After O-Fest and the Community Service Fair, I was left overwhelmed with papers and brochures which all ended up in my recycle bin.,”

Coming to Marquette University has had its surprises. However, something that I was not expecting to be surprised about was the way service is run around here. Why was I surprised? Mainly because I didn't know where to even begin to look for service.

After O-Fest and the Community Service Fair, I was left overwhelmed with papers and brochures which all ended up in my recycle bin. Luckily, a friend of mine invited me to Noon Run. I love being involved in that program, but something kept nagging at me last semester: What if I hadn't had been invited? I had just fallen into it.

That's not what Marquette had promised me when I toured here. I was under the impression that MU community service ran like clockwork and that it would provide me with the resources I needed to start. So why was getting involved not that easy? Maybe it's just because I'm a freshman and everything is new, but I don't think that's really the case.

I continued to observe the service opportunities and programs and found individual, separate clubs advertising and collecting money for similar causes. I found posters for Service Saturdays, residence halls and clubs promoting random service days. I wanted to help these causes, but the situation began to frustrate me. Why weren't organizations communicating? Where were all the sustainable programs? Why is everybody working separately?

I recently discovered that JT Kapke and I had been thinking along the same lines and asking similar questions about service at Marquette. At least I am not the only one who is frustrated that our Center for Community Service is currently shoved in the AMU in the same vicinity as tutoring. The Center for Community Service takes up approximately a few closets of space and is distant from a community which prides itself on service, one of the four pillars of our university. This seems rather hypocritical to me.

It did not take me long to conclude that service at Marquette needs some revamping. Marquette is nationally recognized as a university committed to community service, but we could be doing so much better. We need an all-encompassing, one-stop Center for Community Service that is bigger than a couple offices. Accessing service here should be as easy as getting a meal at McCormick.

Students should be able to walk into this center to find a service site that they are passionate about, to find a post-graduate volunteer program that interests them, or to talk to somebody about where to start. This center could help students get involved who would maybe not initially be interested in volunteering, and could eliminate the common excuse of "I didn't know that was going on." We need an opportunity to find service if we miss the two fairs at the beginning of the semester. It should not just be an "oh well" situation. I hope that we can begin to recognize the need for such a simple, but necessary, change on our campus.

Mueller is a freshman in the College of Health Sciences.

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