Rural poverty remains a prevalent problem in America: over 15 percent of Americans living outside of a metropolitan area live in poverty. For Columbia students living and studying in Morningside Heights, rural poverty can seem distant, unimportant, and unworthy of our consideration, especially given the poverty that pervades the neighborhoods just a subway ride away. Yet the alternative Spring Break trip to Mullens, W. Va., destroyed those conceptions. For six days, 16 Columbia University students rebuilt porches, repaired roofs, literally shoveled mud from the side of a mountain—and hardly scratched the surface of the work that needed to be done in the small town.
Although the problems of Mullens’ residents attract almost no attention outside Wyoming County, W. Va., by contrast Hurricane Katrina threw New Orleans and the city’s suffering people into the national spotlight. Once the immediate shock and aftermath of the storm died down, however, so too did the media coverage, and what the journalists left behind was a city in ruin. There was an incredible outpouring of support from the general public in all forms, but after the first few weeks of post-Katrina mayhem, this, too, dwindled. The one factor that has remained a strong force in rebuilding the city has been volunteers. Much of the recovery effort in New Orleans has been fueled by volunteers. Were it not for groups like those from Columbia, the city would not have seen nearly as much progress as it has.
Community service activities like alternative Spring Break trips are important because they provide a way for students to make tangible differences in places like Mullens and New Orleans, and they give us an insight into the problems that lay outside our cozy Morningside campus. They give us an opportunity to spread awareness to the entire Columbia Community about the serious problems that face too many Americans. This year marks the fourth organized spring break trip down to the Big Easy, the first one coming a mere six months after Katrina, and the second trip to Mullens. Each year, in both places, we have seen firsthand the difference volunteers like us make.
If there are any themes students recognize from this year at Columbia, the value of public service should be one of them. What brought Barack Obama and John McCain to this campus was not a campaign stop but rather an opportunity to symbolically set aside their differences to talk about the value of public service. While the practice of politics can evoke powerful, negative cynicism, especially among college students, the Service Nation Forum of last September was intended to show us that politics in a broad sense—politics as public service—can transcend the lines we draw to divide us.
The College Democrats hope that the Obama administration continues to emphasize the importance of community service. Calling on all Americans to devote their Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to making a difference in their community was an important first step, but it was not enough. Symbolic gestures by our new president, while admirable, do not constitute a true re-evaluation of the role community service should play in the life of every Columbia student and every American. Only by making opportunities for community service available and appealing will our government effect a positive change in our citizens’ devotion to service.
Last week, Congress made progress toward effecting that change. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which passed last Tuesday, will expand national community service programs like Americorps, create several new service corps to focus on issues like education and healthcare, and provide for increased education stipends for volunteers. As our country re-emphasizes the value of community service as a central part of our civic engagement, Columbia should do the same. Civic engagement represents a major part of the philosophy of Columbia—it manifests itself in the speakers we see, the clubs we join, and the unparalleled hunger for political participation we wtiness on our campus throughout the year. As our experiences in Mullens and New Orleans have demonstrated—and as our elected officials have recently affirmed—community service must play a role in our concept of what it means to be a responsible citizen.
Nancy Huemer is a Barnard College junior majoring in political science. Sam Klug is a Columbia College first-year. Both are members of the Columbia University College Democrats executive board.
