Colleges and universities need to relax and not require community service hours from students in order to graduate. This policy is dangerous and unnecessary. I'm prepared to offer examples of the perilous and needless consequences brought about by implementing such a community program.
One main reason I wouldn't adjust college policies to include a more rigorous community service requirement is because academic interaction with the community is a dangerous fad. Once we move into communities, we cannot return the clock. How would you enjoy it if suddenly thousands of college students descended on your town's projects, each offering to “lend a hand for free” and expect college credit? Why would you pay for townspeople to work when you have free smart folk? The college credits become a new money, and are exchanged for an action that most laborers do each day, only for mere sums. The town comes to rely on cheap labor, but prices drop. Incredible!
It's this idea, that soon the town cannot live without the institution, that is quite dangerous, which tangentially brings me to a further point: community service touted as edifying behavior for students is needless. In most towns, there is nothing we need, and so students would in essence engage in activities not inside, but outside the community's needs and desires. As outsiders, students exist as less than a supplement to the environs. They might work first, but they never will understand what being innate to the country is similar to. In effect, different agents with different statuses and who aren't laborers can try, but they will never truly contribute to real and immediate wants and projects.
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