Student Government Vice President Jenny Byrd said she thinksUniversity students want to give back to the community.
Her only concern is students may not know where to go and findout how they can help.
Byrd and SG Student and Community Affairs Chairperson EmilyBurris are developing plans for CommUniversity — a program linkingstudents to service opportunities in the community.
They modeled the CommUniversity after a similar program at theUniversity of Georgia. The program seeks to increase volunteerismby providing students with multiple ways to serve the area.
Burris and Byrd said currently there is not a central placestudents can go to find about community service on campus.
Byrd said she feels many students shy away from joining aspecific service organization because of time commitments or costof dues.
Because CommUniversity does not require students to join or payany money, Burris said students can participate on their own terms– any time they are interested.
Byrd said CommUniversity is one of the largest programs on UGA’scampus
“We want to start building it into the culture here,” saidByrd.
Byrd said she does not think University students are apathetic,but she is afraid it is the same group of students volunteering formost projects.
“It’s hard for the everyday student to know where to go,” Byrdsaid.
Burris said they hope to develop a Web site, accessible on PAWS,that will provide students with information on service projectsgoing on throughout the Baton Rouge area. The Web site also willenable student organizations to post projects and solicitvolunteers.
She also said they hope to register students in the Web site’sdatabase, updating them via e-mail when opportunities arise.
“We will start out very small,” Burris said. “We’re going to[highlight] a service project a month.”
Burris also said the ultimate goal is to contact all serviceorganizations on campus and determine if a service coordinator thatorganizes all volunteering from a central location would best suitthe University.
Michelle Gieg, SG legislative affairs chairperson, said TulaneUniversity in New Orleans has a paid, full-time position designedsolely to link students to volunteering in the city.
The Tulane Hullabaloo, the University’s student newspaper,published an article in 2002 after the University hired a newdirector of community service.
The article noted a large increase in service activism andoutreach since the director’s hiring.
Burris said if service organizations at LSU think it will help,they hope to eventually be able to hire someone also.