Following two months of debate in an ad-hoc committee, University Senate received the committee’s proposals to amend UW-Eau Claire’s Service Learning program April 12.

The proposal, which still is being deliberated on the University Senate floor, includes a recommendation to prohibit partisan political activity, as well as a ban on religious proselytization.

While the merit of Eau Claire’s Service Learning program is well-founded, as students at a state-funded university, we should neither expect nor be allowed to fulfill a requirement by promoting our personal agendas and ideas.

Rather, the program itself should serve as a way for us, as mainly temporary residents of Eau Claire, to give back to the community from which we take so much during our time at the university. Options that give back to the entire community should be the only programs that fulfill the Service Learning requirement.

Furthermore, the addition of politically-biased volunteerism to the religious proselytization debate is nothing but reasonable, and to not include such a stipulation would show only hypocrisy on the part of the ad-hoc committee and University Senate.

While such activities may provide valuable learning experiences, they negate the purpose of the program, which is to give back to the community as a whole. In addition, the areas of religion and politics are two in which large degrees of partiality come into play and naturally should have similar restrictions.

Regardless of University Senate’s final decision, the resulting Service Learning policy must be explained in full to students. And, students who have an opinion on the matter must voice their concerns with University Senate at its 3 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, in the Tamarack Room of Davies Center.