Less than two weeks into the semester, students already are going above and beyond to help others.

CMU’s Pre-Physical Therapy Club is raising funds to help a young cancer patient visit Alaska’s inside passage. Sweeney residents are traveling to visit the elderly at an Alma senior citizens center.

These are only some examples of this campus volunteering heritage, evidence of the tradition that students can – and should – help others when they can.

It’s uplifting to know that even before students have settled in with their classes, they still are not blocking out the well-being of others.

The tropes about volunteering hold true: that it helps to help others, that it builds a polite and genial community preferable to a sterile, hostile world in which only self-interest dominates social exchange.

Ranging from a biblical obligation to the ramifications of a Kantian imperfect duty, many individuals’ ethical schematics include some consideration for others.

Students’ immediate eagerness to volunteer shows the power and significance of this ideal.

Their commitment should serve as a model.

Perhaps it’s excessive to ask for students to volunteer whenever they have free time, but the consideration still should be there, and the more often and more visible it becomes, the better.

CMU provides numerous tools to help students help others.

The Volunteer Center, located in the Bovee University Center, is a gateway to finding volunteering opportunities on campus and elsewhere.

Whether it’s assisting with a campus event or visiting the elderly, options abound at the Volunteer Center. Virtually anyone could find an enjoyable form of charity.

And it doesn’t have to be in Mount Pleasant, or even in Michigan – CMU’s nationally recognized Alternative Breaks sends students nation and worldwide.

Residence halls, fraternities and churches often sponsor charities, and provide for their members additional windows into the world of volunteering.

Students repeatedly have said that volunteering has provided an activity enriching both for themselves and for those they help. It doesn’t pay cash, but its dividends are something besides monetary gain.

As weekends approach and empty nights arise, consider something more than the TV – consider those around you, your fellow human beings, who from time to time could use a helping hand.

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