One of the more inspiring values of the Jesuit animation of Georgetown is the call to serve the common good. Georgetown’s site in the capital of a powerful country has bred a focus on national and global ways of doing just that.
Universities educate and form the characters of the next generation of leaders. They advance human understanding. They use that knowledge to serve the common good. Their service to the world, thus, derives from what they accomplish in education and research. While there are many motivations for education and research, Georgetown faculty disproportionately have in mind the service to the common good as the stimulus to their choice of career.
Given Georgetown’s location and its role in the launch of the country’s capital city over 200 years ago, one would think it natural that attention to the common good focuses on national service. It is proud of its alumni who serve in Congress, in leadership positions of the executive branch and in prominent federal judicial positions. This has led to generations of undergraduates and graduate students to join the Georgetown community seeking national and international service through such roles. On most Friday’s I take the GUTS shuttle, often filled with students, from the Hilltop Campus to the Capitol Campus, which has an intermediate stop at the foot of Capitol Hill. After that stop, I am often one of the few passengers left on the bus, as all the congressional interns have exited.
Offering students the chance to build their capacities to serve at the national level is a wonderful advantage Georgetown possesses. Increasingly, however, there is evidence that service to the common good is being actively achieved, not through a focus on national policy and national service, but, on more local levels.
It is on the local level that elected officials must solve the immediate day-to-day problems of real people – the local common good. Water purification affects every household. The condition of streets impacts every resident. Everyone depends on the food supply chain. Substance abuse becomes less abstract a problem and a tangible threat to community cohesion. School “policy” manifests in the lives of children that can be met and observed. The tornado or hurricane destroys without regard to ideology.
There is a growing sense in the US that actions in service to the common good might be more effective if locally situated. More might be accomplished, albeit directly affecting a smaller “world.”
Georgetown does possess resources focused on subnational concerns. The Center for Children and Families has spent decades working at the state and local level to improve lives. The Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation has worked helping state data officers organize ways to use administrative data to improve the welfare of low income communities. The Massive Data Institute is helping local agencies craft data sharing agreements to unlock the information value of data to serve communities. The Master’s program in Educational Transformation is training local DC teachers serving the disadvantaged neighborhoods of DC. Mission and Ministry and the Center for Social Justice offer experiences of working directly with the poor in various locales. Teach for America, which offers graduates placements in community schools is a popular post-graduation choice of undergraduates. There are others.
These are wonderful opportunities for our students. However, given the increased likelihood that change will come from local and state sources, one wonders whether we need to do more.
- Can we mount more courses that illuminate the operations of local and state government agencies?
- Can we offer more students insights into how diverse city and county governments operate?
- Could we do more on internship opportunities in state, county, and local governments?
- Could we mount more experiential based learning opportunities outside the DC area?
- Are we giving students sufficient knowledge of the diverse ways that local communities successfully navigate change?