eJournal of Public Affairs: New CLDE17 Issue

We’re thrilled to unveil the latest issue of the eJournal of Public Affairs, a collaboration between Missouri State University and AASCU’s American Democracy Project. This issue features content from the 2017 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement meeting in Baltimore, Md. organized by ADP, TDC, and NASPA’s LEAD Initiative.

Issue 7.1 of the eJournal of Public Affairs is what we’re reading!

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Intro Essay: Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement

By Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project, AASCU; Stephanie King, Assistant Director for Civic Engagement, Knowledge Community, and Social Justice Initiatives, NASPA; and Verdis Robinson National Director, The Democracy Commitment
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Articles

Collaborative Engagement from within the Academy: A Self-Reflexive Narrative

By Danielle L. Lake, Grand Valley State University
This essay builds upon the current movement around publicly engaged scholarship, seeking to illuminate its challenges, risks, and rewards through a…

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Enhancing Civic, Electoral, and Political Engagement Through International Student Inclusion

By Adrienne McNally, New York Institute of Technology
International students are often overlooked in the typical civic engagement activities of colleges and universities. However, including international students in such…

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College Student Food Insecurity and Awareness and Use of Supports: Recent Findings from a Survey of Students at a Mid-Sized State Comprehensive University in Kansas

By Brett Zollinger, Fort Hays State University; Shala Mills, State University of New York at New Paltz; Emily Brandt and Wendy Rohleder-Sook Fort Hays State University Recognition of food…

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Invited Essay: Educating for Democracy in Undemocratic Contexts: Avoiding the Zero-Sum Game of Campus Free Speech Versus Inclusion

By Nancy Thomas, Tufts University
The debate over free speech and inclusion in higher education is not new, but it has reached new levels of vitriol and confusion as…

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Bridging Civic Engagement to Civic Responsibility Through Short-Term, International Service-Learning Experiences: A Qualitative Analysis of Student Reflections

By Stephanie Malinenko, Justine Tutuska, and Lynn Matthews, Daemen College
Written reflection is a tool commonly used by faculty to assess student learning in service-learning courses, which are frequently…

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Reviews

Book Review: Teaching Civic Engagement Across the Disciplines

By Melanie Nichole Burdick, Washburn University
Teaching Civic Engagement Across the Disciplines. Edited by Elizabeth C. Matto, Alison Rios Millett McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, and Dick Simpson. Washington, DC: American Political…

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Book Review: You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen

By Derek W. M. Barker, Kettering Foundation
You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen. By Eric Liu. New York: Public Affairs. 2017. ISBN: 9781610397070. 256 pages.…
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Features

Invited Commentary: Democratic Engagement and Community Engagement: The American Democracy Project at California State University San Marcos

By Scott Gross, Kimber M. Quinney, and Catalina Langen, California State University San Marcos
The American Democracy Project (ADP) at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) is unique in…

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Food Pantry Making a Difference for FHSU Students

By Chase Willhite, Kansas Health Foundation
Across Kansas, as students like Shane Keller face increasing economic challenges, food insecurity becomes an issue. But, with the help of a Kansas Health…

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CivEd Talks – Doing Civic Engagement through a Wicked Problems Lens: The Case for Passionate Impartiality

By Martín Carcasson
Amid perhaps the most polarized time in our nation’s history, the quality of public discourse has also reached historic lows. Civic engagement practitioners must find ways to…

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CivEd Talks – Millennial Conservatism and Civic Engagement: No, Really, What Do Young Conservatives Want?

By Jane Coaston
Young conservatives are here to stay, and in 2016, they voted in higher numbers — and exhibited higher engagement with candidates and issues — than they had…

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CivEd Talks – Citizen Power

By Eric Liu
Far too many Americans are illiterate in power – what it is, how it operates, why some individuals have more than others. As a result, those few…

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Campus Spotlight: Liberty and Learning at JMU

Learn more about ADP campus James Madison University (Va.) and the Madison legacy.

4/29 Free ADP Dialogue Moderator Training Workshop in Washington, DC

Please join us for this free training by registering HERE by April 17, 2017. Lunch will be provided. Click here for the tentative agenda.

The Aftermath of Election 2016: Our Civic Work is Important Now, More than Ever Before

When we started ADP in 2003, AASCU and chief academic officers at our member campuses were concerned about the Robert Putnam’s observations in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2001) as well as with the low voter participation of college students and young people more broadly. Together we embarked on a vision of our state colleges and universities taking a central role in fostering the civic health of our campuses and our communities by creating opportunities for students to enhance their knowledge and skills as well as to reflect on and examine their attitudes towards community and democratic engagement. We’ve made it our collective mission to prepare students to be informed, engaged citizens for our communities and our democracy.

And together we’ve accomplished a lot: we’ve established initiatives that focus on increasing nonpartisan political engagement; on fostering dialogue and deliberation around pressing public issues and across difference, on understanding the competing interests at play in our national parks and how the policy process works, and on reaching Millennials and others through emergent digital and social media platforms.

And yet, in the month since the election, our work has become more important than ever before.

The 2016 presidential election has surfaced deep divides in the U.S. electorate. We continue to bear witness to a rise in hateful, racist commentary and behaviors on our campuses, in our communities, and from some politicians. While ADP remains nonpartisan, we actively affirm the values of diversity, equity, and access in public higher education and in our democracy. We also affirm the need for civility from our politicians, the value of informed discourse on issues, and the growing importance of civic literacy in our digital age.

Elections play a critical role in our democracy. Yet our democratic way of life is about so much more than elections. Now is the time for us to recommit to our civic learning and democratic engagement work. We must refocus on fostering in students a sense of civic agency and help ourselves and our students identify ways to and develop skills with which to navigate our increasingly fractured political terrain and make positive change in our communities.

Next Steps:

1. Campus Coordinators — watch for information about a call in the next week or so Join during which we will discuss ways in which campuses are approaching the upcoming inauguration and accompanying protests as well as providing spaces for campus and community dialogue across difference and advocacy of our core values around inclusivity, equity and education.

2. We are organizing a Digital Polarization Initiative lead by Mike Caulfield of ADP’s Washington State University Vancouver. Together we’ll examine the “fake news” controversy and growing polarization in news feeds and opinions and begin to “debug the news.” Stay tuned for details next week, including how you can get involved.

3. We’ll create space at our 2017 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Meeting in Baltimore from June 7-10th with our student affairs and community college colleagues at NASPA and The Democracy Commitment, respectively, to continue to foster discussion and action as to how to continue to best prepare informed and engaged citizens for our democracy. You can submit program proposals for this conference here before January 30th.

Thank you for the work that all of you have done and will continue to do to ensure the robustness of our democratic way of life. Together we will forge a path toward justice and freedom for all.

#CLDE16: Democracy Plaza Tour @IUPUI

This June, at the 2016 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Meeting (#CLDE16), the historic landmark of Democracy Plaza at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) will be showcased as one way to make place(s) across our higher education institutions intentional and meaningful for their campus’ (i.e., students, faculty, staff) political engagement.  If your institution also has a place designated for discussion about or engagement with political ideas and issues, please tell us more about it by filling out our survey here, before it closes on Friday, May 13^th at 11:59 p.m. EST.

After the “hanging chad” incident during the 2000 presidential election, students at IUPUI vocalized that there must be a place on our campus where our community’s constituents can come together (formally and informally) to discuss the most pressing political issues of our time.  What manifested from these students’ passion and voices is the public landmark of Democracy Plaza (DP): 22 large chalkboards in the middle of IUPUI’s urban campus.

Every week, each of the 22 chalkboards has one question written on it regarding political ideas or issues which solicit passers-by to write a response, to either the question or other responses; these questions are generated by IUPUI students who receive a scholarship for their work. Then in 2012, the concept of Democracy Plaza was extended to three white boards in the IUPUI Campus Center. In between, these more formally designated places, “pop-up” Democracy Plaza boards have been found around gathering places within the edifices of IUPUI.

What the places of Democracy Plaza does cannot be quantified, however, what is clear is that it does send clear literal and rhetorical messages to IUPUI constituents. These places can be seen, they can be enacted with (touched, erased, molded), and they can host events as well (i.e., programming around political ideas and issues). These places and spaces send a clear message that having the time and place to engage with political ideas and issues and those that are different from you (through public, written communication) is important. As many of us know, place and space on any campus is its own political issue, and therefore, to see (literally) that IUPUI has given a part of its place to the co-construction of the public sphere is promising.

And you can do it too! There will be two opportunities to learn more about not only IUPUI’s Democracy Plaza, but how others have carved out intentional and meaningful places at/on/across their institution for political engagement. Here they are:

Friday, June 3^rd, 2016:

• 10:45 a.m.- 11:45 a.m. Public Landmarks for Political Engagement
  In this informative dialogue between invited panelists, we will explore how places across our campuses have intentionally or organically become landmarks for political engagement.  These landmarks manifest themselves through such places as the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Democracy Plaza– consisting of 22 chalkboards outside– to sidewalks or the sides of campus edifices.  We will discover how they are used for student demonstrations, political dialogue or deliberation, and civic learning. Attendees will leave informed of how to create similar places.
• 5:15 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Democracy Plaza Tour at IUPUI
  Take part in a walking tour of Democracy Plaza (DP) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).  Established in 2004 by students and staff, Democracy Plaza at IUPUI gives their community a place to write, listen, watch or deliberate with peers on political ideas or issues.   Many other campuses have adopted democracy walls as a similar place for such dialogues.  During this opportunity, attendees will interact with the questions posed on the chalkboards that make up DP.  This tour will include a history of the project, examples of current issues, and an overview of how IUPUI uses the space for events.

Please plan to join us in June by registering here.