When the Argus editors asked me, “How can students act with purpose and efficacy amid an increasingly authoritarian environment?” “How can students turn despair into pragmatism and action?” I was delighted to answer the call. Those two questions have increasingly become the core of my teaching and research.
My overall message is twofold: 1) You matter. 2) Most change is incremental. That is all well and good, you might say, but WHAT CAN I DO???? Too many of you reading this letter feel the way a student put it to all of us in one of my classes some years ago, “Sometimes I feel like the most useful thing I can do is go in the backyard and compost myself.”
This letter is intended to push back against that kind-of-funny, kind-of-sad message of hopelessness. I present here a simple two-part plan that every single person—student, faculty, staff—reading this letter can use to turn despair into pragmatism and action.
Step One: Acknowledge and Appreciate Progress
In 2004, the year I first came to Wesleyan as a faculty member and the year that many of this year’s seniors were born, more than 30 percent of the world lived in extreme poverty, subsisting on less than $3 per day. Last year, only 10 percent of the world’s population was living in extreme poverty, even though the total world population had grown from 6.5 billion to more than 8 billion. Take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate that progress: Today, as you read these words, a billion fewer people are living in extreme poverty than there were on the same day 20 years ago.
Does that feel a bit too gigantic to comprehend? Let’s acknowledge and appreciate some progress closer to home. In fall 2011 I taught a seminar called “Environmental Politics and Democratization.” There was a *single* environmentally-focused student organization on campus called EON, “Environmental Organizers Network,” and much of the student leadership of that organization was in my class. At the time, they were trying to get the small, nascent groups on campus that had some kind of environmental component (e.g., composting, organic farming, energy efficiency, animal rights) to coordinate with each other and encourage the university to do more to improve our environmental actions on campus.
Those students, like many on campus today, felt like they were fighting an uphill battle against long odds. And, looking back, the situation did not look good. The campus had no staff focused on exclusively on sustainability, arguments against natural landscaping were raging, and Long Lane was still undergoing toxic remediation.
Fortunately for all of us, those students in my class did not go and compost themselves. They took small, concrete actions to make things better. They formed networks with one another. They convinced the Administration to hire a Sustainability Coordinator. They helped plant a community garden at Long Lane. They got a couple more places to compost. In my seminar, we made eco-art to draw attention to the waste generated by party culture on campus, and we learned about how our small efforts could contribute to local and global environmental change.
Now, after more than a decade, we can look at those small steps and see that, over time, they have added up to a lot of progress: Our Sustainability Office now has a Director, 12 Fellows, 10 Coordinators, 7 Interns, 3 Strategic Plan Ambassadors, and a Data Analyst. WILD Wes has created a vibrant permaculture landscape on campus that you can now tour via TikTok. Long Lane Farm has become a year-round operation that sells to Bon Appetite and local Farmers’ Markets, and composting has been fully integrated into the University’s waste management operations.
Step 2: Do Something Here and Now—For People, With People
Just because we recognize that progress has been made, doesn’t mean that there still isn’t a long way to go. As we accomplish goals, we set new, more ambitious ones. What is an issue that you care about? Poverty? Hunger? Climate change? Acknowledging and appreciating progress doesn’t mean that we don’t see how much farther we have to go to ensure that everyone can live in a just, peaceful, sustainable world.
After spending a minute or so thinking about the big issues, pick one where you are going to take some action. Spend another minute or so finding a local organization where you can do something concrete related to that issue with people, for people. Is the issue that you care about poverty? Sign up to volunteer at Traverse Square—help the next generation of children feel valued and provide them educational support to help them stay in school and build lives that are more prosperous than their parents. By helping those children, you are also supporting their parents.
Is the SNAP crisis making you sick? Sign up to help at the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen or the Amazing Grace food pantry. Both organizations are walking distance from campus and serve thousands of local people annually. You can join the hundreds of others who volunteer to be on the front line, showing their neighbors that their community cares by serving food, restocking shelves, or providing companionable conversation.
Worried about the impending climate crisis and our deteriorating environment? Join a litter clean up event organized by the Jonah Center (the next one is this coming Saturday, Nov. 16th!). You’ll beautify our city, prevent plastics from leaching toxins into our waters, and enjoy a bit of fresh air.
Still not sure what to do, or looking for a bit of guidance and training before you start? Visit the Jewitt Center for Community Partnerships and ask their talented staff for ideas, or visit their Get Involved page. Remember, the thing you pick doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to make a lifetime, or even a weekly commitment. My recommendation is to pick something that you can do within the next two weeks, sign up, and do it. If it turns out you love it, great! Do it again! If it turns out you don’t love it so much, at least you did something. You will know that you mattered and made a difference. Pick something else next time.
Working with people, for people will help you realize that there are millions and millions of people all around you every day who are working to make the world a better place. There are far, far more people striving to build a better world than there are selfish people looking out only for themselves. You get a very different view of humanity working next to someone helping neighbors than you do doom scrolling Instagram reels. This kind of service with and for your neighbors matters. You don’t need a high GPA, a perfect physique, or a special skill. You just need to show up. By doing so, you get to count yourselves among the people who are making a difference.
Turning Despair into Pragmatism and Action
There is plenty of bad news out there. Many things in this world are not the way that we wish they were. The scale of the problems can often be overwhelming. But, this very simple two-step plan can help anyone turn despair into pragmatism and action. (1) Acknowledge and appreciate how much progress has been made. (2) Take one concrete step to make a bit more progress. Work with people, for people, here and now.
We often use the phrase “I stand on the shoulder of giants,” but I’m here to tell you that current students are not standing on the shoulders of giants. Your predecessors might have become giants, but when they were in my class, they were regular sized people, struggling to make some incremental progress against seemingly impossible odds.
They graduated, just like you will, and have gone on to do amazing things. In that seminar I mentioned, Evan Weber went on to co-found the Sunrise Movement, was instrumental in promoting the Green New Deal nationally, and is now building a movement in Hawai’i. Julia Jonas-Day is currently serving at the Assistant Attorney General for Climate Change in Massachusetts, Oliver James is helping the World Resources Institute manage habitats, and Marjorie Dodson is working to clean energy in the United States. Nik Ownes is inspiring audiences and students with his dance, and Corey Guilmette is engaged in legal and legislative advocacy to promote justice for those caught in the criminal justice system. I could go on.
That student who didn’t compost himself? Bryce Hollingsworth was just profiled in the Wesleyan Magazine. He’s traveling the world, using and refining the art of dry stone walling to fix retaining walls, repair Japanese castles, and build a gigantic labyrinth.
None of us knows where we will be in a decade, but we know where we are now. We cannot know how the seeds we plant now might grow, but we can plant them. Working with our neighbors for our neighbors reminds us that we matter. Making a difference today can inspire us to make a difference tomorrow. We don’t have to solve the problems of the universe. Just do something concrete for people, with people. Here. Now. You will probably feel better. Even if you don’t feel better, you will have done some good. Some days, that is enough.
This piece is part of Letters on Pragmatic Hope, an essay series in which Wesleyan professors and administrators reflect on a daunting question: How can students act with purpose and efficacy amid an increasingly authoritarian environment? The series aims to gather responses from a diverse group of Wesleyan faculty, offering a vision for how students can turn despair into pragmatism and action.
Mary Alice Haddad is the John E. Andrus Professor of Government. She can be reached at mahaddad@wesleyan.edu.
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