The Right Men for the Job

"I'd never done anything political, patriotic, or unselfish because nobody ever asked me to Kennedy asked." Peace Corps volunteer, 1962   Inscription at John F. Kennedy   Presidential Library

UNSELFISHNESS is no longer the keynote of the Peace Corps In the wake of recent policy changes by the Reagan Administration. "The toughest job you'll ever love" might better be described as. "The toughest job that will ever further your career, and help the economy. "Peace Corps director Loret Ruppe, enthused to the Associated Press this winter. "These developing nations are the fastest growing market for U.S. products and services...Third World development means more trade and more jobs for more Americans." The creation of goodwill among nations, then, is no longer a sufficient justification for the program.

In tandem with the Corps new emphasis on self-interest comes a change in the incentives volunteers are offered Ruppe's executive assistant. David Scotton, praised the program this week as a chance to gain marketable" international experience in a Third World country," and stressed that the Peace Corps has a job placement program for returned volunteers.

Such self-centered motivation is far from the "harvest of international peace and understanding" contemplated by John F. Kennedy in 1961. However, it has enabled the Peace Corps to survive. Faced in 1981 with a declining budget and the demise of VISTA, its domestic counterpart, (termed "leftist" by ACTION director Thomas Pauken), the Corps began its image-changing drive, and succeeded in separating from ACTION, in February, 1982. When the need for the Peace Corps was challenged by right-wing interest groups, Ruppe mounted a counter-offensive. The budget was increased from $105 million in 1982 to $109 this year, while-the number of volunteers increased from 5000 to 5200. Applications jumped as well. The organization called the Peace Corps is alive and well.

Whether it has remained true to form is another question. Originally conceived as a youth group, the Corps is now actively recruiting retirees as well as businessmen, accountants and consultants, to meet the growing demand for trained professionals to form and assist the businesses and programs the Corps wants to build. Scotton predicts that the median age of volunteers, currently 28, will continue to increase. Technical schools are also being scouted.

The effect of these changes has been to shut out the group which has provided the most imeptus for the program, and still accounts for 52 percent of the Peace Corps--liberal arts graduates. Some Harvard students who interviewed with the agency this spring say they were disappointed by the lack of options open to them. "Doors are being closed to the because I didn't have training," notes one senior, calling it a "subtle but important" change from previous years.

Those involved in the retouched endeavor have had no difficulty finding rationales for the change. Richard Abell, director of program development, commented that "the philosophy is that the goose that laid the golden egg for the American dream has been the economic system." Ruppe feels that "personal enrichment and economic growth are vital and appropriate additions" to the original aims of the Peace Corps. Although personal growth has always been a part of the program ("The toughest job you'll ever love," the brochures promise) not until now has the program added the promise of "rich" to the concept of enrichment.

Contrary to such statements, the aim of the Peace Corps was never to spread the American Dream like so much butter over needy countries. Its purpose is less egocentric--to provide a better understanding, at the grass-roots level, between nations. The you-scratch-my-back policy which has developed instead makes the Peace Corps little more than a smaller edition of the Agency for International Development, whose avowed purpose is to provide economic development--such as dams and highways for nations in need. In fact, the Peace Corps this year began providing manpower for some of AID's smaller projects.

Some of these changes--such as the influx of retirees and trainees with relatively narrow training--may hurt the Corps itself. But the greatest losers by the institution's metamorphosis are the college graduates without specialized training, who have traditionally provided the basic support for the idealistic aims of the Peace Corps and turned out in large numbers as volunteers. For these volunteers attracted to a program which demanded commitment and self-sacrifice, there is little alternative for direct social action. As these students are gradually shut out of the Peace Corps, they may find less and less opportunity to exercise their politics, patriotism, and unselfishness--because there is nobody left to ask them.