Institutional Intentionality: IUPUI’s Civic Engagement Medallion

Like ADP’s William M. Plater Award for Leadership in Civic Engagement, given  to AASCU chief academic officers (provosts) in recognition of exemplary leadership in advancing the civic learning of undergraduates, IUPUI’s William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion honors the legacy of IUPUI’s former Executive Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Faculties while also acting as a mechanism to recognize and reward those moving the civic engagement movement in higher education forward. Given annually to graduating students to honor their civic engagement efforts, the Medallion is an act of institutional intentionality — a means by which the campus formally recognizes and rewards informed, engaged citizenship. Read below to learn more about this award.

Kuddos to IUPUI and the more than 90 students awarded this honor since 2006!

– Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP National Manager

William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion

William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion for Graduates

The William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion was established in 2006 to honor graduates who have excelled in their commitment to the community through activities such as service learning, volunteerism, community/social issue advocacy, community work-study, and political engagement.

The application is due annually on March 1st.

Overview
In alignment with IUPUI’s mission, the William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion has been established to recognize students who have demonstrated exemplary commitment to their communities during their years as an IUPUI student. The medallion is named in honor of IUPUI’s former Executive Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Faculties from 1988 to 2006, Dr. William Plater, a strong advocate of civic engagement during his career.

Students who are awarded the William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion will have exhibited personal development, intellectual growth, and positive community impact as a result of their civic engagement experiences. Recipients are expected to have engaged in a variety of activities demonstrating depth and diversity of commitment in serving their communities, while making a significant investment to at least one community experience over time.

Click here to see the full text of Plater Medallion applicaiton. All official applications should be submitted through the online form above.

Application Requirements and Materials
Applicants for the Plater Civic Engagement Medallion are undergraduate students who will receive their respective degrees by August 2013. Students completing their degree requirements in December of 2012 are also eligible to apply.

What is Civic Engagement?

Civic engagement is defined as active collaboration that builds on the resources, skills, expertise, and knowledge of the campus and community to improve the quality of life in communities in a manner consistent with the campus mission. Examples of civic engagement experiences could include volunteer service at a non-profit agency, participation in a service learning course, contribution of voluntary work on a political campaign, advocacy on specific social issues, involvement with a faculty member on a community-based research project, or employment in a community work-study position.

Dr. William M. Plater

Willam M. Plater

As the chief academic officer for IUPUI, William M. Plater led campus efforts to improve undergraduate retention, enhance the effective use of technology, develop IUPUI as a model for civic engagement, and increase research productivity as a part of the campus vision to become a leading urban research university. Administrators and faculty from across the country come regularly to IUPUI to learn about its innovative programs in undergraduate education, programs that Dr. Plater was instrumental in designing and developing. Plater is active in his community, serving currently or formerly on the boards of The Children’s Museum, the Indiana Repertory Theatre, the Indiana Humanities Council, the Indiana University Press, the Indiana Partnership for Higher Education, the Indianapolis Economic Development Advisory Board, MUCIA, WFYI, and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. He holds baccalaureate (1967), Master’s and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In July 2006, Dr. Plater became the director of the Workshop on International Community Development, a joint program of the IU Center on Philanthropy and the Center on Urban Policy and the Environment of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Every year, recipients are honored with their medallions at the Showcase for Civic Engagement. The Showcase of Civic Engagement highlights the work of IUPUI faculty, students, and community partners in research, teaching, and service activities that have a positive impact on Indianapolis communities Commitment to Excellence in Civic Engagement Funds.

Partner Spotlight: NCoC’s Civic Data Challenge

Countdown to Civic Data Challenge Deadline: Turn Raw Data into Community Tools

Believe that communities can take better advantage of key data in their decision making? Join the Civic Data Challenge and help turn the raw data of civic health into useful community tools. The deadline for submission is July 29th.

The first-ever Civic Data Challenge will bring new eyes, new minds, new findings, and new skill sets to the field of civic health. It’s a project of NCoC (the National Conference on Citizenship), in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as other great partners like Code for America and the Case Foundation. Kaggle, DataWeek, and GOOD are all contributing exciting prizes. The Salesforce.com Foundation has announced their commitment as a top-line sponsor—contributing $25,000 in cash prizes for Challenge winners!

Participants in the Challenge will turn the raw data of “civic health” into beautiful, useful applications and visualizations, enabling communities to be better understood and made to thrive. NCoC is providing its civic health data, as well as other data on the important topics of health, safety, education, and the economy.

You’re invited to collaborate with others, analyze the data, and create something amazing to showcase what you find. Designers, data scientists, researchers, and app developers are especially encouraged to join the challenge. All entries must be received by July 29th, so make sure to join the Google Group now!

The challenge has exciting prizes for the winners, who will be selected from each category — health, economy, safety, and education. As a participant, you will be competing for cash and other cool prizes including the opportunity to host your own data competition on the Kaggle platform, to present your winning insights at Data Week in September, and to feature your submissions through the GOOD platform.

You’ll also have the chance to get your work in front of an awesome team of judges including:

• Leslie Bradshaw, President, COO and Co-founder of JESS3
• Beth Kanter, Author, Blogger, Trainer
• Henry E. Brady, Dean and Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
• Matt Mahan, President and Acting CEO, Causes
• Jake Porway, Founder and Executive Director, DataKind
• Darell Hammond, CEO and Founder of KaBOOM!
• Maria Teresa Kumar, Founding Executive Director of Voto Latino
• Ryan Resella, Technical Lead at Code for America
• Sonal Shah, former Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation
• Michael D. Smith, Senior Vice President of Social Innovation at the Case Foundation
• Christie George, Director of New Media Ventures
• Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist and Craigconnects
• Vivek Kundra, Executive Vice President, Emerging Markets, Salesforce.com.

Winners will be announced at the 67th Annual National Conference on Citizenship on September 14 in Philadelphia.

Watch the Civic Data Challenge team launch the Challenge at the Data 2.0 Summit in San Francisco: http://www.civicdatachallenge.org/blog/post/civic-data-challenge-launched-at-data-20-summit_1

How to find the Challenge:
www.CivicDataChallenge.org
www.Twitter.com/CivicData
www.Facebook.com/CivicDataChallenge

Educating for Political Engagement at Illinois State University

By Stephen K. Hunt, Professor, Associate Director, & Co-Chair of ISU’s ADP, School of Communication, ISU

Civic and political disengagement among the youth of this country is an issue that should concern all of those in higher education (Beaumont, Colby, Ehrlich, & Torney-Purta, 2006; Colby, Beaumont, Ehrlich, & Corngold, 2007; Colby, Beaumont, Ehrlich, & Stephens, 2003; Saltmarsh & Hartley, 2011). Unfortunately, the reality today is that few colleges and universities offer programs that are designed to intentionally develop students’ political engagement knowledge, motivation, and skills (Beaumont et al., 2006; Colby et al., 2007).

However, one significant effort to address the youth political participation gap can be found in AASCU’s Political Engagement Project (PEP). This project launched in 2006 with eight AASCU campuses and holds the explicit goal of institutionalizing education for political engagement in the curriculum and co-curriculum (see the PEP website for more information: http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/PEP/). Illinois State University was one of the original eight PEP institutions and this post provides a brief overview of our political engagement efforts.

Students’ exposure to political engagement at Illinois State begins in their first semester through the First Year Learning in Communities (LinC) Seminar. The LinC, a one credit hour course, serves several hundred students annually and is taught by instructors representing numerous disciplines on campus. LinC students complete a number of assignments designed to intentionally address involvement and political engagement perspectives in the context of Illinois State, the surrounding community of Bloomington-Normal, the state of Illinois, and the nation.

First year students also receive PEP instruction in the introductory public speaking course (COM 110). COM 110 is a required component of the general education program and services approximately 1,600 students each semester. Our COM 110 instructors incorporate political examples in their lectures and assign reflection essays that require students to couple course concepts with political issues.

ISU students participate in the 2009 Social Issues Fair

In order to enhance students’ group communication and political engagement skills, faculty teaching PEP sections of COM 110 modified the group presentation assignment to include the development of a grassroots-style campaign. Students are asked to research multiple, sometimes competing, perspectives on a current and controversial topic. Students then work together to develop a communication campaign that both raises public awareness and presents policies designed to address the root causes of the problems they isolate. Students conduct all of the public relations for these events, deliver persuasive speeches about the issue to numerous audiences, and construct web sites promoting the events. Some faculty also require students to document the problems and solutions generated by the campaign with the creation of a short issue film.

In some cases multiple faculty teaching COM 110 have joined together to link sections in order to develop larger-scale campaigns. For example, one group of faculty organized the Fell Hall Call to Action campaign that resulted in the collection of over 6,000 items (food and clothing) to benefit the Salvation Army and Center of Hope Outreach Programs. During the fall 2008 semester, instructors joined together to create a voter registration and education campaign called Trust Me, I’m a Voter. The campaign aimed to educate students across campus and motivate them to participate actively in the 2008 election cycle. It should be noted that voter turnout at Illinois State in 2008 was six times as large as the turnout in 2004. Our faculty are currently working to develop a new voter education/registration drive for the 2012 election cycle.

Students gather to watch election results in 2008, part of the Trust Me, I’m a Voter campaign.

Our PEP team has also partnered with other units on campus and organizations in the community on several notable programs including a Washington, DC study trip, Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), Congressional District Debates, Town Hall Meetings with Senator Kirk and Representative Kinzinger, webinar on campaign finance reform with the Stevenson Center for Democracy, political engagement internship program with the city of Bloomington, and a campus-wide Social Issues Fair. These programs represent a thumbnail sketch of the types of political engagement opportunities available to ISU students. In addition, we have partnered with our colleagues at Heartland Community College, a TDC school, to host numerous programs, speakers, and events.

2010 11th Congressional District Debate [Debbie Halvorson (D) & Adam Kinzinger (R), Kinger won the election]

We recognize that efforts to widen faculty commitment to PEP across a wide variety of disciplines requires a commitment to faculty development.  Our PEP team, under the leadership of the Provost, collaborated with the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology to design faculty development opportunities focusing on integrating political engagement into the curriculum. In addition, the team developed several competitive small grants for faculty to support classroom-based political engagement assignments. Thanks to substantial funding from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, we were able to offer a stipend to faculty to participate in a course redesign process this summer focusing on political engagement. Ten faculty from diverse disciplines such Theater, Communication, Criminal Justice Sciences, and Social Work completed the redesign process this summer and will begin offering the “new” courses in fall 2012.

PEP monograph

In conclusion, ISU faculty have embraced the notion that beyond equipping students for personal success, we in higher education have an obligation to prepare them to be engaged citizens. One look around our current political environment should give any reader pause—our democracy is not especially healthy. If our country ever needed a new generation of savvy critical thinkers that know how use their political engagement skills for the common good, we need that generation now. More information about the implementation of PEP can be found in Educating Students for Political Engagement: A Guide to Implementation and Assessment for Colleges and Universities. Edited by Johnny Goldfinger and John W. Presley, this monograph provides a description of the work of the PEP including lessons learned and detailed project and course descriptions.

Learn more about PEP at ISU here.

Campus Coordinators: The #ADP12 Afterglow

This blog post is the first in a series intended to spark conversations and collaboration between ADP Campus Coordinators. Thank you, Gregg, for launching this set of periodic posts. Are you a campus coordinator? Have ideas you want to share? Questions you want answered? Topics you want discussed? We invite guest blog posts and encourage discussion in the comments section!

Cheers!

Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP National Manager

………………….

By Gregg Kaufman, ADP Campus Coordinator, Georgia College

July 4th fireworks at Siesta Key Beach near Sarasota, Fla.

The July 4^thfireworks at Siesta Key Beach near Sarasota, Florida offer an interesting democratic metaphor. There are the “officially sanctioned” fireworks that are launched from the public beach, but the “citizen” pyrotechnic contributions illuminate the sky along the three-mile crescent beach that many rank the best in America. Consequently, families of many cultures and generations enjoy the holiday while their children and grandchildren wave glow sticks and sparklers. July 4^th on Siesta Key is democracy unleashed.

An example of “citizen” pyrotechnics!

ADP Coordinators and colleagues are a month into the afterglow of ADP San Antonio and undoubtedly planning to launch the 2012-13 election-year programs. Much like the Siesta Key fireworks, a variety of initiatives are on the horizon. How will we engage campus communities in the 2012 election? How will we relate to the presidential debates? Will we dialogue with candidates and sponsor forums? Will young adults vote in greater numbers this year?

This occasional blog post series hopes to spark ADP coordinator conversation and sharing. Post observations, good ideas, questions, and let’s see what happens! Who knows, a virtual fireworks display might erupt!

Partners & Friends Spotlight: U.S. Vote Foundation’s Online Voter Services

Note the special offer to ADP member campuses (see below)!

By Lorenzo Bruscagli, U.S. Vote Foundation

I am pleased to announce that Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) has launched a new initiative dedicated to domestic voters: U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) www.usvotefoundation.org.

US Vote provides domestic voters with the information and online tools they need to produce completed state-specific voter registration forms (not the NVRA form!) [Watch the Video 1m;25s].

In particular US Vote provides a Domestic Absentee Ballot request tool that was designed with students in mind. It’s an easy and efficient way for students living out of state to request their ballot and remain involved in the electoral process.

After years of serving voters, the team behind U.S. Vote has found that what stands between a citizen and registration are simple questions: When and where can I vote? What are the deadlines? What ID do I need to show at the polls? US Vote sets out to remove those obstacles through our State Voter Information Directory (SVID).

US Vote also features the Election Official Directory (EOD), which contains comprehensive contact information for all election jurisdictions across the country.The database integrates with the voter registration wizard. Voters are provided the correct mailing address with their registration form mailing instructions. Note that the EOD is also licensed by the National Association of Secretaries of State and provided through the canivote.org website.

This means that voters using the U.S. Vote Foundation site will register with their own state-specific forms and send them to the Local Election Office – not the State office address.

Opportunities: U.S. Vote Foundation also offers the opportunity of hosting customized brand pages on their website. This means that an organization can offer its users a complete election service directly from their own website and with their own sponsored brand.

**As a special offer to AASCU, U.S. Vote foundation is also offering interested AASCU members the creation of customized election service banners for their website. If you are interested please contact Lorenzo Bruscagli at lorenzo@usvotefoundation.org by July 31.

The best introduction is experiencing the site for yourself. I encourage you to visit and test the various functions.

Expanding the success of their parent organization, Overseas Vote Foundation, U.S. Vote Foundation continues our pursuit of online voter services innovation.

For more information, see this U.S. Vote Brochure.

See previous blog post about U.S. Vote Foundation here.

Like US Vote on Facebook. Follow on Twitter.