Time To Get Har'd Corps

Those Harvard students who dedicate their time and energy to community service are quick to point out that it is often a thankless task. Hours of tireless commitment to endeavors aimed neither at money, nor at self-aggrandizement, are frequently overlooked on a campus that places an exceptionally high premium on traditional models of success.

But tomorrow will represent an exception to that rule. In Harvard's first-ever all-campus community service day, Har'd Corps will give recognition to the thousands of Harvard students who already dedicate themselves to service while, at the same time, encouraging new participation through one day service events throughout the city. The event is a welcome change to a campus that has brought far too little public attention to service in the past.

The brainchild of the Ivy Council (oft-criticized on this page), the Harvard Service Day is part of a larger all- Ivy Service Day in which students at all eight Ivy League schools will be participating in similar events. In this respect, the service day offers some hope of creating fellowship between the schools where little may have existed before.

Yet the event promises to have the greatest impact on the home front. Indeed, what is perhaps most encouraging about the service day is the extent to which it has garnered the support of student groups representing all facets of Harvard life. Backed by such disparate organizations as PBHA, the IOP and the Black Students' Association, the service day has the potential to truly unify the student body--mobilizing a diverse group of students around a common cause and, in doing so, achieving the camaraderie mishaps like Spirit Week failed to produce.

That being said, while we laud the idea of a service day, we also encourage students to recognize that meaningful community service is best realized through long-term commitments to the people and areas being served. One-day events can provide much needed assistance to ongoing projects or yield small independent accomplishments, but truly effecting change only occurs when students take the time to establish trusting relationships with those in need of assistance. In this respect, we hope the day encourages students to make a regular, once-a-week--as opposed to a once-a-year--commitment to service.

Registration will be open tomorrow from eight to nine a.m. in front of the Science Center and we wholeheartedly encourage individuals who have not already signed up to do so. Harvard students and the university as a whole continually reap the benefits of the community in which they reside. All of us owe it to that community to give something back in return.