THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1977
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Peace Corps is changing, healthy
By PAUL BARTON
Until John Kennedy remem
bered it in the spring of 1961, the
Peace Corps existed only as a for
gotten campaign promise.
The corps was a dazzling idea.
American volunteers would live in
underdeveloped countries, aiding
natives in their battle against
hunger, poverty and illiteracy.
Acclaim rang out from all corners
as volunteers, especially the
young, rushed to join.
Today, although it no longer re
ceives the publicity it once did,
the Peace Corps remains a healthy
organization. But it has changed in
some important ways. Established
as an arm of the State Depart
ment, it became a par t of Action,
the federal volunteer service
agency, in 1971. In addition, it no
longer accepts volunteers as freely
as it once did.
While it once had an enlistment
of 15,000, the Peace Corps today
numbers approximately 6,000.
However, Dwight Linsley, Texas
A&M’s campus Peace Corps repre-
[ sentative, says this number reflects
increasingly selective recruiting
practices, rather than a decrease in
interest.
In contrast to 1961, today’s
Peace Corps demands more than
just the minimum age of 18 and a
willingness to serve. Although a
college degree isn’t mandatory,
Linsley says a volunteer has a slim
chance of being accepted without
one unless he already possesses a
skill the Peace Corps can use. Ac
cepted applications now usually
come from persons trained in vital
areas such as medicine or agricul
ture.
“We re really looking for skills, 1
said Wayne Snyder, a regional re-'
continent specialist for Action.
“Most of the people who go into
the Peace Corps today have their
college degrees.
Snyder said at Texas A&M most
Peace Corps volunteers come horn
the College of Agriculture, holding
degrees in fields ranging from
entomology to range science. The
second largest number come from
business Helds, followed by educa
tion.
Linsley said the corps accepts
people with degrees in other areas
as well, often training them to
handle specific jobs. For the future
he sees the Peace Corps accepting
more bachelor of arts degree hold
ers, a practice that was common
before the organization became
skill-oriented during the Nixon
years.
Snyder said the Peace Corps’
changing standards mirror the
changed attitudes of college stu
dents since 1961. Today’s
graduates, as opposed to those of
previous years, are much more in
terested in “tangible skills,” he
said. “The college student of the
“77-‘78 variety is much more grade
conscious. They’re caring about
their future. ’’
Linsley, a Peace Corps volun
teer in the Philippines in 1969-
1972, said agriculture remains a
“scarce skill area” for the Corps.
This largely explains why the
Peace Corps put a full-time repre
sentative at Texas A&M, he said.
Peace Corps recruiting at Texas
A&M was not very successful a few
years ago, Linsley said. He added
that recruiting has picked up re
cently, attributing the increase to
the university’s increased participa
tion in programs dealing with
international problems.
Why would a graduate student
want to enter the Peace Corps?
Graduates feel the corps gives
them a chance to travel and to be
come fluent in a foreign language.
Most importantly, it gives them an
immediate chance to utilize their
newly learned skills in an impor
tant way.
Linsley agreed that a person in
the Peace Corps with little experi
ence in his field “could be in a
position of a lot more responsibility
than he would be if he were in a
starting level job with a big busi
ness concern here.
Tito French, a Texas A&M
graduate student working on his
doctorate in horticulture, confirms
this view. While serving in El Sal
vador in 1973-75, he helped estab
lish a multiple cropping system for
small farmers, enabling them to
grow various vegetables in addition
to their base crops of corn and
beans. French said the farmers
were able to use the vegetables as
a money crop.
“It was tremendous practical ex
perience, said French. “I was
able to put into practice what I
was learning in the classroom.
There’s no way I could have gotten
that experience in the U.S. in that
short a period of time.
But what about the humanitarian
aspect of the Peace Corps? In 1961
Newsweek magazine called it “the
youthful dream of forging a better
world. Is this still an attraction?
Linsley said he can’t imagine a
Peace Corps volunteer who isn t
concerned about people. But he
added that an interest in learning
more about other countries or a
desire to have an adventure were
also legitimate reasons for volun
teering.
He also said most Peace Corps
volunteers are well received in a
host country.
“They’re much better accepted
than the average American,”
Linsley said. “They’re there saying
that they are interested in people
and don’t want to exploit them.”
Carla Shearer, a health educa
tion specialist for the Texas Ag
ricultural Extension Service,
agreed. She was a Peace Corps
volunteer in Panama in 1967-69.
“Once they found out you were
with the Peace Corps they were
very receptive and warm,” said
Shearer.
During her stay in Panama, she
said, she was referred to as “one of
Kennedy’s children.” Shearer said
the term symbolized the love and
respect Panamanians and Latin
Americans in general had for John
Kennedy.
Linsley said the program “gives
other people a different way of
looking at Americans,” and added
that he once heard a Peace Corps
staff director in the Philippines
remark, “If that was all the Peace
Corps accomplished, it would be
worth it.”
However, natives have a hard
time understanding the motives of
Americans. “They have a hard
time trying to figure out why an
American with all the fantastic
things that they think there are in
this country would want to come
to where they are,” Linsley said.
Can a Peace Corps volunteer
become frustrated? “If you go into
it with the attitude you’ll change
the world you’re going to be dis
appointed,” Linsley said. “Things
don’t work as well in an underde
veloped nation as they do here.
You’ve got to learn to put up with
up that kind of frustration. You
need to have small goals and a lot
of patience.”
He said success or failure in a
Peace Corps assignment is up to
the individual volunteer. Accord
ing to Linsley, volunteers have a
lot of freedom overseas and can
choose whether to work hard or
not. “Every situation is unique,”
he said.
Shearer also thinks a volunteer
must guard against frustration.
“I didn’t change the community
in two years, ” she said. “I wouldn’t
say flatly I came back frustrated; I
would say I wished I had done
more than I did.” Among her ac
complishments she listed both
good public relations work and
friends she made for the United
States.
One thing that hasn’t changed
about the Peace Corps is the ex
perience of culture shock faced by
volunteers.
“There are a lot of things you
take for granted here that are not
available there,” said Linsley,
mentioning the scarcity of running
water and electricity he
encountered in the Philippines. “It
changes your perspective on life in
this country.”
The Peace Corps remains a
two-year program and volunteers
continue to receive both living and
readjustment allowances. The liv
ing allowance is given to the vol
unteer while he is abroad. In 1976
it ranged from $113 to $470 a
month, depending on the country
he served in. Snyder said the
money is issued in the currency of
the host nation and is “geared to
be a middle income allowance in
that given country.”
The readjustment allowance, on
the other hand, is given to the
volunteer when he returns to the
United States.
When Peace Corps members re
turn to the United States they still
have to worry about finding a job.
French, said the ex-Peace Corps
volunteer is at an advantage when
it comes to negotiating a starting
salary because of his two years of
service.
French added that a volunteer
can accrue non-financial benefits as
well.
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