David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, was on campus last week to meet with students, faculty and staff members about volunteering in America. He was appointed by the president to oversee Ameri Corps and SeniorCorps programs. Last Friday, The Pendulum sat down with him to discuss issues about service and student involvement.

Q: Why is it so important to take part in service while people are young?

A: The best predictor of whether someone is going to do service throughout their life and be engaged in society is whether they serve when they’re young.

Q: How can students participate in service?

A: There are a lot of ways that students can participate in service: through their classroom, with their family, with their social group or their church. We find that we need all of those on-ramps into service.

Q: The rate of volunteering has gone up in the last 20 years. What has caused the change?

A: We’re enjoying a real revitalization of service. There are lots of reasons for it. First off we’re finding that Americans are better educated, healthier and living longer, which is all adding to the increase in service. Also since Sept. 11, we’ve seen a real surge in service as people reset their understanding of patriotism, their responsibilities to their communities and their sense of self.

Q: As the War in Iraq becomes increasingly unpopular, are people shying away from working with government organizations?

A: The War in Iraq is contributing to a lot of activities that are happening at a social level. I think that the research shows that more than anything it’s helping people feel like they have a responsibility to do something.

Q: How would you feel about a mandatory volunteer service requirement at the governmental level?

A: I think over the next five years we’re going to see a strong debate about mandatory service. In the end, what I see every single day are the impacts of idealistic, committed people who are serving, being able to break down problems in their communities and it’s hard to imagine how that chemistry happens if you have someone who doesn’t want to be there.

Q: What are the biggest challenges in recruiting and retaining volunteers?

A: The challenge of retaining volunteers is the big challenge we have to focus on, and it’s not just about retention. It’s about restructuring the non-profit sector. Right now, non-profits are set up to manage a different era of volunteer.

Volunteers used to have to wait around for 45 minutes to get their assignment and then find out that they were sharing a rake with another volunteer. [The volunteer] would say, “That’s OK, I’m a volunteer and this is a charity,” but no more. Youth today and other volunteers are expecting a level of competence and a level of focus on their time, which they don’t want to be wasted.

Q: If you could shine a light on any type of service that you feel falls by the wayside what would it be?

A: I think there’s a broad challenge that service is seen by many as “nice” and there’s so many forms of service that are absolutely necessary. We have 7 million children who are prisoners who have a 70 percent likelihood of going to jail and the single most effective intervention that we know of is when a volunteer takes an hour a week for a year. That cuts the likelihood that they’ll go to jail by 50 percent. That’s not a nice, cute form of volunteering. We need more Americans to actually be using their volunteer time to change the lives of others.

Q: Are there a few things college students can do to help out?

A: Martin Luther King Jr. said anybody can be great because anybody can serve. There are opportunities no matter how much time you have and no mater what you’re interested in. One opportunity would be to go to www.volunteer.gov and to put in your ZIP code and the amount of time you have and find and opportunity that’s right for you. When you’re getting started I would recommend not making a big commitment, but instead making a short volunteer assignment. So that you can see whether you’d like to make a long-term commitment to that organization.

Q: As the baby boomers begin to turn 65, what will the affects be on service?

A: The impact of baby boomers on volunteering is going to hit like it will the rest of the society. We expect by the year 2020 that we’ll have twice as many older Americans in our volunteering pool, but it’s not as you might suspect because they have more free time. In fact, as people retire they volunteer less – not more. The most likely to volunteer in the United States is a woman whose 35-45, married, with kids and a job. And the reason is that volunteering is not correlated with the amount of time you have, it’s correlated with the number of networks you’re a part of. So as people retire they end up being connected to fewer networks.

News Editor: Olivia Hubert-Allen - 11/14/07