Higher Education and/in the Community

Jessica Kim-- I definitely agree with Adam and Drew's posts about the role of higher education institutions in the community. Liberal arts colleges were initially set up to prepare young people for a life of informed citizenship, and I feel like allowing and creating opportunities for students to get involved in their communities is an undeniably important way of doing so. Adam's point about how college can be a 'bubble' is definitely true. Some could argue that this is a good thing, that it allows students to focus themselves on their academic commitments; but if students learn without a sense of how their studies can be applied to the wider world, what makes us think that they will be able to apply them once they actually get out there?

Our students have a great culture of service. I think the next step would be to get the spirit of service imbued into the administration and academics of our school. I found an interesting document on the W&M website titled "A Vision for Public Service at the College of William & Mary" (http://web.wm.edu/as/dean/fas/documents/Vision%20for%20Public%20Service%20at%20W&M.pdf?svr=www) that details a committee's reasoning and recommendations for expansion of public service initiatives at the college. I feel like it was written a while ago, and I feel like we could use this as a guide to help us implement more of these ideas at W&M.

There is a fine line as to how much a college should invest in the greater good of the community, but that should be gauged primarily by the student interest and demand. If students dedicate so much time to service at this college, there should be more investment in ways to expand upon those interests. Not only would that meet a student demand, but it would also work for the good of the wider communities we are all a part of. I don't think there can be a downside to higher education involvement in the community because it caters to a student need and corresponds with a trend of greater social awareness and involvement that is sweeping our nation.