Making a difference, Yalies volunteer

By Andrew Krause

The city of New Haven is a significant factor in the Yale admissions process. Every year, there is the chance that a percentage of prospective Yalies will turn away from this University because of common uninformed innuendos about safety concerns and issues with the surrounding neighborhoods.

Many members, however, of the applicant pool who elect to matriculate to Yale consider its urban setting an advantage. The city is ripe with opportunitiy for community service and volunteer activities. Nearly 40 percent of the student body participates in some sort of volunteer program or organization, be it tutoring in a local school , working in a soup kitchen, or joining the Yale College chapters of the ACLU or Amnesty International. Service possibilities are practically endless at Yale. It is very likely that you will become involved in some sort of volunteer or community oriented activity during your four years here.

To call the Yale campus polarized would be a great exaggeration, but it would also be wrong to deny that certain "crowds" of people do exist, just as they do in any sizable community. Athletic teams, a cappella singing groups, and fraternities are just a few of these social circles.

Community service and volunteering, however, transcend this kind of grouping. No matter how dedicated one is to volunteer work, it would be impossible to become acquainted with all of the students who participate in such activities. It is even difficult to keep track of all of the service groups which exist on campus, let alone the individuals who staff them.

The reasons behind students' individual motivation are too numerous to list in their entirety. Some Yalies are driven to volunteer by the shock of seeing urban poverty up close every day; others have done community service since high school and opt to continue similar activities, while still others enjoy the feeling of being able to share a particular skill or talent.

The one element which unites all of these segments of the volunteering population is a simple desire to help others, a unique trait which has the potential to match a football player and a Glee Club member in the same community outreach program.

A large number of student service organizations fall under the auspices of Dwight Hall at Yale. Founded in 1886 and located on Old Campus, Dwight Hall is the nation's only independent collegiate volunteer umbrella organization. Since the group is neither financed nor staffed by the University, Dwight Hall is able to voice its own opinion on town-gown issues such as the 1996 striking of Yale's labor unions.

More than 60 groups are members of Dwight Hall, and their services fall under headings ranging from Hunger and Homelessness to Literacy to Youth Mentorship and so on. One of the largest organizations in Dwight Hall is the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project (YHHAP), itself an umbrella overseeing 10 different service projects. Among other things, YHHAP members help to staff local soup kitchens, work with adults in a literacy program at the New Haven Homeless Resource Center, and run their own political action group. Once each semester, YHHAP organizes an awareness week laden with activities, including a campus-wide fast, during which students are asked to donate their dining hall meals for a day in order to raise money for local, national and international groups.

YHHAP belongs to a class of Dwight Hall programs associated with campus and city-wide activism. Perhaps the most vocal and demonstrative of these organizations, the Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC), was particularly active during the strike. It has continued its efforts by supporting the United Farm Workers' campaign for the rights of strawberry pickers and by advocating reform of financial aid policies in the spring of 1997.

Also along these lines is the Yale Student Environmental Coalition (YSEC). YSEC succeeded in its efforts to ban the serving of beef at this year's Spring Fling. Their objective was to raise student awareness about the vast resources used in modern-day cattle raising.

Completely distant from the activist branch of Dwight Hall is that class of programs which allows students to interact with children, one of the more popular forms of community service. The Ulysses S. Grant Foundation brings especially motivated and talented students to the University. They are enrolled in small English and math classes taught by Yale students. The Yalies are responsible for designing their own class curriculums. U.S. Grant gives its student-teachers students a chance to form close relationships with the New Haven youths in the classes.

Each residential college has its own branch of TIES (Tutoring in the Elementary Schools). This system allows for the involvement of interested Yale students who may not have heard about the program through conventional channels. Organizations such as Yale Students for Reproductive Rights and Yale Student AIDS Educators have a more narrow focus, but can also be found under the Dwight Hall umbrella.

In an effort to try to forge some cohesion between the extraordinarily diverse programs offered by Dwight Hall, the Social Justice Network (SJN) was formed in the fall semester of 1996. The SJN is aimed primarily at attempting to coordinate and potentially unify the efforts of some of Yale's ideologically similar organizations. It is also, however, a step toward creating a more connected "service community" on the Yale campus, something which currently exists in concept only.

In the spring semester of every year, Yale stages an event called the President's Community Service Dinner. The evening brings together several hundred students, just a fraction of those who do volunteer work during the year, at Commons for a meal and a keynote speaker. When one considers the sheer number of people who attend this year-end event, it becomes clear how deeply the volunteer spirit pervades the Yale student body.

There is no exclusive club to join, no central leadership to follow; rather, scores of opportunities are available. The various possibilities that exist to improve New Haven make Yale the perfect place for energetic students to make a difference. Exploring these possibilities has the potential to lead to some of the most important lessons of your Yale education. Volunteering is everywhere, and is one of the most special parts of the Yale experience.

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