Extremism of SCCAP turns students off

By Colleen Snyder

My sophomore year of college, I was arrested for trespassing along with 19 other Santa Clara students (many of whom were avid participants in the Santa Clara Community Action Program or SCCAP). Unsatisfied with the severely limited options for extremely low-income housing in San Jose at the time, we staged a sit-in at a boarded-up house to make a point and get the attention of the media.

Suffice it so say, a few court appointments later, our demonstration seemed worthwhile. We'd helped to secure more funding for the homeless in San Jose and we'd managed to get out of the ordeal with only a ticket and nothing on our records. We were all happy and went home.

Over the next few weeks, however, I got to thinking about my participation in the protest. On one hand, I felt proud to have played a role in helping the homeless in what seemed like such a big way. But after much contemplation, I realized that there were probably much more personal, effective and legal ways I could have made a difference.

That Friday night that we got arrested, we took valuable police off the streets of San Jose, we caused damage to someone else's property (something I definitely do not believe in) and basically disrespected our social and political systems. The boiling point, for me, was that I, along with the other protesters that night, had taken things too far. It did not take long to figure out that the other students who'd gotten arrested had no intentions of calming things down after the arrest. And so I quickly began to realize that perhaps I was in with the wrong crowd.

I definitely had the right intentions at heart, but my conscience did not allow me to continue participating in drastic, illegal measures of the kind this group was interested in. I don't believe that it was any coincidence that most of these members either worked with or were associated with SCCAP. The extremism of the whole thing turned me off to the social justice movement on campus and SCCAP as a whole.

I am not the only student that has felt ostracized by this extremism. Junior Camille Valdes has only participated in a SCCAP activity once for this very reason. "It [SCCAP] seems like this group of people who are trying to exercise this superhuman strength, and most of us would be more comfortable just doing our small part - you get the feeling that it's all or nothing with SCCAP," she explains.

Senior Vincent Macareg also believes that the extremism of many people involved with SCCAP works against students as a whole. He associates this extremism with politics. Explaining why he has never gotten involved in SCCAP over the past four years, he simply states that "All the people I've met who have been part of SCCAP seem to have relatively the same views about world issues ... my views probably would not fit with theirs. I'd be left feeling like the oddball."

SCCAP Director, Blair Thedinger insists that, "Everything is political. Being apolitical is a default acceptance and validation of the status quo. Of course SCCAP is political, just as Santa Clara University is a whole." But is it right for the organization that is intended to promote community service on campus to get involved in politics? It seems that involving politics with service only serves to complicate things and worsen the situation of those in need. Macareg agrees when he says that the politics of SCCAP "alienates everyone else because [SCCAP] is way off to the left, instead of trying to take some middle ground in an effort to include a more diverse population of volunteers."

Thedinger insists, however, that student interest in SCCAP has only increased since he's been at Santa Clara. "Contrary to some people's beliefs, SCCAP has expanded in terms of programs and volunteer base." This seems not to be the case in many programs I have either participated in or had the occasion to discuss with the program coordinators. One program, in specific, consisted solely of the program leader. To this, Thedinger acknowledges that "Some programs are short on volunteers."

When I hear SCCAP program coordinators (those students who are paid to work for SCCAP) complaining about all the "careless rich kids" that go to Santa Clara, I am disturbed. How can they not see their oversight? With them it is all or nothing - one extreme or the other.

If you do not share their politics and their extremist approach to problems, it is essentially impossible to break into this clique called SCCAP. I feel that I can speak about this because I have tried. I sat in with them, I chanted songs of protest, I even got arrested in an effort to help San Jose's homeless population. However, when it came down to it, I could not say in all honesty that I really fit in with the extreme views and approaches of this group of students.

And so I write this article as more than just a criticism. I feel that it is important that the framework and intentions of SCCAP be changed in an effort to better serve the diversity of the Santa Clara community. Our university community service organization should focus on community service - not protests and sit-ins. People of all political persuasions do care about helping their brothers and sisters in need. Why can't we leave politics out of it for once? Why can't SCCAP be a place where everyone comes together to serve?

I find it ironic and sad that the organization intended to put students in touch with helping in their community has turned out to be more of a barrier to service than a catalyst of it.