I must apologize if you have received this message before, or if it came through
garbled on your system. I have had a lot of trouble trying to send it from a
difficult email system. SO SORRY!
A request for information on diversity and service-learning a few weeks ago from
another list subscriber came right as I hoped to make a similar request of my
own, and perhaps start a conversation on some very challenging issues that my
organization, Minnesota Campus Compact, plan to research in-depth this summer.
In Minnesota (I wonUt generalize to everywhere), students on campuses across the
state engage in community service activities. The trend we have noticed,
however, is that traditional volunteer programs tend to attract primarily white
students (and women, for that matter), while students of color (who RdoS as much
service as white students) typically use other vehicles for RdoingS service,
i.e., cultural student groups, minority affairs offices, churches, local
community connections, etc.
We have worked with a graduate student intern who helped us do preliminary
research on how service-learning in higher education can serve as a way to bring
together diverse groups of students around issues of common concern. She wrote a
60 masterUs paper based on 25 interviews with service-learning leaders in
Minnesota and the around the country. We then held a training event based on her
findings for fifty people last year.
Our premise, in working with the intern, and in conducting the training, was:
Community service activities can and should be used as a forum to bring together
diverse groups of students around a common purpose. Community service
experiences provide a unique avenue for students from diverse backgrounds to
meet one another and engage in active, informed discussions on issues of race,
class, community change, etc. Community problems can only be addressed
effectively when diverse groups of people work together to find solutions.
We would like to pose some questions to list members for feedback... What might
change if multicultural groups of students were more engaged in service
activities together... what would change in terms of community impact, student
impact, institutional impact? What must happen in order to change the current
paradigm?
These are questions full of complexity; historical race relations issues, the
difficulty in defining terms like Rmulticulturalism,S and Rcommunity,S how to
separate race from class from a multitude of other human characteristics, etc.
And, this is not a white vs. Rnon-whiteS issue!
We are asking these questions because we believe that an important opportunity,
full of challenges and the potential for change, is being missed.
We have secured a grant for a full-time intern this summer who will study these
issues and create a publication on cross-cultural student service projects,
including models (if theyUre out there), principles, challenges, etc.
I am asking you to join in this conversation -- help us frame these difficult
issues, provide examples from your own experience, give us leads to other
resources.
At the end of the summer, I will provide information to the list on ordering the
handbook we hope to create.
Thank you in advance for your help...
Erin Bowley
Program Director
Minnesota Campus Compact
DUN238, 52 So. 10th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612-962-4952
embowley@stthomas.edu