Community service demonstrates student beliefs

If Madison were searching for a theme, a candidate might be “City of Activists.” From the days of Fighting Bob Lafollette’s Progressives in the early years of the last century — and no doubt long before — citizens of the area have distinguished themselves for their willingness and generosity to get involved in the full spectrum of social and political issues.

Of course, the activism practiced here in the 1960s and early ’70s made Madison and its UW campus synonymous with political and social activism. Indeed, the recent exhibition of John Lennon’s visual art at the Red Gym probably brought recollections of — or introductions to — that earlier day to just about all the 5,500-plus who attended the three-day exhibition.

University students taking issue with the Vietnam War and other issues often vented their frustrations as much against local institutions as against the war, says Phyllis Rose, an emerita librarian who worked at Memorial and Social Work libraries and UW Extension until her retirement in 1995.

“Activists in the ’60s and ’70s saw the university as being in collusion with the government because of the companies invited to recruit on campus, and by accepting money for certain research projects,” she says.

Her husband, Robert Kimbrough, is a professor emeritus of English and former president of the American Federation of Teachers Local 223, United Faculty and Academic Staff. He adds that some of the faculty as well as the students were outspoken about what they saw as wrongheaded policy, wherever it might occur.

“They saw UW as an outpost of the federal government. We used to try to figure out which faculty on campus were ex-CIA,” he says.

Active service and service learning

However, in the intervening 35 or 40 years, UW–Madison has become an activist in its own right. Although officially neutral on political platforms and not aligning itself with or advocating for specific public policy, UW–Madison takes an emphatic position on the value of active participation in learning and in the community. The campus offers numerous avenues for students to involve themselves: the Morgridge Center for Pubic Service, the Wisconsin Union Directorate Community Service Committee and initiatives for residence hall students through University Housing.

Since the 1980s, an increasing share of faculty and instructors are incorporating activism into the curriculum, making volunteering central to coursework.

The Morgridge Center is Grand Central for those wishing to make an active difference. This almost-decade-old (1996) clearinghouse pairs organizations in search of volunteers with students, faculty and staff wishing to make a difference, either on their own or for class-credit.

“We had 85 service-learning classes last semester,” says Ann Dingman, Morgridge Center community services coordinator. “To qualify as a service-learning class, students have to meet a need in the community and reflect on it through a paper, class presentation or other project.”

Many student organizations have an activist mission. This semester there are some 562 student groups on record; about a third have at least a component of their mission devoted to public service.

One of the newest of these is the UW–Madison chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). The month-old, 45-member chapter seeks to learn about issues affecting people with mental illness.

According to Mona Wasow, an emerita professor of social work and the group’s faculty adviser, this possibly is the best way to learn about anything as well as render service to the community.

“The campus NAMI chapter will work in the same way as local, state and national affiliates, for the education and support of people with mental illnesses and their families. Our organization is completely student run; they’ve been working with the state NAMI office in making initial plans,” Wasow says. “The campus chapter will meet once a month, have speakers for the educational part of our mission and also spend time discussing and working on support issues.”

From classroom to community

Dani Risehall is a junior majoring in social welfare and psychology and is a charter member of NAMI with great hopes for the new organization.

Risehall says that she would like the organization to reveal a deeper understanding of the impact that individuals can make when they band together.

“I believe that by forming a community of individuals working to support, educate and advocate on behalf of those affected either directly or indirectly by mental illness, the stigma surrounding it will disappear,” she says.

The homeless also come with a social stigma attached. Ryan Sarafolean found out about it through his involvement with CASPER, an after-school program for homeless children under the auspices of the Madison Metropolitan School District, the Madison School-Community Recreation program and area shelters.

Sarafolean, now a junior majoring in Afro-American studies and political science, joined CASPER during his freshman year as part of Michael Thornton’s Afro-American survey course. Sarafolean has been working at CASPER for three years, with no plans to quit. “CASPER was the most eye-opening experience for me,” he says. “Exposing myself to a different lifestyle that I hadn’t been familiar with at all showed me the importance of appreciating the moment and has made my own privilege very apparent.”

Michael Thornton also is busy these days as faculty director of the Morgridge Center. He says that despite the obvious value of incorporating active service into classroom learning, it’s sometimes hard to get faculty and staff to do it.

“Service learning doesn’t enter into the tenure process for faculty. I’m working very hard to get service recognized as part of getting tenure. I’d also like to see service incorporated into disciplines other than the social sciences,” he says.

However, Phyllis Rose doesn’t worry that students will stop feeling the need to make a difference in their world. She has a good perspective on that, calling Madison home since 1949. She says her observation has been that a coterie of young people is eager to step into whatever breach has surfaced at any given time.

“Now, as then, there has always been a core group of people willing to take a stand by doing something about it,” she says. “The issues are always there, and there always will be students willing to press the government, the university administration and the society to do the right thing,” she says.