Members of the university community have been taking a long, hard look at the service learning program at UW-Eau Claire for months in the wake of questions that were raised over religious service learning.

As a result, we at The Spectator decided to take a step back and really look at the program. Earlier this month I wrote a three-part series looking at the history of service learning, what students are doing to complete their service learning requirement and where the program is heading.

As I spoke to people about the service learning program – from Donald Mowry, director of the program, to Tom Hilton, a professor whose capstone class participates in the program – I felt guilty.

Why? Because even though I have “service learning credit,” in my eyes I have done absolutely nothing in my stay as a student to enhance the community, which is especially sad when you consider I’m from this community.

I’m probably going to be crucified by my peers in the print journalism program for what I have to say, but here it goes: students in the print journalism program are not making an impact on their community through any sort of service learning unless they do so on their own.

Currently, students in the print journalism sequence are given service learning credit for completing an upper level reporting course, CJ 427: Advanced Reporting. I have been told in years past the students did reporting on community conditions that were compiled into a compilation book. This information was then shared with the community, as I understood it.

I took Advanced Reporting last semester. I wrote three stories. The first was a personality profile on a local businessman. The second was about the growing trend of obese Americans turning to gastric-bypass surgery. The last was about over-programmed children.

I suppose you could argue that I interacted with people in the community. But I do that everyday. The fact remains I didn’t do anything to enhance the community or make people’s lives a little easier or a little better.

I slipped through the system, and that’s really sad.

I wrote stories. I didn’t get the opportunity to make a child smile because I spent the day playing with them. I didn’t get to help beautify the community. I didn’t help make sure a community member in need went another day with a full stomach and a warm bed. Experiencing these moments is priceless.

And this doesn’t mean that class work should not be a way to get service learning credit. Many classes do amazing things for the community. MIS capstone students develop information systems for non-profit agencies; social work and nursing students apply what they have learned to help people in need. This is great!

However, while I realize the service learning program has many things to do, I think it’s time to review which classes still are performing service learning. I hope the Advanced Reporting course is the only case of this, but you never know.

Giving back to your community is so valuable and so many people benefit. It shouldn’t be something we dread doing; we should want to volunteer.

President Bush went so far as to call on every American to dedicate a whopping 4,000 hours of community service in his or her lifetime. All the university asks for is 30 hours – it’s really not that much.

I’ve decided I’m making up for it by volunteering 30 hours of my time this semester and next. Maybe the rest who have slipped under the radar should consider doing the same.

MacLaughlin is a senior print journalism major and the staff writer for The Spectator.