Every act of community service is selfish. But since the results
of community service matter more than its motivations, the UC
should enact a community service requirement as a condition to
graduate.
With my experience tutoring children in Watts through Project
Literacy, I have found that, regardless of the personal motivations
of the tutor, the child benefits greatly from receiving one-on-one
attention with a college student.
Community service is often falsely perceived as hallowed ground
reserved for only those with the most noble intentions; it is not
to be tainted with people with selfish motivations. But this is
irrational because the reasons for doing community service are much
less important than the life-changing effects that service can have
on people in need.
The myth of community service as a purely altruistic cause needs
to be dispelled. Community service is always selfish. Take a
hypothetical student, Susie Do-Gooder, who helps out at the local
soup kitchen. It would be near blasphemy to insinuate that Susie
helps out for reasons other than helping the homeless. But the
people who do community service have a wide diversity of
motivations, none of which is any better or worse than
altruism.
With Susie’s case, alleviating her own guilt about being a
prosperous middle-class American may contribute to her desire to
serve the homeless. Or, perhaps, Susie is a master resume-builder
or wants people to think she is a good person.
Or maybe Susie just helps out because it gives her personal
satisfaction. When Susie goes to sleep at night, she feels good
about herself because she does community service. There is
absolutely nothing wrong with benefitting yourself while helping
others.
All of the above motivations are selfish, but it doesn’t
matter because the end result is always the same: Society is better
off. Likewise, doing community service because it is a requirement
also improves society.
Now that the “community-service-must-be-noble” myth
is dispelled, we can consider the proposal to include some type of
community service as a UC graduation requirement. Students of a
state-funded institution have a moral and social obligation to
repay the state and taxpayers that subsidize their education.
Community service would be the perfect way to do this.
Receiving a public education should be like a contract between
the citizen and the state. The state subsidizes a student’s
education in return for a commitment by the student to give
something back to the state. Yes, we pay taxes, but very few
students pay enough to equal the amount of their education
subsidy.
Doing 10 hours of community service per quarter would be a small
sacrifice on the part of each individual student, but think of the
net effect it would have on our state. With every UC student
contributing, it would result in over 5 million community service
hours per year. There can be no doubt that these hours would be
well-served mentoring inner-city youth, caring for the elderly or
cleaning up our streets.
The current absence of a community service requirement at UCLA
provides no excuse for failing to fulfill your moral obligation as
a citizen. There are plenty of organizations on and off campus that
need your help. Regardless of your personal motivations, do
community service, and the state will be a much better place to
live for all Californians.