The Cost of Selflessness

For some, the term “spring break” evokes images of string bikinis, deep-fried tans and chug-chug-chugging, and this assumption is certainly not without evidence. Every March, tens of thousands of scantily-clad coeds raid the beaches of warmer climates in search of sand, sun and scandal. But at Boston University and other schools around the nation, some students are seeking an alternative.

BU’s Alternative Spring Break [ASB] program is a popular option for those seeking to volunteer while simultaneously getting away from chilly Boston. ASB, which is run by the Community Service Center, offers 36 different trips to locations from Georgia to Arizona, from Maine to Puerto Rico. There are nine different issues students can volunteer for, from animal rescue, affordable housing, LGBT rights, and more.

ASB all sounds ideal, until one considers the price. The cost of a van trip is $375, and the cost of a trip that involves flying is $675.

$675 is a large sum to pay to participate in volunteer work. In monetary units more applicable to the average BU Student, that is over 344 Grande cups of Starbucks Coffee, or 450 loads of laundry in the residence hall washing machines.

According to ASB coordinators, the price is reasonable. “While the costs may seem high, it is important to consider what they include: housing, travel, food, as well as volunteer site deposits for some trips,” ASB representatives told the Quad in an e-mail. “We feel that compared to other spring break options or flight tickets home, ASB offers an affordable choice to spend your spring break in a meaningful and fun way.”

ASB is not the only major project by CSC to have a participation fee. The First Year Student Outreach Project, held at the beginning of this year, cost $400 per student. And though the price may seems steep for five days, Program Manager Seth Orensky feels that it is necessary. “A big part of it ends up being transportation. It’s $3 to get them to and from site every day, at least, if you’re taking public transportation,” he said. There are other costs as well; each student receives 15 meals, and there are also various shows and programs put on for FYSOP participants.

Students are not only giving their time to these programs, but also giving their money. This might seem unfair to many students, especially those who just can’t afford the cost of giving back in such a setting.

But, according to Orensky, the CSC is doing all it can to keep the cost of FYSOP manageable. “We do offer scholarships. This past year, after looking through everybody’s financial aid, we ended up giving out 125 scholarships,” he said. That’s 12 percent of the 1,000 participants, and the average scholarship size was $250 dollars. While Orensky acknowledged that it is not possible for all need, he says he urges all who are interested to seek outside scholarships, even from within their own communities.

And ASB has its own scholarship opportunities, as well. According to ASB organizers Ray Curran and Dana Couch, the scholarships are smaller (with a maximum of $200) but more widely spread. Students can submit a scholarship essay describing their enthusiasm for the program and financial need with their application.

Some trips do seem to go to great lengths to make themselves affordable. According to an informational poster board at Wednesday and Thursday nights’ information fair, the trip to Omaha, Nebraska—which is over 1,400 miles away—will involve 25 hours of driving. The trip will remain a reasonable price and offer the ultimate North American road trip, including a quintessential stop at Niagara Falls.

But even with these cost-cutting measures, can the trips be made less expensive? At Stonehill College in Easton, MA, the annual spring break Habitat for Humanity program has kept the program cheap.

“Stonehill’s campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity typically gets between $750-1100 [from student government] each year,” Program Organizer Mitch Keylor discussed how their college kept the price down in an e-mail interview. The group always takes campus-owned vans, so they pay for their own gas, but don’t have rental fees.

“Between our dues to Habitat International and to the work site, as well as food, tolls, etc., the trip will typically cost between $3000-3500.” With a group size of 10-15 people, that’s about $260 per person. The cost of the program is lowered further by various fundraising efforts. There are raffles, donation drives for faculty members and a car wash, in which the group “allows customers to sign donated lumber that [they] will give to be used in building a Habitat home.”

The ability of the program to remain inexpensive, then, seems to rely on the smallness of the school. ASB is 36 times the size of Stonehill’s program, and many of its locations make travel by van impractical or impossible. BU ASB already has its own Fundraising and Donations committee, which gets donations from alumni, the Deans Office, Office of Judicial Affairs, and other outside sources. While BU has some fundraising efforts, many of the ones described by Keylor would be difficult to implement on a larger scale.

So for now, it looks as if the program won’t be getting any less expensive. But with increasing fundraising efforts, perhaps they won’t grow more expensive in future years. CSC will continue to offer scholarships, and maybe would-be ASB participants can take Orensky’s advice to find outside monetary help.

For some students from afar, like freshman Lyndon Thai, ASB is comparably cheap, and the experience is invaluable. “The plane ticket home is the same price for me,” he said. “So I’m looking to do this because of the experience, the community service aspect, and going out somewhere new to do something different.”