J&W students urged to get more involved with the community. Yesterday's full-house rally was the Rhode Island kickoff for a national campaign called Raise Your Voice.

02/13/2003

BY MARION DAVIS, Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The size of the crowd was telling. Hundreds of students filled every seat at Johnson & Wales University's Pepsi Forum and spilled out the doors -- right at lunchtime, on a bitingly cold day.

The topic was "The university as citizen: What is its role in the community?" It was the Rhode Island kickoff for a national campaign called Raise Your Voice, an effort to get students involved in civic issues, and Johnson & Wales, which has made service learning part of its curriculum, seized the opportunity to get its students thinking about their impact on Providence and Rhode Island.

John J. Bowen, president of Johnson & Wales's Providence campus, said community service is intrinsic to the university's mission. Most, if not all, of its 1,800 employees volunteer in some way, he said, and service is a key part of students' preparation for their future careers.

"I don't care what business you're in, you've got to give something back to the community," Bowen said. "Our role is to improve the quality of life. . . . The university doesn't want to be a very successful university in a failing city."

To give students some ideas, the Rhode Island Campus Compact, which organized the Raise Your Voice campaign, invited three guest speakers: former state Sen. Thomas J. Izzo; Noreen Shawcross, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, and Susan Lusi, chief of staff for the Providence School Department.

Izzo, who worked as a Cranston schoolteacher and administrator for more than 30 years, said the foundation of good citizenship is an understanding of civics, of how government works, and "at least a rudimentary knowledge of history."

Test scores, surveys and even Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" excursions show how woefully ignorant American young people are of history and civics, he said, and yet "to me, that is an absolute prerequisite to real and meaningful public engagement."

That said, Izzo cited plenty of things students could do: from reading newspapers and getting informed about current affairs, to volunteering, getting internships, lobbying government, even running for office.

Higher education is a "huge enterprise" in Rhode Island, Izzo said, and local colleges' coming together to promote civic engagement can make a big impact. Johnson & Wales faculty, administrators and students have shown they're committed to the concept: "I guess your task now is to get it done."

Shawcross, for her part, expressed gratitude for the "wonderful" things that students are already doing to help Rhode Islanders who are hungry and homeless -- volunteering at Amos House and at the St. Patrick Church soup kitchen; showing up, in their trademark white culinary-school coats, to supporting advocates at State House hearings.

The best that they can do, Shawcross said, is to make sure they carry their commitment to good causes into their post-college lives. What a difference they could make, she noted, if they became the kind of citizens who welcome affordable-housing development in their communities, rather than fighting it as many people do.

Despite Johnson & Wales's effort to house as many students as possible on campus, Shawcross added, students also need to be conscious of the impact they and other students are having on the housing market, especially in Providence.

"As your enrollment increases, demand for rental housing increases, but the market isn't building more units," Shawcross said. "Some families have become homeless because of the competition with students for two- and three-bedroom apartments."

Lusi, for her part, said one of the best things that students could do was to become teachers, because "nothing matters more" in the schools than the quality of the teachers. And if they don't want to become teachers, they can at least be mentors, tutors, volunteers in youth programs.

"We need you," she said. "We need you now, and we need you to continue this work after you graduate from college."

The students themselves, most of them not Rhode Island natives, had plenty of ideas for new ways in which Johnson & Wales, which already works with 120 local agencies, could do more in the community.

One culinary-arts student noted that when he and his classmates prepare fine meals as part of their coursework, they serve them to fellow students. "Why not, once a month or so, let the homeless come in and experience fine dining?"

Bowen said Johnson & Wales usually prefers to work with outside agencies, because it's more practical -- though the school does prepare Thanksgiving dinner for 1,000 and give out Christmas food baskets. Still, he urged the student to follow up.

Shawcross liked the concept, but said it was crucial that the students sit down and talk with their homeless guests.

"The hospitality would not only be the food, but your companionship," she said.

Building on Bowen's suggestion, senior Catherine Price, of Long Island, N.Y., suggested serving a gourmet meal at St. Patrick's.

"I love that idea," Bowen replied.

Joel Kalinowski, a sophomore from Vermont, asked what students could do to help alleviate the housing shortage. Shawcross said they should support plans to build more on-campus housing, and also try to come up with "creative ideas" that advocates might not think of to develop new housing.

For more information about the Raise Your Voice campaign, go to http://www.actionforchange.org.