11 very different campuses, it was difficult to develop a valid approach for academic integration.
Without the development of such an approach, volunteer service is co-curricular and should occur outside of class time. In no way is the provost's commitment to academic excellence, university policy and protecting the academic calendar hypocritical.
Dr. King's legacy of civil disobedience was tied to a deep commitment to organizing for social change. If students are motivated to participate in such days, I hope their zeal becomes an ongoing effort to learn their community, serve in it and work to improve it.
I hope they seek out creative ways to incorporate community-based and service-learning into their papers, projects and course discussions. I hope they inspire faculty members to develop and offer such opportunities. The Moreau Center is committed to supporting those who seek to do just that.
Laura Goble is the director of the Moreau Center for Service and Leadership
