Civic Agency for Environmental Action: Earth Week and Every Week

By Carlin Stinson and Josh Moore, MTSU American Democracy Project

To commemorate Earth Day, the student organization of American Democracy Project at Middle Tennessee State University wants to share with you an issue that weighs on our hearts and is part of the political life of university students in all of the Appalachian states.  If you attend an east-of-the-Mississippi college or university, you already know about mountaintop removal (MTR).  If you are in a coastal, midwestern, or western state, you probably have other issues that feel pressing to you in your region.  We are sharing our ecological concern.

Carlin Stinson, along with fellow ADP MTSU student Jimmy Deane, showing off Raiders Recycle t-shirts designed by ADP students to increase campus recycling awareness

ADP has worked on many civic issues and projects over the years. We are a civic engagement organization, not at all an expressly environmental organization.  Nevertheless, one of the public matters in which our students cannot not help but become involved is increasing awareness of and civic responsibility for our personal environmental behaviors.  Some of the enviro-projects we have worked on since we became ADP members have included research toward the creation of a tobacco-free campus at MTSU (which, hooray, became campus policy January 1, 2012) to spreading the word about our university’s campus recycling program (this spring, for the first time ever, thanks to ADP students’ efforts, the MTSU student orientation booklet for thousands of incoming freshman teaches Raiders Recycling to our new students)!

Of all the environmental initiatives we have taken on, however, perhaps ADP students’ collaboration with MTSU Students for Environmental Action and Tennessee Conservation Voters may ultimately have the farthest reaching effects.  We are part of the movement that defines our generation in our region, and ADP students can do no less than add our energy and voices to those of Mountain Justice, United Mountain Defense, Appalachian Voices, and iLoveMountains, among other groups, that advocate for the protection of America’s oldest and most ecologically diverse mountains, the Appalachians.

What in earlier generations was known simply as “strip mining” is now more precisely referred to by what the process actually entails, “mountaintop removal.”  To provide cheap electricity to all of us in urban areas who use electricity as if it were a fundamental birthright, coal mining has for years and years been systematically and permanently blasting the tops off entire ranges of the Appalachian mountains.  To watch the destruction on film is enlightening, to see it in person is life changing. View video here.

This past fall, we in Tennessee and in ADP got involved in promoting the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, which if passed by the Tennessee General Assembly would have put a ban on mountaintop removal coal mining on ridgelines above 2,000 feet in our state and would have made Tennessee the first state in the nation to ban mountaintop removal.  Although Tennessee has not been the most impacted state to date—only three mountains in Tennessee have been mountaintop mined to date, which is minor compared to the systematic destruction over the years in, for example, West Virginia—preemptively, we want to stop the devastation before it escalates further within our own state.

By word of mouth, meeting with other groups, and by way of the Internet, information about the Scenic Vistas

Josh Moore helping host the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor lecture at MTSU this winter.

Protection Act, which was to be put before the Tennessee Legislature in early 2012, spread throughout the fall of 2011 and into the first weeks of 2012, with thousands of online and hand-written signatures acquired in support of the legislation.  The bill before our General Assembly had strong statewide backing even after only a few months in the public eye.

The bill had actually been stalled in the Tennessee Legislature for a number of years.  In all of that time it had not received adequate support from lawmakers nor sufficient public demands to move it beyond committee.  Having heard Shelby White, of Tennessee Conservation Voters (TCV), speak at a Mountain Justice mountaintop removal informational presentation about the bill’s possibilities, Carlin, of ADP MTSU, took it upon herself to make a follow-up contact to Shelby to ask how people could become involved in promoting the legislation.

After personal discussions with TCV, Carlin posted information, links, and the online petition for the Scenic Vistas Protection Act on various Internet platforms.  Both of us shared formation about the bill with our teachers and fellow students, in classrooms and via university e-mail.  Our working with MTSU’s Students for Environmental Action was a step in the right direction, developing a stronger link between ADP and SEA and expanding the networks of each group further than before.  One project in which ADP members collaborated with SEA was sending holiday cards this past winter break to each of the legislative committee members who would be voting on the bill at the first of the year, urging them to vote affirmatively for Scenic Vistas.

During the winter Carlin spread the word to groups of concerned citizens beyond our campus.  Tennesseans of every age and walk of life are passionate about protecting our mountains.  Carlin was invited by Fount Bertram, President of the Friends of Tennessee State Parks Coalition and member of the Tennessee Trails Association (TTA) to speak about the Scenic Vistas Act at a chapter meeting of TTA, a member organization of the Tennessee Conservation Voters.  Carlin took a support team of presenters and advocates to inform the Tennessee Trails audience about the devastating effects of mountaintop removal and how TTA could get involved in getting the law passed.  Influencing people to become advocates of Scenic Vistas and to sign the petition for the Tennessee General Assembly was the easy part.

Unfortunately, the need to rally for the preservation of our beloved mountains has only just begun here in Tennessee.  The push this winter for the Scenic Vistas Protection Act culminated with the bill’s being officially introduced first on the floor of the Tennessee Senate, a preemptive move when the bill had not even made it out of House committee.  State senators debated the bill but decided to table it for review at a later date.  In other words, they put it on the backburner once again.  Having been shot down in the Tennessee Senate, the bill was also tabled in House committee.  Although no one in principle wants to harm Tennessee mountains, the Legislature, even more, wants not to restrain the coal mining industry.

However disappointing it may have been to see the General Assembly push the bill further away from passage, our conviction will not be swayed. The support gained for the bill in such a short amount of time in 2011 and 2012 was a huge start.  We will be even better prepared to let the Legislature know what the people of Tennessee want for the mountains of Tennessee.  We the People will be even more equipped for the next go-round with the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act.  The only way for us to make the change we would like to see in environmental policies concerning MTR will be consistency, persistence, and patient understanding as we continually work to make our fellow Tennesseans aware of the harmful practice of mountaintop removal coal mining and to enlighten them as to the alternatives.

It is our duty to stand up for the environment and to demand a clean energy future for the generations to come.  If We the People don’t make this demand, then who will?  A clean energy future is entirely possible.  But the Green Shift will not begin until the demand from our citizens is strong.  At the very least, many more sustainable principles and practices must be incorporated into our lifestyles to make the difference.  We can all start by turning off a light switch or unplugging our laptops or reading a book about sustainability.

There is no better time than Earth Day to be thinking green. Earth Week festivities are in progress right now at MTSU, as they surely are on your campus.  We are having an eco-fashion show, clothing swaps, workshops, upcycled art, and lectures on sustainability and preserving the environment.  Our ADP “Raiders Recycle” t-shirts and book bags will be showcased on campus. But environmental stewardship must be an integral part of our everyday routines, not limited to one week or day out of the year.  Earth Day is every day!  We urge everyone to take that extra step toward a clean energy future and to consider the green alternatives.   We in ADP know full well how civic agency works: each of us must be the agent and be the change.

If you can find a way to add your voice to stopping mountaintop removal or toward supporting us in Tennessee in the passage of the Scenic Vistas Act, we surely would appreciate your assistance and ideas as we move forward.

____

Josh Moore is an Environmental Science and Energy Technology major in the Engineering Department at MTSU.  My involvement with ADP has strengthened my drive for civic engagement within the community at an exponential rate.  It is my focus that civic engagement within the community must become the forefront of our education, an idea that must spread across our democracy. The more we involve ourselves in the community, the more we make a difference, and I want to make that difference.

Carlin Stinson is an Agriculture student at MTSU. Originally from Nashville, she now lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with her cat.  She is involved in ADP as well as Students for Environmental Action of MTSU in the fight against MTR coal mining. She hopes to finish school in a timely manner and begin her career as a botanist and modern homesteader. She feels that any student can make a difference in his or her community with just a bit of time and effort.

Josh and Carlin are both juniors in the MTSU College of Basic and Applied Sciences.

Thoughtful Thursdays at Towson’s Freedom Square

This guest blog post is an update to an earlier blog post on Towson University’s On-and-off-line Freedom Square. A hybrid example of a Democracy Plaza (see this blog post about IUPUI’s Democracy Plaza concept). Students at Towson recently received an “Ask Big Questions” grant from the Hillel Foundation to fund “Thoughtful Thursdays” programming in their physical and online Freedom Square spaces. I had the opportunity to visit Towson’s Freedom Square for their inaugural “Thoughtful Thursdays” program in December. Below you’ll find photos and a short video I took during my visit.

- Jen Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project

Angie Hong and another TU student at one of the Freedom Square chalkboards

Thoughtful Thursdays at Towson’s Freedom Square

By Angie Hong, Program Assistant in Civic Engagement, Towson University

Thursdays at Towson University now have a new meaning. The Office of Civic Engagement has created a program called Thoughtful Thursdays with the help of a grant from the Hillel Foundation’s “Ask Big Questions” initiative. You can find out more information on this initiative at go here.

For this program, we have four undergraduate interns, which we like to call our Freedom Square Fellows.  Our Fellows ask one big question –like “What are your thoughts on the recent explosion of KONY 2012 on social media?”– at the beginning of every week and post it on our online blog, TUFreedomSquare.com. We encourage students to answer the question on the blog and let us know what they think about the given topic. Throughout the week the Fellows promote the question anywhere that they can, whether it is on Facebook or on their Twitter account. We didn’t want to stop there because we realized that the most powerful way to catch someone’s attention is in person and by word of mouth.

On Thursdays, the Freedom Square Fellows head to Freedom Square, our physical space where students are encouraged to write their thoughts on two large chalkboards. If students did not catch the question from our advertisement, we have scrolling marquees above the chalkboard that allows the students to read and understand the question of the week. If they need more information, we have used the iPAD that is connected to TUFreedomSquare.com. The Fellows then go around campus and talk with students, encouraging them to have thoughtful conversation. This enables diverse groups of students to share their specific understanding of the week’s questions. We have had giveaways such as frisbees, tote bags, pens and pencils, notepads, lemonade, chocolate, etc. to serve as encouragement for students to participate. The chalkboards have been filled with opinions and even responses to other people’s opinions. By physically writing their opinions on the chalkboard, the students are taking ownership of their responses and making sure they are communicating them effectively for the next person to see.

In the future, we hope that these thoughtful conversations become a part of the culture at Towson for students. We want students to believe that being knowledgeable about current events and having an opinion on topics is “the cool thing to do” during their time here and beyond. Currently on our campus, our students are having conversations about the distinction between freedom of speech and hate speech. We are hoping that our Freedom Square initiatives will put into practice the power of freedom of speech for students. Also, we want to challenge the students to no longer take an apathetic approach to issues but, become passionate about them.

Visit TUFreedomSquare online here.

New logo for ADP’s Political Engagement Project

By Alauna Akins with Emily Herrick, Illinois State University

As the Campus Communication Liaison for the American Democracy Project at Illinois State University, my responsibilities include providing marketing/promotional materials for events as well producing general advertising materials for the ADP on our campus. This semester I had the pleasure of working on several different design concepts for the national ADP PEP logo.

To complete this task, I worked closely with our graphic design intern, Emily Herrick, who is a Senior majoring in Graphic Design & minoring in Civic Engagement & Responsibility. The main concept behind the logo was to inspire or evoke the notions of giving a voice to political issues and being empowered to speak out about those issues, which is at the heart of political engagement! So, we decided to get really, really creative with a bullhorn, a few stars, and a couple of stripes!

It is with great pleasure that we proudly unveil the national American Democracy Project PEP logo:

Student Spotlight: Improving Student Voting at MTSU

By Brandon Loso, Sophomore, Middle Tennessee State University

Hello, fellow ADP members! We wanted to inform you of some of the projects that the American Democracy Project students at Middle Tennessee State University have been working on this year.  For those of you who may be unaware of the capacity and involvement of students at MTSU, we are the largest undergraduate university in the state of Tennessee, with approximately 26,000 undergraduates in the student body.  Our ADP at MTSU consists of both faculty and students, and some of our ADP students earn academic credit doing experiential learning practica in civic learning and engagement during the academic year.  We are a comparatively small group, but we make some big contributions on campus!

Brandon Loso busily in the middle of voter registration at MTSU. Brandon is second from the right, with dark hair, in profile assisting students.

With the presidential elections coming up this year — Tennessee participates in Super Tuesday primary this week, March 6, 2012 — ADP has been and is continuing to work to educate and encourage our MTSU students to voice their opinions in national, state, and local elections.  Members of our own ADP MTSU faculty are moderating League of Women Voters candidate fora for city, county, and state elections this spring and summer, toward that very end.  As an educational device for our incoming students, we ADP MTSU students are in the process of creating a voter education seminar for new MTSU students, as well as a pamphlet to be included in the new student orientation packet for first-year students who enter the university starting this summer. Our flyer contains basic information about how to get registered to participate in summer and fall ballots, to be ready to vote in the upcoming city, county, state, and national elections.

Another important way in which ADP MTSU students are involved in bettering the election process for our students is partnering with the local election commission and with campus officials to develop a polling location on our campus— we hope — as a valuable resource for university students residing in dorms and campus apartments and in surrounding neighborhoods.  Believe it or not, MTSU has not ever had an on-campus or adjacent-to-campus polling site, which is difficult to understand given the size of our university population.  ADP has been lobbying to develop an on-campus polling location for quite some time.  We persevere in that effort.

We are doing on-campus research this spring that we think will support and further our position for an on-campus voting site with both the election commission and our university administration.  Additionally, we think our research will assist in the effort to increase the number of students who are registered voters.

With help from faculty from the MTSU Poll (http://mtsusurveygroup.org/), ADP students have developed a survey to ask our student body about registration, voter participation, polling location, and voting process.  Our survey is under way all across our campus right now, and we hope to present the results of the study at the American Democracy Project annual meeting in San Antonio in June.

The survey is quite simple.  We naturally ask demographic basics of our respondents, including age, gender, and class at MTSU.  The survey itself consists of ten questions pertaining to students’ personal registration and voting habits and their opinions about the voting process.  We are anxious to secure a representative sample that will properly reflect the percentage of our student community currently registered to vote.  We also hope to determine, so that we can share with the local county election commission, the percentage of the student population that does vote, or intends to vote, right here in our own university town — vs. the percentage of our school that travels to other in-state counties to vote or that participates in out-of-state voting. (View MTSU’s Voting Survey here.)

To examine the impacts of home and peers, the survey inquires of each respondent about his or her culture of voting, whether family members vote and whether friends do.  Our survey additionally asks students for self-evaluation on how important voting in major elections is to them personally.  We believe that if we can pinpoint the average numbers of students who feel voting is an important aspect of their civic life, but are restricted in voting due to limited access or lack of resources as college students, we will have the statistical support we need to work more productively with our campus administration and with the local election commission to develop improved voting options for our student body.

As you can see, MTSU’s American Democracy Project is working to make a difference for our school and the involvement on campus.  We are very excited to see how all of our efforts pan out over the next several months, and we’re very anxious to see you all in San Antonio, Texas, really soon!

Learn more about ADP at MTSU here.

About Brandon Loso

Brandon Loso manning an ADP table at an MTSU student organization fair.

Hey, fellow American Democracy Project students!  My name is Brandon Loso.  I am a sophomore at Middle Tennessee State University from Bell Buckle, Tennessee.  I am currently majoring in Mass Communications of Advertising and Public Relations in the Recording Industry, and minoring in Business Administration.  Throughout my four semesters at MTSU I have become very involved in student organizations and have been given the opportunity to hold leadership positions in several.  I am currently the American Democracy Project Student Org Vice President, Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity Community Service Chairman, Up ‘Til Dawn for St. Jude’s Team Leader, and member of the Student Government Association Homecoming Committee. 

eJournal of Public Affairs logo designed by Missouri State University Student

This story is re-posted from Missouri State University’s Arts & Letters Expressions February 24, 2012 blog by Phillip George, which you can view here.

Kyle Rutherford, a design student majoring in graphic design and illustration, submitted the wordmark logo that has been chosen for the University’s new eJournal of Public Affairs. Students in Maria Michalczyk’s Advanced Typography class (DES 331) submitted a total of 18 entries, each presenting their entry to eJournal staff and the associate provost of student development and public affairs. After staff chose Rutherford’s logo, he assisted them in designing the journal’s website, consulting on issues of design choice and user-friendliness.

The eJournal of Public Affairs is a partnership between Missouri State University and the American Democracy Project. It is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, open-access journal published by the University to provide a nationally-refereed venue for scholarly work oriented toward public affairs. You can read articles from the first issue online.

Vote for St. Cloud State (Minn.) Student in White House Contest

St. Cloud State University student Kurtis Neu needs your vote to make it to the White House.

Kurt Neu, a senior anthropology major, is one of 15 finalists chosen in the 2011 White House Campus “Champions of Change” Challenge, which invited college and university students from across the country to demonstrate how their student-led project is improving their campus community and helping America win the future.

After reviewing a record number of entries, 15 finalists were named, including Neu’s which is titled “Our Promise: Building a Better Community Together.”

Neu’s project was put into action last summer providing bagged lunches for children in a multi-ethnic, low-income neighborhood who would normally qualify for lunch assistance during the academic year at a local elementary school. After receiving a grant from the campus food supplier, Neu and his team began making bagged lunches in the campus cafeteria every morning Monday through Friday. College students and volunteers from the community worked together to prepare meals which students then distributed to children in the neighborhood. What started as only a few hundred meals and a handful of volunteers grew to nearly 1000 meals and dozens of volunteers as awareness of the lunch program spread. Delivering the meals to various locations throughout the neighborhood made it possible for students and residents to meet face-to-face and to have purposeful conversations and to work towards establishing relationships based on trust, compassion and a general concern for the well-being of all community members.

Via email, Kurt indicated that the “Our Promise” project represents the collective efforts of “a fantastic group of individuals who are committed to improving the community.” He views St. Cloud State University as “an exceptional place to earn a degree and to discover how to see the world in a different light” and hopes that his project encourages other students to “make the best of their time in college and truly have a positive impact on campus and in the community.”

Go here to learn more and to vote.

The top five winners will largely be selected based on voting and named Campus Champions of Change and will be invited to a culminating event at the White House. The Challenge winners, in addition to the concluding event, will be highlighted by mtvU and MTV Act and also host an episode of mtvU’s signature program, “The Dean’s List.”

The deadline to cast your vote is Saturday, March 3.

Best of luck to you, Kurt, and to St. Cloud State University!

Student Spotlight: Liz Bowling’s Lesson in Basic Economics

I had the opportunity to talk with Liz Bowling, a new-traditional (read, not  18-22 years-old) undergraduate student at Emporia State University in Kansas, recently about her experiences in Rob Cattlet’s fall Economics 101: Basic Economics course.

- Jen Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project

By Liz Bowling, Emporia State University (Kan.)

City of Emporia Clean-Up & Recycling Days

On Saturday October 1^st of last year, I had the privilege of participating in the City of Emporia’s Clean-Up & Recycling Days.  I worked alongside other volunteers from Emporia State University, local businesses, organizations and individuals from Emporia at the temporary transfer station and recycling center in Santa Fe Park.

After slipping into my gloves and safety vest, I made my way around to the different containers designated for tires, wood, metals, cleaners, chemicals, paints, T.V.s, computers and computer parts, and trash, which would have been headed for the landfill if we were not here.  There were a couple of volunteers who offered their trucks and fuel to take several loads of usable items to area thrift stores.  With more people using their intellectual and physical talents, along with more dumpsters there would have been even less items going to the landfill.

This was a wonderful life-transforming experience!  In return for giving five hours from my Saturday, I have gained a personal accountability to a higher standard of activism.  From now on I will no longer be able to plead ignorance, or sit back and let others do all the work.

I thought that it was enough that as a recycle artist I have created entire shows from utilizing 95 percent refuse that I took from local business trash bins and other recycled materials.  This is good; however, it is simply not enough!

After my experience on Saturday, I am committed to doing more through volunteering, educating, and/or donating money and supplies.  I will become an engaged citizen. I have several ideas about ways in which to educate the public, campaign for changes, and fund-raise and ideas about ways to involve the youth and our school systems. I am dedicated to researching, manifesting, and implementing these ideas. I believe that other citizens of Emporia, like me, would be interested in opportunities to assist in solution-changing-events such as Clean Sweep II.  However, they have to be given the opportunity to become aware of the enormity of the situation and the long-term ramifications of the problems that we are facing personally, environmentally, economically, and globally.

_____

About Elizabet (Liz) L. Bowling

Liz Bowling

Liz has been “a creative” her entire life; it is what sustains, supports and nourishes her mind, body and spirit.  She has been a professional artist for the past 22 years.  Liz began at Sterling College (Kan.) and then ventured to UCLA. Since then she has been at IUPUI, Baker University (Kan.), the University of Oklahoma and is currently a student at Emporia State University (Kan.) where she is taking a class in economics that has extensive civic engagement elements as part of the American Democracy Project.

Art and writing have always been a big part of Liz’s  creative life.  She is currently working on several book projects. By nature she is a self-proclaimed assemblage artist. Her eclectic and unusual palette includes: clay, wood, wire, fibers/cloth, bone and recycled materials, found objects, cardboard, paint, and anything discarded (e.g., trash) that can be utilized and revitalized.

Being an assemblage artist for many years, she has utilized found objects and the art of recycling through out my career; however, what began as a necessity has become a dedication to living life with integrity and personal accountability. She believes that we live in a world where a large number of people live with the “disposable society” mentality. Too quickly, we throw away. We throw away useful items; we fill our landfills with materials that can be recycled and put to good use.  Many in our society tend to quickly throw away their values, their relationships, family, children, friendships, the elderly and disabled in the quest to obtain more, bigger, better, more improved things.

As an educated individual, Liz is dedicated to helping to make this world a better place. Educating myself about the application of non-toxic and environmentally safe products in partnership to recycling is a foundational part of my creative process. As a spiritual being, Liz has committed her life to that of seeking knowledge, growth, accountability, personal and professional integrity, and unfolding naturally into authenticity. Her entire life is about building bridges and using her creative talent to connect and inspire others.

Raising Recycling Awareness & Voter Participation at MTSU

Guest Blog Post by Victoria Womack, Student, Middle Tennessee State University

Raising Recycling Awareness and Voter Participation

American Democracy Project seeks to solve problems within our local community and on campus, and during 2011 and on into this year, we the students of American Democracy Project at Middle Tennessee State University identified  two major problems affecting MTSU that we wanted to try to begin to tackle on our campus.

MTSU Students (from L to R): L to R: Carlin Stinson, Matthew Foriest, Victoria Womack & Brandon Loso

One problem has been a lack of awareness about campus recycling.  We saw the recycling bins often getting underused, while at the same time the trash bins seemed to pile up and overflow!  So we brainstormed, talked to a lot of facilities people on campus and to other campus organizations, and decided on a few tactics we wanted to undertake toward improving the current situation.

The new student orientation program that MTSU hosts every spring and summer for incoming freshmen and transfer students is called CUSTOMS on our campus, during which new students are given tours of campus and are treated to presentations about every aspect of how the campus operates.  Of course the students leave orientation loaded with brochures and handouts about organizations, programs, and student services.  ADP decided to create a brochure to go in the CUSTOMS packets that will be given to all new students this coming summer that will inform them about MTSU’s recycling services.  We wanted to stress to the new students the importance of recycling; to work toward building a healthier campus culture by starting early with our incoming students; and also to simply provide new students with basic, introductory recycling information that they all need to know.  We wanted to supply answers to straightforward questions.  Do all the dorms have bins?  Does every floor?  Does every academic hall and classroom?  How often are the bins collected?  Where is the main campus recycling center? Where are hazardous waste and electronic equipment recycled?  What does Facilities Services collect on campus, v. what does each individual student need to transport personally to the larger campus recycling center?  Questions like that.

We hope our new brochure will be a good addition to help students start off on the right foot here.  We were not provided that sort of information when we arrived at MTSU, and we think we should have been.  So we’re handling it ourselves because it’s something we care about.

The other problem we are taking on is a serious attempt to increase the student voting base at MTSU in preparation for the 2012 presidential election.  Due to the lack of heavy student participation in the fall 2010 elections, during which election cycle Tennessee selected our current governor, we were discouraged by the general apathy toward voting by many of our students.  We have read the national data on this issue, as have you, about poor voter turnout among our age group, but we are interpreting some of the disengagement on our campus, and maybe much of it, in part to the lack of prepared registration:  to students generally being uninformed about registration.  We hope that receiving information about how to register will increase the numbers of students getting registered, to be ready to vote November 6th!

We are using a multi-pronged approach in dealing with this issue in the months ahead.  Just one of our approaches is an attempt at tackling the problem in a similar way in which we are dealing with recycling:  we have decided to also include an informational flyer in the CUSTOMS packets this summer about voter registration.  We compiled a list of the recurring questions that were asked of us throughout the past year when we had voter registration tables set up on campus.  We set out to answer those questions in the best, most efficient ways we can, writing down our tips in simple responses for our freshmen, most of whom will be first time voters this coming fall.  We want to show them that registering to vote is easy.  We want them to be sure they know that registration is the required first step in being able to participate in the election to put forth their voice in the political arena.  We want to help them get registered – and then get to the polls.

Information is power. We respect our fellow students and presume they genuinely want to do the right thing.  They just need to be encouraged.  We think information about a subject leads to action.  Ideally we would love for everyone on campus to participate in voting this fall.  We know the sheer act of flipping the levers in the voting booth can be life changing.  Voting makes a citizen of even the very cynical.  If we can raise the voter participation numbers among our campus population by the slightest percentage come fall 2012, we’ll have accomplished a lot.  But even if we’re able to facilitate just one more MTSU student becoming a participatory citizen, we’ll feel good about our efforts and know that our goal has been accomplished!  We’re working on it, and we hope we’re modeling civic agency and civic action in the process.

*****

Victoria Womack

Victoria Womack is a soldier in the Tennessee National Guard and a full time student at Middle Tennessee State University. She is majoring in Digital Animation and hopes to one day start her own company.  She became involved in civic engagement through her experiences in the military as well as her involvement with the American Democracy Project.  She hopes to promote the importance of voting as well as staying actively involved with government issues.

Student Spotlight: A Student Perspective on ADP at MTSU

Guest Blog Post by Raven Dohuky, Sophomore, Middle Tennessee State University

About Raven Dohuky:

Live, love, laugh is my thought on life, as a Kurdish American living in Nashville, Tennessee. I was born on March 13, 1991, in Kurdistan, Iraq.  (Did you know that there are more Kurds living in Middle Tennessee than anywhere else in the entire U.S.?) My family migrated to America shortly after I was born during the Gulf War.  We were prisoners in our own land, deprived of freedom and opportunities, and we had no choice but to flee and become refugees.  And that’s how I got my name:  Raven means “of refuge” in Kurdish, and my last name refers to the city of Dohuk where my family is from.  I am currently a sophomore and proud member of the American Democracy Project at Middle Tennessee State University, working part time as pharmacy technician at a retail pharmacy. I hope to become a pharmacist in the not-too-distant future.  As a Kurd assimilating in America, I try as much as possible to keep my heritage and culture alive.  I always have the mindset of being grateful for what I have and who I have in my life.

American Democracy Project at MTSU

At Middle Tennessee State University, the American Democracy Project has many faces, takes many forms, and operates across many layers of our university, for civic outreach and community involvement.  ADP works through both our faculty and our students, promoting democratic engagement and civic learning.  We are continually trying to do more.

ADP MTSU Students (from L to R): Forest Stroud, Raven Dohuky, Josh Moore & Kelsey Tellez

One way ADP is visible on our campus is through our American Democracy Project Student Organization, under the auspices of Student Affairs and the MTSU Center for Student Involvement and Leadership.  Dr. Mary Evins, who’s the campus coordinator for ADP, is our faculty advisor.  Our student organization’s  goal is to work to produce MTSU graduates who understand and are committed to engaging in meaningful actions as citizens in our democracy.  At MTSU, ADP is very active throughout campus and in all our nine colleges.  We raise awareness about what is happening across campus and our community, and we’re intentional in our commitment to help raise our fellow students’ awareness and citizenship and to excite their interest in our shared public purposes: to make good citizenship cool.  ADP is absolutely nonpartisan, so there are no party politics allowed.  We sponsor voter registration drives and candidate forums, but we do all that without any party affiliation.

Here’s how I got involved in ADP:

Right after my freshman year of college, Dr. Evins got in touch with me. She emailed me after I took a history class with her, and she asked if I might like to join the campus American Democracy Project.  At first I wasn’t too excited about it.  On further consideration I realized it would be a great opportunity for me, to participate and get involved in the community; but mainly, I must admit, I thought it would look good on a resume.  As I walked into the ADP meeting on the first day of school, I honestly had no clue what I was getting myself into.  Yet as I listened to Dr. Evins and the other ADP students, I started looking forward to what else the club might be able to accomplish.

We have indeed accomplished many goals, just in the time I’ve been involved, and we’re continuing to achieve more. There’s a recycling policy study we’re continuing from last spring; we’ve been doing voter registration drives all year; our students are trying persistently, along with our local county’s election commission, to develop a public polling place on our campus of 26,000 students; we’re making informational flyers for incoming MTSU freshmen for this summer, to inform them right away about how to get registered to vote in the November presidential election, and also to teach them about MTSU’s recycling opportunities; our ADP students cooperate with the student environmental organization on campus, particularly this year since the Tennessee legislature is reconsidering its position on mountaintop removal policy in the Smoky and Cumberland Mountains.  We were involved two years ago in tobacco-free-campus policy research that made a significant contribution toward the development of our brand new “MT Tobacco Free” university tobacco-free policy, which commenced here on January 1 of this year.  We’re pushing now for good-citizenship compliance and also for healthy enforcement of the new policy, and we’re trying to organize a campus-wide clean-up for this spring to get rid of unsightly cigarette butts on the campus grounds.

One of my first real involvements with ADP was during Constitution Week last fall.  We were honored to have Chairman James Leach of the National Endowment for the Humanities as our guest speaker during Constitution Week activities.  We worked diligently on voter registration throughout that very visible campus celebration.  It was shocking to me to see for myself how little knowledge our students have about politics, the upcoming presidential election, and even current issues that affect our daily lives. From that moment on, I was eager to become even more involved with ADP and to share the growing knowledge and enthusiasm I’ve been fast developing with my fellow students.  So lots of ideas are in the making for us, and we always love new, from-the-ground-up ideas.  The new students who join our organization every semester bring with them fresh energy, insights, creativity, and heart to our public engagement.

Just this month ADP helped host Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who came to our campus and city for a lecture and public dialogue.  She spoke about her “iCivics” initiative (www.icivics.org) for K-12, which she’s worked on since her retirement from the Supreme Court and about which she is proud.  Our Dean of Liberal Arts, Dr. Mark Byrnes, told her at the community lecture about our own American Democracy Project initiative for civic learning.  And we were proud.  Attached is a photograph of a few of the ADP students after Justice O’Connor’s lecture at MTSU; I’m the short brunette in the front.

As I work side by side with my fellow ADP members, I absolutely realize that the public work we do through ADP is most assuredly not about “looking good on a resume,” it’s about being educated, about empowerment, and being engaged in the world in which we live.  After all, we as responsible citizens need to be aware right now of what the future holds for us and how we must impact it for good by our actions in the present.  We must understand our own individual responsibilities and know that how we live now directly affects our country, its culture, and the fast-growing environment in which we live.  We have a voice and we need to take control.

I have certainly incorporated my new skills for personal action into my own life.  I work in the pharmacy of a large national grocery store chain in Nashville, and I have just submitted to my manager a plan to expand our company’s recycling capabilities for the store.  I have learned to express myself and I am empowered to act.

One thing I hold close to my heart and would like to recommend to everyone is to educate yourself about the world around you and when you see something that needs fixing, then you fix it.  Because I am a Kurdish American who came to my new country as a political refugee, the political direction of this country, and of the world, is powerfully, personally important to me.

Read more about MTSU’s ADP here.

We the People Interview Series: UMBC’s Catie Collins

By Jen Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project

As part of the Civic Agency initiative, we are conducting a special “We the People” interview series. In this series, we interview intriguing people with different perspectives on the “We the People” phase of our work in ADP. This is the fifth of many interviews that will be included in this series.

Catie Collins is the President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s (UMBC’s) Student Government Association (SGA). In her spare time, she is working to complete her senior year studying Psychology, English Literature, and TED Talks.

American Democracy Project (ADP): How did you get involved in the American Democracy Project?

Catie Collins (CC): I have the incredible luck of being a part of UMBC’s flourishing legacy of civic agency work.  The idea of civic agency is really becoming embedded in both our SGA’s culture, and the culture of UMBC as a whole. Our involvement in the American Democracy Project has really been key in helping to achieve this shift. Attending the American Democracy Project Conference in June 2011 was one of my first acts in office!

ADP: Tell us how you got involved in SGA?

Catie Collins, SGA President at UMBC

CC: In my first year at UMBC, I remember feeling frustrated and powerless. I felt like a cog in the wheels of the university, helpless to change anything, expected to play my role as a student and nothing more. That turned out to be a very large assumption – and a false one – which a friend in SGA soon corrected. They challenged me to step up and create the change I wanted to see myself, rather than waiting for someone to swoop in and save the day. My curiosity was sparked – this was an SGA that didn’t just play politics, it didn’t just play the hero – it worked with students to help them create change and feel true ownership of their campus.  It’s this mission that led me to join SGA, and to eventually run for President.

ADP: What does civic agency and the “We the People” movement mean to you?

CC: Civic agency is such a tricky thing to really define – it’s something often best shared through experience. The definition that really resonates with me is this idea of really breaking down the roles we perceive ourselves to be in – professor, student, administrator – in order to really engage each other authentically. I’ve learned to engage people as partners, to really get to know them as real people, and that has led to far more effective impact than I would have ever expected.

ADP: You’re a student member of the national steering committee of the new American Commonwealth Project – a partnership among higher education institutions and associations, the White House, and federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education, seeks to further the movement of colleges and universities as agents and architects of democracy – what role do you see yourself playing and what do you hope the project accomplishes?

CC: I’m both excited and humbled to find myself a member of the American Commonwealth Project steering committee. My hopes for both my role and the project are centered on the same goal. I would love to see this project work as a platform for a stronger student presence in the conversations surrounding civic agency. I feel that my contribution to this project will largely be work in facilitating that connection.

ADP: How do you see yourself expressing your civic agency after your graduation in spring 2012?

CC: It’s actually been my very experience with civic agency that has completely shaped my post-graduation path.  My involvement has helped me discover within myself a deep-rooted passion for education. I care so deeply about creating systems of education that promote true engagement, both in terms of the material and in terms of one’s civic engagement. I envision investing my future in exactly this kind of work.

ADP: All our best to you, Catie!

To read more about UMBC’s civic agency work, read this previous blog post, or this one.