Video conference focuses on global politics

Despite the lack of attendance on the Bloomington end, the first of four video conferences on service civic engagement was held Tuesday in the Office of International Programs.\nThe conference began with introductions of the 12-member team from IU-South Bend and then moved on to the IUB contingent consisting of five members. The groups discussed what they had been doing weekly to prepare for this conference and what they have learned about the Bloomington/South Bend areas and the world through service learning. \n"The IUB group has met every Monday and Thursday since the beginning of the semester for one and a half hours," said Juhi Verma, co-facilitator for Conversation About Service and Engagement. "We have been discussing the Bloomington community and its identity in the terms of interaction from personal vantage points."\nThe students have been trying to learn the patterns of volunteering -- who does and who doesn't -- through readings, their own personal experiences and the experiences they have heard from others. \nAlthough people find it harder to get involved, more so in recent years than in the past because of the development of better technology, junior Amy Herman views IU students differently, she said.\n"It takes a certain mentality of a person to put themselves where they feel vulnerable," Herman said. "I don't feel there is a lack of involvement here, however."\nHowever, in the South Bend area, students are not as apt to get involved with their community because the majority of them reside elsewhere in the United States rather than in Indiana and have little attachment to the community while attending the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary's University.\n"IUSB students seem to invest in the community more often than those schools," said Scott Sernau, professor of sociology at IUSB. \nOther students, such as senior Kathleen Claussen, co-facilitator and Indiana Daily Student employee, believes it is the universities' responsibility to get students involved.\n"Students aren't likely to look up a service learning course unless they've already had one," Claussen said. "The University needs to help students see ourselves within the greater global good."\nOne of the program's goals is to promote more volunteering on college campuses. The program looks at how political, environmental and physical effects of volunteering will help with the communities we live in and the world around us.\nTo get a better feel for not only what Indiana thinks its role in the "global good" is, the program will also look at the world's view of U.S. civic engagement as well as participation in their own countries. CASE would like to continue building upon its existing program and gain more students.\n"It is good to get people from different backgrounds and different views from not only Indiana, but around the world," said freshman Brad Jones.\nLater in the year, the program will hold conferences with three different countries. On March 9, CASE will talk with a school from Budapest, Hungary, and will wrap up video conferencing April 11-12 with schools from Puebla, Mexico, and Dakar, Senegal.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ryne \nShadday at rshadday@indiana.edu.