Deputy Secretary of Education Madeleine M. Kunin gave the cause of community service a boost last week by speaking at a reception launching Who Cares, a new community-service magazine.
“This generation is different from other generations,’' Ms. Kunin told a room packed with “twentysomething’’ activists.
“There’s a feeling we should believe again, and that there are so many ways to change the world,’' she said.
Ms. Kunin’s presence at the magazine’s launching was another sign of the Clinton Administration’s interest in sparking enthusiasm among young people to serve their communities.
President Clinton last month signed into law the National and Community Service Act, which will enable young people to participate in service projects in exchange for a post-service education or training benefit of $4,725 per year of service.
“What’s so exciting about national and community service is that we have a structure for altruism,’' Ms. Kunin observed.
The magazine’s three editors, graduates of Harvard University and experienced community-service workers, have amassed foundation and corporate support for their glossy, color magazine, which will appear on newsstands this month.
The first issue contains many complimentary references to President Clinton. Also included is a commentary entitled “What the Government Program Can’t Fix,’' by Eli J. Segal, the director of the White House Office of National Service.
Usually Presidents wait until after leaving the White House to lend their name to academic pursuits. But not so Bill Clinton.
Nine months into his Presidency, the Arkansas native has approved the creation of an endowed professorship in his name at Arkansas College, a small Presbyterian institution in Batesville.
The William Jefferson Clinton Professorship in International Politics has been funded with a gift of $500,000 from an anonymous donor.
A search for the “teacher-scholar of national repute’’ to fill the position is under way.
Mr. Clinton spoke at the college on a number of occasions while serving as Governor of Arkansas, including at the inauguration of its current president, John V. Griffith.
Hillary Rodham Clinton received an honorary doctorate from Arkansas College in 1988, and served as the institution’s legal counsel several times.--J.P. & M.P.
