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Service Fellowship in state of flux

Expanded program means lower scholarships; more emphasis to be placed on social change

John LaFollette
Editor-in-Chief

The Service Fellowship, one of Xavier’s flagship programs and the highest academic scholarship offered at the university, is in the midst of a major structural change that will expand both the number of participants and the scope of the program beginning in the Fall of 2010.

The new program, which will be called the Community Engaged Fellowship, will double the number of fellows from five to ten per class and increase their focus on issues of social justice within communities.

The budget for the program will remain the same, meaning that the full-tuition, full-room-and-board scholarship that accompanied the Service Fellowship will be reduced to a scholarship of $18,000 for each Fellow, and will not include room-and-board.

The Community Engaged Fellowship will better prepare students to affect social change after graduation from Xavier, said Byron White, the associate vice president of community engagement.

“There is an increased demand among students to get involved in issues, conditions and situations in a more comprehensive, systemic way,” said White.

“Xavier has become more engaged institutionally, developed more community partners and invested more resources in the region overall,” said White.
“Being able to support a set of students who are already leaders and already moving in this direction is [an] opportunity to really develop the program,” he said.

There are currently five Service Fellows in each class, making 20 in all.

Each is required to do 10 hours of service per week, maintain a grade point average of 3.0 for their freshman year and 3.25 for subsequent years and participate in regular reflection.

According to tentative plans, Community Engaged Fellows will be expected to do much of the same things as current Service Fellows, but with more of an emphasis on social change.

“The Fellows would have an opportunity to engage in a set of opportunities that would help them think about how to be an agent of social change toward the pursuit of social and economic justice,” said White.

This change is the first of its kind in the history of the Service Fellowship, but is “the next logical step,” said the university’s Interim Vice President for Mission and Identity, Fr. Gene Carmichael, S.J.

The Service Fellowship began as a serious effort to attract, by means of a full-tuition, full-room-and-board scholarship, a greater number of service-minded high school seniors 16 years ago, according to Fr. Carmichael.

Since then, there has been a growing need among Service Fellows for a complement to direct service that would help them relate their experience to their lives after graduation, which White said was the goal of the program change.

However, the ultimate shape of the Community Engaged Fellowship is still unclear.

“Specifically, what looks different, we really don’t know,” White said.

While the activities of the current Service Fellows will remain relatively unchanged, White said he is seeking input and leadership from current Fellows in shaping the Community Engaged Fellowship.

Current Service Fellows, as well as alumni of the program, will have regular meetings through the Fall to determine the specifics of the emerging program.

The proverbial heat is on, though, to settle on a definite structure, given the Dec. 1 deadline for current high school seniors to apply for the Community Engaged Fellowship.

The effort to enhance the program is seen by some current Service Fellows as being unnecessarily hurried.

“They’re putting a lot of pressure on us to define the program for the future Community Engaged Fellows,” said senior Service Fellow Krista Kutz.

“Less than a calendar year has passed and this new program has already been decided upon before we fully know what we’re doing,” said Kutz.

And while Kutz said most are welcoming the new emphasis on issues of social justice, the decrease of scholarship money per fellow was a sticking point for some Service Fellows.

Having a full-tuition, full-room-and-board scholarship for service at Xavier, “showed such commitment to what the Jesuits are about,” Kutz said.

What made current Service Fellows initially uncomfortable, Kutz said, was the increase in the number of future Fellows, the decrease in the size of the scholarship and the way in which the decision to do both those things was made.

“We thought we were being consulted from the very beginning,” said Kutz. “It turns out that the decision had been made prior to that about the [scholarship decrease].”

“It’s been hard for some of us to let go of [the] conversation that was had without us,” she said.

Still, Kutz said most current Service Fellows have embraced the reality of the situation, and have recognized their part in shaping the future of the program.

“The commitment to service has not changed,” she said. “If anything, it’s matured.”

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Off-campus renting can be a risky proposition

John LaFollette
Editor-in-Chief

So you’re living on-campus as a freshman, maybe a sophomore, with the caf a few hundred yards away, classes likewise, and life is good. Maybe you’ve graduated from communal bathrooms to “suite”-style rooms, and the idea of cooking with the common-area stove becomes the new thing. But mere weeks later…it begins: students get the twinge—the off-campus twinge.

The idea of living in a “house” is one that cannot be matched—bigger bedrooms, bigger TV rooms, bigger parties.

So, you grab a couple friends, maybe a straggler or two to fill in, snag a hallowed “lease,” have it signed by Thanksgiving and spend the year in sweet anticipation of move-in day. Seems simple enough, yes?

It seemed this way for James Evans, a then freshman at Xavier who underwent a similar situation, as many Xavier students do.

Evans, however, ran into some problems with what seemed to be the perfect college house.

“We just really wanted to get off-campus, and didn’t really care what the house looked like,” said Evans. Without doing much research, the five quickly signed a lease to a house across Montgomery Ave. from Xavier.

The now-senior reminisces about the house he and his four friends moved into the summer before sophomore year: “It was disgusting—everything was: the carpet was from the 1950s, the floors were so dirty, the bathrooms…we basically had to go in there with our parents and clean it all before we even moved in,” he said, “But at the time, we didn’t even think about that stuff.”

Evans and four others occupied a residence located on Regent Avenue, owned by a landlord in his thirties who also owns and rents out numerous other properties to college students. The four paid $330/month each, plus utilities for the five-bedroom, two-bathroom, split house.

It didn’t take long until the glory of living in a “college house” wore off, and the five realized what they’d gotten themselves into: the house was trashed when they moved in and needed to be scrubbed top to bottom in order to deem near-livable, the floors were impossible to clean and the landlord rarely responded to their demands for housing repairs.

The landlord’s lack of attention caused Evans and the other tenants to cease even trying to contact him for help. The tenants developed a negative outlook on their situation, as portrayed by Evans: “If he wasn’t going to care for the house, and we knew we would be moving out at the end of the year, why should we?”

The Regent Avenue landlord finally addressed the gravity of the situation after the tenants moved out, and a new porch and staircase were built. Regardless of these changes however, the house was still not rented the following school year despite a high-demand of near-but-off-campus housing, illustrating the obvious flaws of the house.

The security deposits of the five previous tenants were not returned, according to Evans, “even though the house was definitely left in better shape than when we moved in.”

Xavier Professor of Irish politics Dr. Timothy White owns a house across the street from campus that he rents out to students. Juniors Mia Carosi and Colleen Bremer are two among seven tenants of the Dana Avenue residence.

The two shared their positive experience living in the house, relaying that White visits at least once per week for basic house maintenance such as weeding and fixing of locks, and stays in steady communication with the tenants via email. “I do think there’s more motivation for upkeep since our landlord is a professor at Xavier and we are students—it’s really nice because he is on campus every day and can easily come over after work and take care of issues,” said Bremer.

After purchasing the house in November of 2005, White leased it to the first tenants in May of 2006. Since then, all females have lived there. “My ideal tenants are those who pay rent and don’t destroy the house,” he said, “But I do want students to enjoy it—it’s a great location.”

Being landlord to only one house allows White to focus his best attention on the one house, rather than be spread too thin by tenants in many residences, as occurred between and the Regent Avenue landlord and his tenants.

As Prof. White puts it: “[Landlords] have an obligation to keep the tenants happy—[we] are, by law, to keep the house in good, standing order,” as are the tenants.

It is easy to take on-campus living for granted. Think back to when your dorm-room toilet overflowed, or the cabinet in your kitchen came off the hinges in your Village Apartments: one simple call to Physical Plant, and things were fixed—sometimes that same hour.

“I’ve definately learned what to do and what not to do when communicating with a landlord,” Carosi said.

“[When living off-campus,] you have to realize that your landlord is a real person, whereas Physical Plant has an obligation not just to you but to the university, and are usually there same-day.”

Nearly half of all Xavier students live off-campus, meaning that the importance of landlord-tenant relations is something that needs to be addressed with students.

Under the Ohio Landlord-Tenant Act of 1974, both landlords and tenants have specific, minimum duties and rights, some of which are laid out below.

A few important steps to take prior to signing a lease for any rental property:

Discuss needs
The landlord and potential tenants should discuss whether or not the unit suits the needs of each, and whether or not tenants will be able to keep up with rent payments.

Tour house
Tour the house with the landlord, and record or photograph all standing damages to the house, so as not to be held accountable for these at the cessation of the lease.

Figure out rooms
Often overlooked, it’s important to discuss with fellow tenants how the rooming situation will pan out prior to signing the lease so as to avoid confusion and unnecessary arguments that could lead a student to back out of a lease last-minute.

Keep lease
Keep a copy of the lease signed by all parties, and refer to it often when dealing with issues. Make sure it is clear how you will be contacting the landlord in dealing with house upkeep.

Speak with tenants
Talk to any previous or current tenants of the property to gather information on how well the landlord keeps up with his obligations.