As you read this, you may be wondering if this professor of political science is calling for some donations to destroy higher education.
As Giving Tuesday approaches, I’m letting would-be donors know that there’s a new positive revolution on college campuses, where they could go beyond the insular Ivory Tower model, and help students use the knowledge they learn to help benefit the community.
At the 2023 meeting of the Georgia Political Science Association, I brought five eager LaGrange College undergraduates, ready to present the research conducted in class by another 50 or so college students in their classes. Each project not only incorporated undergraduate research, but also the concept of service learning, where you take what you learn in class, and help a client from the community with that knowledge.
Our statistics work was designed to help with projects related to national parks to affordable housing to tax credits for building low-income housing to the benefits of publicly acknowledging past wrongs like lynchings, to testing the benefits of having an independent judiciary.
We weren’t alone. From Valdosta State University to Southwest Virginia, other professors were doing the same thing. Two had their students help use their knowledge of survey tools to help local law enforcement with recruiting candidates. Another team had their students use some kind of mathematical modeling to help link churches and local charities to better meet the Food Security Network needs of the struggling population in rural areas. A third pair helped local nonprofit organizations increase their presence and impact in South Georgia. Any American at the panel would say, “Now that’s what I’m talking about! That’s what colleges should be doing!”
Donors can help with this process. Some donate funds for a building, while others may endow a chair. Still others help create scholarships that are all about service learning and undergraduate research. For example, there’s the Wilkinson Family Servant Scholars program, where their generous donation funds students to work on community-based research projects in their junior and senior years. There are signs and presentations where our college and local area all know who contributed to so many beneficial programs around our West Georgia area.
Over the past year, Lettie Pate Whitehead provided for a scholarship program that helps female students become future leaders. The winners of these funds are paired with an experienced community member, where they learn now only how they can help, but gain other lessons like confidence, how to make connections in the business world.
A great quote from Etienne Grellet, provided by Whitehead and cited by one of the mentors, Beth Hudson, reads, “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
Given that two-thirds of all future jobs will require a college degree, and only a little more of a third of Americans have a degree, the need for our economy is critical.
Of course, evidence shows that donors tend to shower their dollars on a handful of schools, mostly Ivy League and a few big-name state schools. Just remember the little liberal arts colleges and the lesser-known state schools, who have the opportunity and need to help their professors and students get involved in helping others. As my students demonstrate, the willingness to help is there, and is very strong.
Give them a chance this Giving Tuesday.
John A. Tures is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Political Science Program at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia.