In the nation's service?

Take a minute and think way back to freshman orientation, when your plastered smile was big and your dreams even bigger. When you sat in the awe-inspiring chapel surrounded by your fellow Class of 201X for Opening Exercises: A University Convocation. President Shirley Tilghman introduced you to the mindset you should inhabit for the next four years and beyond: “…our unofficial motto, ‘Princeton in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.’”

Thank goodness “unofficial” wasn’t on my SAT — it seems President Tilghman was invoking an alternate definition I’ve only recently understood: “used only in formal contexts but has no observable effects.” We may have a motto providing an illusion to the contrary, but Princeton has a glaring lack of student volunteering. By instituting the motto in its current formulation, Woodrow Wilson attempted to foster an environment that valued service, where students dedicated time to giving back to the nation, but that ship has long since sailed. All that remains of that era is the amorphous, throwaway motto stuffed into a plastic bottle still floating in the harbor. And a few times a year, we fish down to get it and pretend as if it’s relevant to our campus life.

While it is impossible to calculate exact figures for service on campus (What exactly counts as service? What about the unaccounted for volunteering in the residential colleges, eating clubs, etc.?), the PACE Center, our campus hub for civic engagement, has statistics on two of its largest volunteer programs: as of fall 2012, the Student Volunteers Council (SVC) has 531 volunteers and Community House has 126. Those numbers not only leave dramatic room for improvement — keep in mind there are over 5,000 undergraduates on campus — but, as reflections of the two most important programs in our center for service, they’re rather embarrassing.

You might ask: Why is volunteering important? I would argue, firstly, that we are so absurdly lucky to attend Princeton and with that privilege comes a certain degree of responsibility to give back. Yes, we worked hard to get here. Yes, we work even harder once we’re here. But that doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility that is necessarily entwined in the privilege of being here — one that I can imagine very few of us would be willing to give up.

Realistically, however, a sense of responsibility isn’t the best motivator. Instead, my most important reason for tutoring weekly in Trenton is that spending too much time in the Orange Bubble makes me delusional. It’s far too easy to get sucked into the dangerous, endless cycle of entitlement, stress and self-pity when all we talk about is our first-world problem of being too busy. Only a short drive away, people have real problems. They don’t have food, and they don’t have shelter. We live in castles and an old hotel that overlooks a golf course and, for most, all meals are provided for by parents or remarkably generous financial aid. It’s all too important to gain some perspective by looking at our “problems” from the outside. How much emotionally healthier would our campus community be if everyone was able to maintain some perspective? In response to those who would label this approach to volunteering as selfish, I think it’s senseless to deny the mutually beneficial nature of service.

Alternatively, perhaps to you, “Princeton in the nation’s service” might mean budgeting your time most efficiently with the long-term goal of contributing back to society with your newly honed skill set later on. I’ll acknowledge that the motto does refer in part to life post-march-through-FitzRandolph-Gate, but only in part; there’s no reason it should also preclude service now. For that small percentage of people on campus who legitimately don’t have an hour per week to spare for those less fortunate, that’s okay — not every single person needs to volunteer. It just needs to become part of our campus dialogue, become the campus norm. I never want to hear, “That’s so nice you volunteer!” Students should instead be asking, “Which day do you volunteer?” in the same conversation as “Which clubs are you involved in?”

Right now, our unofficial motto hardly means anything to our campus identity. It’s time to reexamine that. Why is our community so obsessed with our quotidian struggles that we can’t think beyond our lives in Firestone and on the Street? There should be at least as many ‘Prince’ articles about service as there are about hook-up culture. Athletes should dedicate one of their many hours of practice to serving in a soup kitchen. Theater groups should perform a dress rehearsal at a senior home and a cappella groups should host concerts in children’s hospitals. It’s time we prioritize, sending a message loudly and clearly that this is important to us, that Princeton is a beacon of both academic achievement and national service.

I only volunteer two hours a week, I’ve never participated in a breakout trip and I do not hold any SVC leadership positions. This article isn’t a self-righteous crusade to make myself seem like a better person — it’s about looking honestly at the ways our actions and dialogue (or lack thereof) reflect our values and whether we are proud of what our community stands for. I say it’s time we step up our game and fill this void, transforming the unofficial motto from an embarrassing catchphrase into our trademark.