Survey: Student volunteering increases, raising $4.45 billion

Each day problems plague cities around the world. Hunger, homelessness and natural disasters, among other issues, give active citizens plenty of opportunities to lend a helping hand in their communities, and according the results of a survey taken by Campus Compact, an organization that encourages civic involvement on campuses, students are taking advantage of these opportunities.\nThe survey reports that 30 percent of students regularly did some type of community service for an average of four hours per week, which demonstrates that students have become more civically involved in the past five years. The survey also estimates that their volunteer time last year was worth $4.45 billion to the respective communities they served.\nWhile only 44 percent of Campus Compact's 950-member universities responded to the survey, including 19 Indiana schools and four of the seven IU campuses, Jacquelyn McCracken, the executive director of Indiana Campus Compact, thinks that the results accurately represent students' volunteering habits at universities around the country.\n"There has been a push through the 1990s to increase volunteering across the spectrum, not just for students," she said.\nSenior Caitlin Roth, president of the Volunteer Student Bureau at IU, thinks that the results "are definitely accurate relative to IU." The VSB assists approximately 400 students in finding volunteer opportunities each year, according to Roth.\n"It used to be that the entire campus was only doing one or two projects at a time. Now you can find volunteering virtually everywhere, all the time," Roth said.\nMcCracken attributes the increase in volunteering partially to Campus Compact and other organizations that work to promote volunteering. Campus Compact gives grants to students for projects and also sponsors a day for students to go to the state house to discuss their own concerns with legislators. McCracken thinks that this particularly encourages students to be "engaged."\nWhile programs like these may encourage students to become involved, many start their college volunteer work through campus groups that they join upon their arrival at IU. There are numerous groups that either require or encourage their members to complete service hours.\nThe Greek system, which is present on most campuses, is one organization that requires its members to become involved in volunteering.\n"The Greek requirement and the influence of the Greek system on people doing volunteer work probably affects the amount of participation," said senior Anthony Dee, the philanthropy chair of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.\nEach fraternity and sorority requires its members complete a certain number of service hours each semester, and Dee thinks that this helps students who may not otherwise choose to volunteer become involved in the community. \nOne of Lambda Chi Alpha's events helped Dee become involved in his current philanthropy project, the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.\n"Each year we bring a lot of unpaired 'littles' to our house and play around with them for a day. That's when I met (my 'little')," Dee said. "I spend about two and a half hours with him each week, aside from talking to him at different times."\nNo matter how students become involved, it is important that they consider the social issues lying behind the volunteer projects, according to McCracken.\n"(Most students) are more interested in helping people in need than getting politically involved," she said. "When we talk about this field we're talking about more than helping people in need. It's being involved in the community to the extent that you solve community problems and it's looking at issues. It's asking 'Why is there hunger?' and 'Why are there homeless people?'"\nRoth also recognized that volunteering gives students the opportunity to become more civically aware, thus they help themselves learn while helping others.\n"In a community with so much need, students who are civically engaged can have a remarkable effect," Roth said. "Students have the opportunity to look outside the walls of IU and really take responsibility for what is going on in the world around them"