University office cuts funding for community service break trips abroad

Lampost and bulletin board signs like one asking "Interested in doing community service in Honduras this Intersession?" will disappear this year.

As of Oct. 15, the University ended funding from its campus life office — which includes both the Pace Center for Community Service and the Office of Religious Life — for break trips to locations outside the United States.

In the past, organizations such as the Student Volunteers Council and Community House would arrange international trips over Fall Break, Intersession, Spring Break and Dead Week break periods, with the funding and assistance of the University.

However, concerns about the how much students could actually benefit from only a week abroad and about how much service could actually be done in such a short time caused University administrators to rethink the funding policy for such trips.

Insead of providing funding for such weeklong trips, the University will encourage longer-term, more educational service trips with its financial resources.

Though she said she recognizes the significant value service trips can have for students, Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson said the concerns about preparation and risk involved necessitated the change.

"I think that what I learned and what I heard from people and from the values I have, that for students on those journeys, they were life changing trips, but there were concerns about preparation and questions about how much time is actually spent doing service," she said.

All in all, she said, "We are convinced that the greatest benefits for students come from emersions of more than one week in length."

Robin Williams '04, an office administrator of SVC who has participated in past break trips, said the trips can be an important part of creating an active way for students to take part in the world at large.

"[Break trips] are a different type of tool to get students interested in doing something outside of their own sphere, and if you bring that energy back to campus, you might have a handful of students get back and be more active, maybe even change their majors," he said.

Though he disagrees with the funding changes, Williams said he appreciates the reasons and sentiment behind them.

"Overall, I think it was wrong, but the spirit behind it is very much correct — the idea that students should have a meaningful experience and the community involved should gain from what's going on," he said.

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The campus life office funds will continue to support international service trips of four to 12 weeks in length that also "include a theoretical component before, during and after the experience," according to a statement on the University webpage explaining the new funding guidelines.

For these lengthier trips, the University will outsource to licensed, reputable companies in the business of planning and arranging such projects.

"We are prepared to support such ventures, but since we have limited resources we've chosen to outsource with organizations that meet our risk management criteria and other criteria," Dickerson said.