PINS at heart of renewed focus on service

Some colleges have an ivory tower to protect them from the real world. Princeton has an Orange Bubble. At least, that's what some fear.

"In the Nation's Service and in the Service of all Nations" — a phrase coined in 1896 by President Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, and updated by President Harold Shapiro GS '64 a century later — is the University's unofficial motto. But some students question whether students, faculty and administrators give it enough importance.

"I think if you asked me before this semester, I'd say [service] is something a lot of students care about but not something that's put central in terms of what we should do," USG president Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 said. "It's always seen as something extra. It's not something the University emphasizes enough."

Recently, however, the importance of service has received renewed attention. On Sept. 30, the USG launched "Princeton in the Nation's Service" (PINS), an initiative to promote service and civic engagement at the University. Even before classes began, the University started responding to Hurricane Katrina. The Pace Center is working to broaden the definition of service to include civic engagement. The Community Based Learning Initiative (CBLI), which began as a student-run experiment, has grown into a national model for community-based research.

The University, it seems, is taking another look at its unofficial motto.

A new USG

PINS has been the most high-profile effort to promote service on campus this year. The month-long initiative, led by the USG, was designed to coordinate the work of existing service organizations — including the SVC, the Pace Center, Community House and CBLI — and encourage service by groups, such as sports teams, that don't have service as their primary focus.

Initially, organizers had conceived of the initiative as a one-day event. James Williams '06, SVC board facilitator and a member of the PINS steering committee, said organizers lengthened the initiative to promote "sustainable, long-lasting service" commitments rather than onetime experiences.

Even after the event got off the ground, organizers had to refine their proposal — especially after Hurricane Katrina. Initial plans had called for a kickoff event including a major guest speaker. Instead, Joseph said, "we made the Katrina benefit concert the [PINS] opener."

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In a way, the University's response to Katrina helped catalyze a broader and increased interest in service.

"My hope is that that level of dedication will be sustained and that we pay as deep attention to similar crises ... all over the world," Williams said.

Joseph made civic engagement the central issue of his 2004 campaign for USG president. His ambitious goals were met with a mixture of admiration and skepticism.

"Joseph provides a vision of a Princeton where students are not just people, but citizens of their campus and the broader community, a place where students were engaged beyond campus from day one," The Daily Princetonian wrote in an editorial before the election. "Were he to accomplish such a transformation, the Princeton experience would be radically transformed, and he would be remembered a star among presidents who have generally had only modest accomplishments."

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But the 'Prince,' concluding that Joseph's vision was impractical, endorsed Joseph's opponent. Joseph went on to win the 2004 election by 11 votes.

Redefining service

Princeton's new emphasis on service has been largely student-driven. The SVC is the University's largest student-run organization, and PINS was likewise designed and executed by students. The administration is changing its approach to service as well, though.

One of the leaders in this changing approach is the Pace Center. For the first time, the Center has a formal mission statement, which explains its position as "the campus advocate for civic engagement." Its programs, which vary widely, include helping to coordinate internships and postgraduate fellowships related to civic engagement and supporting student-led initiatives like PINS.

The Pace Center will also sponsor a yearlong programming initiative addressing class, inspired by the recent New York Times series "Class Matters."

The center is also under new leadership. Kiki Jamieson, a lecturer in the politics department who served as the Pace Center's interim director for a year, was named director this summer.

"We believe that service and civic engagement are integral parts of a liberal arts education," Jamieson said. "It is important to remember that we're all members of communities large and small and that we all have opportunities to engage as active citizens. We aim to help people to do that."

SVC Program Coordinator David Brown expressed excitement about the Pace Center's new mission.

"It seems Kiki's vision of Pace is that they're not just about service but a wider net of civic engagement," Brown said. "I think that's only going to uplift how we engage the community."

In its earliest years, the Pace Center — founded in 2001 as the Center for Community Service — struggled to find its place among the University's other serviceand community-related organizations. When plans for a new community service center were first announced in 1997, some students expressed concern that it would overshadow the SVC. Even after the center opened, students wondered about its purpose.

"In previous years it was unclear why you would go to the Pace Center," Joseph said.

Though excited about the Pace Center's recent changes, Brown said he wants to make sure that the traditional conception of service is not lost in the broadened definition.

"I want to make sure that the actual hands-on service work ... isn't negated in this new vision," he said.

So far, "hands-on" service has played a major role in Princeton's approach to civic engagement. According to its website, the SVC alone coordinates 55 weekly service trips in the Mercer County area. Next week, the SVC will sponsor service trips to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. The SVC also sponsors Community Action, a service-based program for incoming freshmen.

Service in the classroom

Even before the Pace Center was established, a group of students began meeting with Assistant Dean of the College Hank Dobin to consider ways to connect their experiences with student-led service initiatives — especially the SVC — with their academic work. These meetings resulted in the creation of CBLI in 1997.

Like the Pace Center, CBLI had some initial difficulty defining itself. Its founders debated whether to call the new program "service learning" or "experiential education" and to what degree it should emphasize research versus community service.

They looked at other universities for models. None existed that would fulfill CBLI's goal: to connect students with community organizations in a way that would allow students to benefit from hands-on research and organizations to benefit from the results of students' research.

Even as CBLI gained momentum, it remained a student-run program until 2000.

"It was a process of building and testing," said Jen Jennings '00, one of the students who worked to create CBLI. "We had to show some evidence that this made sense."

This semester, CBLI offers 14 courses that allow students to integrate hands-on research with academic work. CBLI also provides funding for students' independent work.

"It's a lot more than we ever expected to happen," Jennings said. "It's very exciting."

CBLI coordinator Janice Chik '05 said the program has "grown hugely" since 2001, when CBLI assistant director Trisha Thorme became the CBLI's first full-time staff member.

"As for community-based research, I would say Princeton is at the top of its game," Chik said. "I get a lot of inquiries every week from other institutions ... asking for advice. I think Princeton is one of the best models there is for what a community-based research program could be within an academic program."

Despite the University's apparent successes — including the launch of PINS, an active Pace Center and a nationally known CBLI — some students fault the University for not providing service and civic engagement with enough support.

"I don't think we're taking enough advantage of the resources we have and the interest level we have," Joseph said.

Joseph, who began working on PINS almost immediately after his election as USG president, said both students and administrators were skeptical of the initiative.

"It took a lot of convincing to get people to believe that PINS could happen and work," Joseph said. Among some administrators and USG members, there was "a lot of reluctance to support it" both financially and institutionally.

Joseph also criticized the administration's attitude toward community-based learning.

"It seems like Nassau Hall and West College are allergic to the words 'service learning,' 'urban studies' — all those things seem nonacademic," Joseph said.

Williams agreed that there is room for improvement in service learning, saying that students need to lead the effort to expand the University's emphasis on service.

"I think there is a need to better integrate service into the classroom through service learning," he said. "We are a very traditional school when it comes to our academics ... this is where students need to be more aggressive about pushing the institution."

But Jennings said that in the area of service learning, Princeton compares favorably with many of its peers.

Jennings noted that Columbia, where she is attending graduate school in sociology, doesn't have a CBLI equivalent. She added that she thought founding something like the CBLI would have been much more difficult for students at Columbia than for students at Princeton.

"I think Princeton as an institution has a real sense of nimbleness and dynamism that an institution like Columbia doesn't," she said. "That's something that's really special about Princeton."

Williams criticized the University's "overwhelming orientation ... to purely business activity" after graduation.

"While there's certainly some support for government and nonprofit [work], that's not enough for an institution that's committed to being in the nation's service," he said.

Jamieson disagreed with Williams' assessment. She pointed out that Career Services will be holding a nonprofit career fair in the spring, and the Pace Center and Career Services will be sponsoring lunches during Career Week "to help emphasize that you can have a career in finance, or education, or science, or law and do it in a public interest context."

Other members of the University community also took a more positive view of the state of service at Princeton.

"When I first came here ... I was amazed at the level of commitment," said Brown, who came to the University in 2003. "I think there's a big dedication to [service], and our experience has been [that] it's growing."

That's not to say he doesn't see room for improvement, though.

"We have to continue to get more resources; we have to continue to set benchmarks," he said. In particular, transportation remains a limiting factor for students who work with organizations off campus, and Community Action — which the SVC administers — cannot expand unless the SVC's office also expands.

But as Jennings said, that desire to grow must come from below.

"When I was at Princeton I was very critical of the institution for not really living up to the notion of Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations," she said. "Since I've graduated, I've come to appreciate how much Princeton actually does [in terms of service] ... [But] when you're a student activist, you have to create a sense of urgency."