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Auguet 8, 1969
Mr, Clay Coss, Editor
Civic Education Service
1733 Kay Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
Dear Mr. Cosa:
In reference to your letter of Jume 11, I have been asked to shed some light
on the issue of student involvement in terms of what the Atlanta Urban Corps
is attempting to do.
Atlanta Urban Corps (AUC), on whose staff I serve, is an organization whose
purpose is to channel student energy and talent into service-oriented jobs
in the metropolitian Atlanta area.
AUC began its operations this summer. There are “Urban Corpe’" functioning
in approximately 20 other American cities. These range very widely in terms
of the numbers of students enrolled and the scope of the programs involved.
Our operation is composed of approximately 225 students, placed in 17 city
government departments and 38 private service agencies (a complete list is
attached). We have a ataff of approximately 20, all of whom are students.
Our financing comes from several sources: The City of Atlanta, The Southern
Regional Education Board, some of the agencies with which our interns are
working, various local businesses, and The Federal College Work-Study Finance
Program *
Although our presently ongoing jobs terminate at the end of the swumer, we have
already made plans to continue our operations on a limited besia during the
regular school year, and are planning for a program to involve 1,000 students
next summer.
AUC subscribes to, and bases its existence on the relatively new educational
theory of service-learning. This proposition contends that a eignificant
additional dimension to the higher educational experience is to be found outside
the formal classroom setting. It responds to legitimate cries for relevant
educational experiences by contributing to efforta to revise the structure of
higher education in a way that would allow more for the training of practicioners
than of merely academicians.
AUC maintaine a full-time Education-Evaluation staff of four and a consultant steff
of five faculty members whose collective responsibility it ie to make as
stgnificant as possible the educational experience of our interns, The staff makes
_ So, in the final analysis, the success or failure of our program and others
like it depends on whether this very real obstacle can be overcome. If those
in the establishment are disposed to change, students are willing to work with
them to acheive it. If there are enough in the establishment who are determined
to resist change, then students are prepared to do what is necessary to force
it. And if this be the only way to achieve change, even though destructive tactics
may be used, the effort could prove indeed to be the most truly constructive
action that could be taken. :
Sincerely,
Tim F. Rogers
Atlanta Urban Corps
TFR: blu
Enclosure
ee: Sam Williams, Director
Atlanta Urban Corps
Mr. Dan Sweat 2——
Office of the Mayor
City of Atlanta
regular visits to interns in the field, aiding in any appropriate way their
adjustments into their jobs, and helping them to evaluate for themselves their
experience in terms both of the learning and the service aspects involved.
Working with the faculty consultants, Education-Evalvation staffers also plan
a regular program of seminars designed specifically to enhance the educational
experience of the interns. Finally, a constant evaluation of the agencies in
which ovr interns work is carried on, so as to assure that the jobs in which we
place interns sufficiently involve both service and an opportunity for learning.
Ideally a service-learning organization such as the AUC provides a significant
part of the anawer to the question of how student dissent and dissatisifaction
can be channeled into constructive action. There are two basic criteria which
must be met if it ie in fact to be so.
The first is that students must agree to involve themselves in such an effort.
They must commit themselves to the idea that significant change can be achieved
through working with "the establishment." By and large, we have found a good rc
response by students in our area. Just in our first summer of operation, we had
&@ good many more students apply than could be placed. True, a key factor in this
response was the desire, indeed the necessity, for many students to earn
sufficient amounts to enable themselves to continue their schooling. But I believe
thet if students are truly convinced that a significant opportunity for constructive
— exists through working within "the establishment," then they are willing
to ao.
This leads to the second, and more fundamental point. In order for a program
like ours to work, agencies must be willing to open themselves up for legitimate
work opportunities for students. Unfortunately, some agencies with which we are
working have in fact offered only make-work jobs for our interns, of have assigned
thea merely to assume already existant work loads in order that regular employees
may be able to enjoy lessened responsibilities during the summer.
There are three basic reasons for this attitude on the part of the agencies.
First, some look only for cheap Sitiper Jabor. Obviously, they de not offer the
type relationships we seek, and once identified, they will presumeably be referred
to commercial placement agencies.
Secondly, some employers are simply not convinced of the ability of college
students to perform satisfactorily in positions of responsibility. Preswneably
after a year or two of succesefull efforts of students in such capacities, the
majority of the doubters will see the light.
Finally, the crux of the problem emerges. This is, simply, that many people in
city and other governmental agencies, and private agencies, and many of those that
eupport these agencies are simply not interested in change. They favor the status
quo. They are not interested in channeling student dissatifaction into constructive
action. They would prefer quietly burying student dissidence in make-work or
busy-work functions to busting their heads, but they would prefer the latter to
acceeding to demands for change. Students know that the establishment is full of
this kind, and are most wary of them. Indeed, they sometimes are over-wary of
them and tend to brand all “over thirties" as being of this nature. If students
are going to be put down they want to go down fighting and with note-not be buried
and forgotten in some treadmill of meaningleseness and/or ineffectuality.