Peace Corps News

Mark Gearan Calls for Service, engaged constituency

Mark Gearan Calls for Service, engaged constituency
Mark Gearan, president of Hobart & William Smith Colleges and former director of the U.S. Peace Corps, spoke at Cornell University in a speech titled, “Public Service in the 21st Century.” Gearan was invited to Cornell as a part of the 2006-07 Colloquium Series presented by The Cornell Institute for Public Affairs.

Gearan asked those in the audience who are thinking about international development to look into becoming involved with the Peace Corps. “Allow me this commercial,” said Gearan, “to encourage you to think about the [U.S.] Peace Corps service.” Gearan said the satisfaction experienced by Peace Corps volunteers is nothing less than significant. Peace Corps volunteers make a 27 month commitment to the Corps. He conveyed that 9 out of 10 volunteers surveyed while working in the field would choose to volunteer again, while the same ratio of volunteers would recommend the experience to others.

Gearan defined the term “public service” as being comprised of two parts: “community service and volunteerism aspect and a public service aspect” in regards to public service with federal and state governments. “When we look back at our past as Americans, there has been an ethic of service since our founding,” said Gearan. “From minutemen, to thee early founding fathers [who established] our country in the deep routes of freedom, to Alexis de Tocqueville who was struck by the efforts of [early American] ‘joiners,’ those getting involved in their communities and meeting houses, we have [historically] fostered this sense of volunteerism during times of crisis, war and peace,” said Gearan.

Gearan expressed concern regarding the importance of volunteerism as reflected by U.S. government spending. Each year, numerous applicants are turned away by the Peace Corps because the Corps simply cannot afford to fund enough projects. “Why has the most fortunate country in the world said ‘no’ to these volunteers?” asked Gearan. “We spend more on our military marching band than on the Peace Corps. Not my priority.”

When the room opened up for questions, an AmeriCorps alumna raised concern over the budget cuts of both the Peace Corp and AmeriCorps. “Funding is being slightly shaved off every year,” said Gearan. Because there is no one really fighting against it, there is also no one strongly fighting for it. “Without an engaged constituency [the Corps] suffers.” Read more.

More about Mark Gearan
President Gearan’s appointment to Hobart and William Smith in 1999 made him one of the nation’s youngest college presidents. In the course of his tenure, he has reinforced the Colleges’ commitment to global understanding and study abroad opportunities, community service and service-learning, with the goal of providing these elements through contemporary facilities and state-of-the-art technology.             

When named president, Gearan was serving as director of the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., a post he assumed in 1995. Under his leadership, the Peace Corps experienced a resurgence of interest. The Colleges also have progressed under his guidance. Prior to his Peace Corps directorship, President Gearan served at the White House as Assistant to the President and Director of Communications, as well as Deputy Chief of Staff during the Clinton administration. During the 1992 presidential campaign, he was Al Gore’s campaign manager, segueing to the position of Deputy Director of President-elect Clinton’s transition team.

President Gearan serves on the boards of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which operates the community-based service programs AmeriCorps and ServiceCorps; and The Partnership of Public Service, a group aimed at encouraging young people to pursue federal service careers. Additionally, he served as chair of the National Campus Compact and he is also a member of the Independent College Fund of New York.  Read more.

Read more about former Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan.

White House requests $334 Million for Peace Corps for FY2008

White House requests $334 Million for Peace Corps for FY2008
President Bush has sent Congress a proposed $20.3 billion budget for foreign assistance during fiscal year 2008, which begins October 1. The funding request is part of the president’s $2.9 trillion budget plan submitted to Congress February 5. Congress must approve the president’s proposals and can modify the specific amounts requested. In turn, the president must approve the final appropriations bills that Congress passes. Under the proposal, the Peace Corps would receive $334 million, up $9 Million from the $325 Million Congress appropriated for FY2007.

Caption:  US President George W. Bush holds a copy of the 2008 Fiscal Budget during a meeting with his cabinet as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (L) looks on in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Bush presented the US Congress with a mammoth 716.5 billion dollar budget request to fund large US military, including its missions in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan .(AFP/Mandel Ngan)

From 2002:  President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address calls for doubling the size of the Peace Corps
"This time of adversity offers a unique moment of opportunity, a moment we must seize to change our culture. Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know: We can overcome evil with greater good.  And we have a great opportunity during this time of war to lead the world toward the values that will bring lasting peace. All fathers and mothers, in all societies, want their children to be educated and live free from poverty and violence. No people on earth yearn to be oppressed, or aspire to servitude, or eagerly await the midnight knock of the secret police."

"And America needs citizens to extend the compassion of our country to every part of the world. So we will renew the promise of the Peace Corps, double its volunteers over the next five years, and ask it to join a new effort to encourage development, and education, and opportunity in the Islamic world."

Promises not funded are promises not kept
In his State of the Union addresses, President Bush has used the occasion, as do all presidents, to outline bold objectives for the coming years. Still another worthy goal, this one in his 2002 State of the Union address, was to double the number of Peace Corps workers by 2007.

Bush rightly proposed expanding the Peace Corps started by President Kennedy in 1961. The Peace Corps shows the world the best of American values. Last year more than 7,500 Peace Corps volunteers served in 71 countries. They taught school, provided medical assistance, built houses, taught farming and did other good works.

Many Americans transformed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and wanting to help their country signed up for the Peace Corps. Applications jumped from more than 9,000 in 2001 to more than 11,000 last year. Countries seeking Peace Corps workers also soared. About 20 are on the waiting list for Peace Corps volunteers.

But budgetary constraints mean an expanded Peace Corps will not happen. America's best face lacks funding.

Promises not funded are promises not kept.
 

Is the Civilian Reserve just another throwaway applause line in Bush's State of the Union speech?

Is the Civilian Reserve just another throwaway applause line in Bush's State of the Union speech?
President Bush's call last week for a Civilian Reserve Corps to help troubled countries is either a solid idea whose time has come or yet another throwaway applause line in a State of the Union speech and it's up to Mr. Bush to decide how it turns out. Five years ago, Bush called for doubling the size of the Peace Corps.  That didn't happen.

The burden is on Mr. Bush to prove he is serious. Carlos Pascual, who worked on the idea when he was director of the State Department's Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization, says the lack of specifics "is indicative of the lack of leadership around it, the lack of commitment." One test will be whether the White House funds it in next week's 2008 budget proposal.

Mr. Bush's proposal last week found a mixed audience among bloggers, with some saying the idea is overdue, but others saying the details will matter. One blogger said he "was reminded of Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol," a comedy about bumbling police officers assigned to train a civilian force to fight crime.

Mr. Pascual said the initial setup costs would be in the neighborhood of $150 million over a few years, and have a recurring cost of $50 million to $70 million. During a deployment, costs would go up, he said.

The White House did request $25 million in the 2007 budget to get the program started, but Congress did not appropriate the funds. The concept has congressional supporters, including top Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. The Senate last year passed by unanimous consent a bill that would have authorized the program, but it did not receive a vote in the House.

A record-breaking 162 Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle urges President George W. Bush to make a greater investment in America's diplomatic and development programs as the Administration prepares its FY 2008 Federal Budget Request

A record-breaking 162 Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle urges President George W. Bush to make a greater investment in America's diplomatic and development programs as the Administration prepares its FY 2008 Federal Budget Request
Despite a packed legislative agenda and with the end of the Congressional session quickly approaching, this outstanding effort was spearheaded in the Senate by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Norm Coleman (R-MN), with a record 53 Senators from both sides of the aisle signing the letter. On the House side, Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA-28), Christopher Shays (R-CT-4), Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI-9), and Vic Snyder (D-AR-2) drove the effort to garner more than 109 Republican and Democratic signatures on the letter to President Bush. Currently, the proposed FY 2007 International Affairs Budget totals 35.1 billion dollars -- a mere 1.2 percent of the overall FY 2007 Federal Budget -- yet it provides the U.S. with priceless opportunities to generate much needed allies, partners and friends.

"Today, more than ever, it is critical that we continue to fund our U.S. International Affairs Budget," said Sen. Feinstein. "U.S. foreign assistance programs offer relief to the millions of victims of poverty, starvation, and illiteracy found throughout the developing world. By giving these communities in need the tools to target these root causes of terrorism, we not only help promote basic humanitarian values, we also help establish greater stability and security abroad, and encourage greater economic prosperity here at home."

"As a former Peace Corps volunteer, I can attest to the substantial contributions foreign assistance programs make to economic development, higher living standards and improved health and nutrition," noted Rep. Chris Shays.

Read more and leave your comments.