Group calls for hands-on work

Thirteen students who cleared debris from evacuated homes in New Orleans over Intersession issued a public challenge to politicians on Mardi Gras, asking elected officials to get their hands dirty as well.

"Come down to New Orleans and do more than bear witness," the statement said, addressing any politician either occupying or planning to occupy a public post in the United States. "We challenge you ... to show us that you've GOT GUTS. How? By using your own two hands to gut at least one home in New Orleans."

The official title of the student project is "The Got Guts Challenge," which plays off the verb "to gut," the act of removing all debris, ceilings, walls and floors from disaster-affected houses. The procedure is necessary to renovate houses damaged by the flooding that Hurricane Katrina caused.

All the students in the group took POL 337: Disaster, Race and American Politics. The challenge, which is the brainchild of Emery Whalen '09 and Farrell Harding '10, has received considerable attention from the media, including WZBN News, the Times of Trenton and the Times-Picayune, New Orleans' local newspaper. NPR ran a story on the students' volunteer work during Intersession, from which the idea for the project initially emerged.

The challenge to politicians was issued on the group's website, wegotguts.com. The website also includes links and information regarding other service organizations, a pre-written "challenge" letter for constituents to send to their representatives and a fundraising store selling "Got Guts" paraphernalia.

"We gutted about five houses total, which was a great accomplishment considering the size of our group," Whalen said. "But at the same time, there were many other houses in the neighborhood that we couldn't get to.

"It was very hard to leave knowing that we were leaving so many houses behind, so we decided that we needed to do more," she said.

Whalen and Harding, both of whom live in Louisiana, were especially struck by the responses of the students who had never witnessed the destruction firsthand. Despite having studied New Orleans for weeks, the students said they thought it impossible to understand the scope and gravity of Katrina without visiting and volunteering at the areas that had been affected by the hurricane. Consequently, they believe that politicians' policy decisions will also be better-informed after volunteering.

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"In the course, we were so focused on the history and the politics of the disaster that we never really got to focus on the human aspect," Harding said. "The students who went there for the first time were amazed to see how much work remains to be done, how many families are still affected."

Politics professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell, who taught the course and accompanied the students on the trip, agreed that the actual experience of volunteering offers a perspective on the problem that cannot be provided by classroom study.

"In class, the students got a sense of how huge the problem was," Lacewell said. "But by gutting houses they were exposed to the specificity of the disaster — the humanity of the disaster became real for them ... They want elected officials to have the same sense of the humanity of the victims that they themselves experienced."

But the students' efforts have met some local resistance.

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Marta Richards '73, president of the Princeton Alumni Association of Baton Rouge, which covers most of Louisiana, has objected to the substance of the challenge, claiming that it amounts to a "touchy-feely" approach to a complex policy issue and that it's inappropriate for the students to use the University's name in support of political action. The group denies any political affiliation and has recently applied for 501(c)3 nonprofit status.

"I suggest strongly that your group rethink this and write some very well-researched papers on what should be done, and send THOSE to lawmakers," Richards wrote to Aita Amaize '07, the member of the group who organized the trip to New Orleans, on an alumni discussion board. "Those will go much further than your easily-mounted public relations campaign issuing a challenge to them. It will also be the right role for an Ivy League university to play."

In a follow-up email, Richards said she has received several letters of support from fellow alumni who agree with her criticisms.

These objections notwithstanding, the students said they have already met with politicians to discuss the challenge and that the responses they've received have been encouraging.

"Having politicians come to the city would be incredible, not only for the city's morale but for the country's morale," Whalen said. "It's very exciting that people are actually responding to this and will soon be coming out to New Orleans to get things done."