The Emptiness of High School ‘Volunteerism’

USA TODAY, June 23—While free-lance writer Robin Henig is willing to admit that “compulsory volunteerism is a ‘startling oxymoron,’” she favors the now-popular high school requirement — when properly done.

But “credit for compulsory volunteering can now be accrued in some truly bizarre ways. In the process, the original idea of creating adults with a sense of civic responsibility is in danger of getting lost.”

What started as a serious program in her daughter's high school soon became an opportunity for kids to take “the easy way out, and school officials were letting them.

“These kids were earning ‘student service learning hours’ for being in the school play or taking a photography class.”

By the time her younger daughter got to high school, students were getting student service credit for graduating from middle school!

“Student service learning is one of the few that can carry over into a lifelong habit. But until the educational bureaucracy puts some muscle behind this requirement … our children will get a message we never intended: that while we as a society give lip service to the importance of taking care of each other, the true spirit of volunteerism is something we just don't value or even understand.”

Reversing Decision, Father Scanlan Will Stay

In a press release, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, reported that Franciscan Father Michael Scanlan will continue as president “for at least the coming academic year, 1999-2000. His appointment as chancellor will be held in abeyance.”

In announcing the decision, the university said a majority of the members of the nominating and executive committees of the university's board of trustees “honored” a statement by Father Scanlan in which he expressed the belief “that my continuing as president is in the best interest of all, so I will fully and actively serve in the presidency for another year or more at the pleasure of the board.”

The Register reported the university's Feb. 22 announcement that Father Scanlan would step down as president on June 30 and remain active in campus affairs through the newly created position of chancellor. Father Scanlan has served as president since 1974.

New Law School Names Acting Dean

Joseph L. Falvey has been named acting dean of the recently established Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich. Falvey will serve as acting dean until Dean Bernard Dobranski leaves his current position as dean of the Catholic University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Falvey will then join the Ave Maria faculty.

The Ave Maria project was started by Domino's Pizza founder and Catholic activist Tom Monaghan. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2000, to become the 26th Catholic law school in the United States. The school says it is set apart from others by its “comprehensive legal curriculum enriched by its grounding in natural law and the enduring teachings of the Catholic Church.”

In his role as acting dean, Falvey is responsible for “the preparation of curriculum, procurement of a facility that exceeds American Bar Association requirements and development of the school's library.”