Solicitation is annoying, but harmless

There’s something uncouth about the image of assorted organizations peddling college students for money. After all, we’re the token demographic sympathetically short on cash — the poor student who brings home laundry to avoid the coin-operated washers, pays for sandwiches with a weekly allowance and is gifted envelopes from wealthier grandparents because, as our society kindly espouses, “kids need money.”

But kids aren’t the only ones guilty of this — so are philanthropic and community organizations which, from time to time, come to campus to solicit donations from the student body. Organizations such as Greenpeace and the American Civil Liberties Union have set up shop along Trousdale Parkway and ask passersby to contribute to their causes. Despite being barely effective, solicitation on campus, while distasteful, is ethical — and regulation really isn’t necessary.

There might be more of a ready pool of donors at USC than you would find at most college campuses. Students with families earning more than $200,000 are twice as numerous at USC as they are at UCLA, our crosstown rival. In addition to being a highly ranked university and composed of smart students, we also have a long list of incredibly active organizations composed of students that care. So, if an organization’s goal is to find funding, smart students who care might not be a bad place to start.

Of course, the smart students who care might not care that much on their way to class. Starting an online fundraiser, spreading the word through fliers, hosting events and manipulating the ready-made tools of social media outlets all serve as more effective means of raising money than simply posing the question, “Would you like to save the world?” to a student on a Penny board with one earbud in who would like nothing except to make it to Kaprielian Hall before 10 a.m.

More than anything, this method of solicitation is ineffective. The chances of being able to even stop someone on his or her way depends upon the aggressive behavior of the solicitor and the relative desperation of the solicited to get wherever they’re going — and generally, by this time in their lives — most people have learned to smile awkwardly and mumble “no thanks” or, more often, simply ignore them.

Many question whether students should be forced to perform this courtesy at all and argue that solicitation should be prohibited. However, it remains to be seen what is actually lost by allowing somebody, however aggressively positive they might be, to ask you if you love polar bears or if you want your grandchildren to see one. As long as the solicitor allows students to politely decline — and takes no for an answer without becoming brash, rude, intolerant or exceedingly aggressive — there seems to be no real damage done. Solicitors should be able to peddle all they want — they’re just not going to get anywhere. To be absolutely honest, the people who find themselves inextricably personally insulted by solicitation are probably more of a threat to campus than a solicitors.

However, as with any issue, there is room for compromise. A better solution would be to restrict solicitors to one specific area of campus — on one stretch of Trousdale or one corner of McCarthy Quad. That way, those who are explicitly bothered by solicitors might be able to better avoid them, and those looking to ask questions about or donate to certain organizations of their choice would know where to look.

Solicitation: It’s technically ethical, sometimes inconvenient and periodically effective, but most of all — let us collectively admit — generally unnoticeable.