schools requiring community service.. how is this legal?

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Seriously, how is this extortion legal? I'm already PAYING to go to school, so how is it legal that they are able to force me to give them my time and labor on top of my money?

Community service is for criminals on probation and those looking for early release from jail. Why am I being punished for trying to go to school?

I go to a liberal arts school that strongly encourages community service, but it isn't required for graduation. I think the rationale behind this is to teach students how to become functional members of society by teaching them how to do things for other people and the environment and teaching them to be charitable. I understand where you are coming from. It probably would annoy me if I HAD to do community service. (Paying to go to the school is enough for me, too.) Instead, I do it because I want to. My high school required 20 hrs of service to graduate plus a community service related graduation project....It was a pain sometimes, but I felt really good about helping people afterwards.

Do you know what you can do for community service?

I think it's a good idea for your CV, but if it's a requirement of the school, it doesn't look very good to me. Volunteer work shows that you have initiative and care about others. But if they are making you do stuff, that's not initiative.

Some courses require students to work to pay for their tuition fees as opposed to taking out some loan they'll never be able to pay off, which is good for students who can hardly afford to get an education. However, you mentioned that you are already paying tuition fees, so they're basically taking the piss.

I'm not sure I see your argument here...Yes, it takes up your time and labour. But, any course requires you to use up some of your time and labour to complete it, so in that regard this is no different from a "regular" course. So, it's perfectly legal for them to require you to use up some of your time and labour on it, and it is most definitely not in any way extortion.

You aren't being punished for trying to go to school. At the school you're in, this is PART of going to school.

UGH, how dare the school force me to do something that does nothing more than benefit me and society in general!? Seriously? And it's only for criminals and whatnot? Congratulations, you're extremely ignorant. I volunteer on my college's Campus Emergency Response Team, a volunteer position you CAN'T get with a criminal record. Out of curiosity, what are you taking at school?

Here's the key word - volunteer This person isn't a volunteer. This is mandatory for them to do their course. Now, I am not sure if this is part of their curriculum (in which case, they should just suck it up), but I think if I were an employer, I'd be more impressed if the student actually elected to do these things rather than if it was mandatory. Plus, this assumes that all of the students actually have the time and the ability to volunteer. I mean, most of us can, but I'm assuming many of these students are juggling several jobs or are perhaps carers.

I'm going to school full time while still working 5 days a week/weekend, and I'm able to manage volunteering. Everyone should do community service, the world would be a hell of a better place if everyone helped out in the community. I hate self-centred people like this OP because they don't want to something that's nothing but beneficial to society. It would be great if the OP had to live for a week or so as a poor person who had to go to a soup kitchen/thrift shop, or got injured on their campus and required emergency first aid. Then maybe they could pull their head out of their a** and see how important community service is.

No, it is up to each person to decide. Most volunteering goes nowhere. There is enough charity already to solve the world's problems, but the problems keep going. I have always been amazed at how self-serving most volunteering is. And the charity people - what a bunch of nonsense-talking cons.

GW

I'm aware most of charities are money-grabbing, greedy, and self-centred. Helping out in the community via things such as soup kitchens, thrift shops, etc, on the other hand, are generally beneficial. And that is absolute garbage about most volunteering going nowhere, especially if you want a career in the military or emergency services, such as myself. Jobs like those, it's a requirement.

At least it has a positive probability to be more helpful than detention.

I had no way of knowing that I would be required to perform this community service when I signed up for the course. Course Syllabi are not available unless you're enrolled in the course. Courses tend to consist of coursework, both in class and at home, exams, mid terms, finals, and papers. Stuff that I can do, or not do, and the only person effected by my choice is me. Forcing me to do community service, and pegging my final class grade to my "Volunteering" so that no matter how well I do on the rest of the course.. I pass or fail based on if I show up and help weed some sh***y "Dream Garden" on MLK day... considering I already paid hundreds of dollars to take this class.. Since I'm certainly not learning anything from going to do this. If the professor really wants me to learn about MLK.. have me write a goddamn paper on him.. not weed a garden.

I wouldn't take any job that thought "Volunteering" was a nice addition to a CV anyway since that basically means they know you're an easy mark to take advantage of... since well.. you're willing to work without getting paid.

I don't have a problem with the day or the man or any of that.. but I don't know if he'd personally condone the idea of FORCING people to do something they didn't want to do in some ham-handed way of honouring him. I could be wrong on that.. But what good is my going and standing around and washing my hands 200 times to get the dirt off of them going to do to promote his legacy?

The thing is, I feel that if the government was doing it's job properly we wouldn't need community service or charities..

So, I assume then that you're also in favour of massive tax increases, since the government would a) need to buy the actual materials and b) pay a bunch of people to do work. Nothing comes free. It's fine to say that the government should step up and do more - as long as you're personally willing to pay for it through taxes. In your case, you're using it as a cop-out to absolve you have any responsibility.

By the way, if you wouldn't take any job that would consider volunteering to be a nice addition, I hope you really like unemployment. I don't think I can think of any job in any field, anywhere, that wouldn't, between two otherwise identical candidates, pick the one that's done a bunch of volunteering.


That right there is a paradox. Clearly, if the problems exist, there isn't enough being done to help them. Yes, a lot of charities don't help out nearly as much as they claim to - but that's not a reason for you to not do anything.

And I wouldn't want to work for any company that expects me to work for free. I mean I've done that whole thing in Retail of "Working off the clock" and I have decided not to do that again. You can give as much of your time as you want to to whatever scams I mean charities that you want too.. but I don't work for free.. or under duress.

Do you HAVE to do weeding, or are you allowed to just do anything that constitutes community service?