"Mandatory Volunteerism"

Clary and Snyder discuss the idea of “mandatory volunteerism” as a short-term solution with potential long-term consequences. “Although requiring people, particularly young people, to engage in community service may have desirable effects (e.g., increasing actual participation in the present), mandating ‘volunteerism’ may prove counterproductive in the long run,” (pg 158). The authors refer to a study in which college students were mandated to complete 40 hours of volunteer work within a semester, with special attention paid to students’ intentions to volunteer in the future. Clary and Snyder found that with increases in external pressure to ‘volunteer’ come decreases in internal motivation to volunteer. “Certainly, immediate volunteering can be induced by requiring students to serve, but it seems that future choices to volunteer will be less likely if the initial experience is accompanied by perceptions of external control,” (p. 159).

I want to open this topic of “mandatory volunteerism” to the class. I know that as a high school senior, I was required to complete 40 hours of community service per semester in order to graduate from the IB program, and I’m certain that many of you had similar experiences. Those of us in our early to late 20s were part of a broader initiative to socialize us into volunteerism (don't remember Clean the Beach field trips in elementary school?). Do you think it worked? Did this “mandatory volunteerism”, either for school requirements or competitive college applications, deter or promote private volunteerism later on?