ADP in the News| September 5, 2017 Edition

 

ADP in the News is a compilation of brief updates about American Democracy Project (ADP) activities at participating colleges and universities and is a semi-regular news feature on our blog. Below you will find the latest edition of this series.

If you have an ADP event you’d like posted in this format, please email adp@aascu.org.

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Maryland Colleges Speak out About their Role in Civics Education
Robert L. Caret, chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM), acknowledged the recent commentary by W. Blaine Brewer that “We have a civic duty to teach civics.” Caret agrees with Brewer that the call for K-12 schools to teach civics is vital, and adds that higher education should also play a major role in this movement. According to Caret, the USM Board of Regents recently established a civics education workgroup with a mission focused on civic education, civic engagement and civic responsibility. By integrating civic learning into general education and supporting civic engagement, USM hopes to inspire a commitment to civic life and community. Read Robert L. Caret’s full piece here.

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Fostering Civic Dialogue in Today’s Highly Charged Racial Climate
A recent issue  of “Teaching,” a new weekly newsletter by The Chronicle, addresses what they call “one of higher education’s biggest challenges: fostering civic dialogue in class.” The newsletter cites AASCU’s American Democracy Project (ADP), The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and Project Pericles as organizations that consistently work to help facilitate constructive conversations among students, all the while acknowledging that it is difficult to change minds, even through civic dialogue. Read more about the way civic dialogue in education connects directly to the recent violent demonstrations of white nationalism in Charlottesville, Virginia here.

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Carl Hulse to Speak at Illinois State University Constitution Day
Carl Hulse, Chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, is slated to speak at Illinois State University’s Constitution Day on Monday, September 18 at 2:00 pm (CT). AASCU’S American Democracy Project (ADP) is sponsoring the free and public talk, which will address the role of free press in a democracy. Learn more about Carl Hulse, who is an Illinois State University alumnus, here.

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New Virginia Civic Engagement Task Force
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Thomasson held the first ever meeting of the Governor’s Millennial Civic Engagement Task Force on Friday, July 28. The purpose of the Task Force is to conduct statewide assessment of current organizations, programs and services that promote civic engagement in Virginia higher education. It also intends to host a series of campus round table discussions about the barriers between college millennials and civic engagement. James Madison University, an American Democracy Project (ADP) campus, is represented on the Task Force by its president, Jonathan Alger, and Jewel Hurt, a student representative. ADP is also represented on the Task Force by Alexander Boone, a student representative from Norfolk State University and Praise Nyambiya, a student representative from Longwood University. Learn more here.

ADP in the News | July 14, 2017 Edition

ADP in the News is a compilation of brief updates about American Democracy Project (ADP) activities at participating colleges and universities and is a semi-regular news feature on our blog. Below you will find the latest edition of this series.

If you have an ADP event you’d like posted in this format, please email adp@aascu.org.

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Grand Valley State University Professor Granted John Saltmarsh Civic Engagement Award
Danielle Lake, a professor at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), was recently awarded the John Saltmarsh Award for Emerging Leaders in Civic Engagement by AASCU’s American Democracy Project. Professor Lake teaches in the liberal studies department in the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies and specializes in public philosophy, feminist pragmatism and transdisciplinarity. Faculty, staff, and students of GVSU worked together to nominate Professor Lake for the award and she expressed her immense gratitude towards their faith in her: “I am by far most honored and humbled by the support of my students, community partners, faculty and staff at GVSU. I was also blown away to be acknowledged by the American Democracy Project. The words they (have) written on my behalf and their belief in me and the work we have done together will be a source of deep joy, comfort and motivation as I move forward.” Read more here.

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Fort Hays State University and ADP Schedule “Times Talks”
Fort Hays State University (FHSU) plans to host a series of “Times Talks” this fall in partnership with ADP and sponsored by the Center for Civic Leadership. The subjects of these short presentations, based on relevant and recent New York Times articles, will range from civic engagement to political engagement to education on specific social or political issues. FHSU’S ADP already has several speakers scheduled but is looking for more ideas for presentations. Find out more here.

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Barbara Burch Award Winner and ADP National Steering Committee Member Joins The State University of New York at New Paltz
Dr. Shala Mills, recent recipient of the AASCU’S Barbara Burch Award for Faculty Leadership in Civic Engagement will be joining The State University of New York at New Paltz on August 28 as their new Assistant Vice President for Graduate and Extended Learning. Dr. Mills is currently the Director of Liberal Education and both chair and professor of political science at Fort Hays State University. She has taught courses in law and courts, political issues, sustainability, food and politics and global challenges and has been involved in a wide range of service both at FHSU and in higher education as a whole. Dr. Mills “look[s] forward to helping the university expand its reputation for excellence by increasing opportunities to better meet the needs of students.” Read more here.

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William M. Plater Award Winner, UMBC at CLDE 2017
Philip Rous, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) was granted the William M. Plater Award for Leadership in Civic Engagement at the 2017 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Meeting in June. Rous created courses at UMBC that challenged the barriers between a university and the outside world and encouraged civic engagement. President Freeman Hrabowski was also in attendance at CLDE, delivering the opening remarks, as well several other UMBC faculty, staff, students, and alumnae. UMBC’s strong presence at CLDE demonstrates its passion for ADP and civic engagement. Learn more here.

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Campus Spotlight: James Madison University
Margaret M. Mulrooney, Associate Vice Provost for University Programs and Professor of History at James Madison University wrote a blog post about civic engagement and the importance of James Madison’s legacy to her institution. Read the full post here.

 

 

 

ADP in the News | August 2016

ADP in the News is a compilation of brief updates about American Democracy Project (ADP) activities at participating colleges and universities and is a semi-regular news feature on our blog. Below you will find the latest edition of this series.

If you have an ADP event you’d like posted in this format, please email adp@aascu.org.

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WKU ALIVE Center and ICSR become Center for Citizenship and Social Justice

Western Kentucky University’s Institute for Citizenship and Responsibility, or ICSR, and the ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships have been consolidated into the Center for Citizenship and Social Justice, or CCSJ, beginning this semester. The new CCSJ will remain home to WKU’s chapter of ADP’s Political Engagement Project. Read more here.

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Missouri State U. and ADP Mourn Loss of Prof. Marc Cooper

Missouri State University and the entire ADP community mourn the loss of Dr. Marc Cooper, MSU history professor emeritus. Cooper had continued to serve as the managing editor of the joint MSU/ADP eJournal of Public Affairs after his retirement and has been a staple at ADP national meetings for years. Read more here.
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Missouri State University: Student Editorial Says Every Vote Matters

Missouri State has a collation of organizations that want to make voter registration as easy as possible: Meyer Library, the American Democracy Project, the Center of Community Engagement and the Office of Public Affairs are sponsoring a voter registration drive on Sept. 12-15. The mission is to encourage more young voters to participate in the election this November. They will be outside the PSU and in the Meyer Library lobby helping students get registered before the Oct. 12 deadline. Read more here.

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IUSB’s ADP to host Candidate Debate for Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District Seat

US. Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Jimtown) and Lynne Coleman (South Bend Democrat) will participate in a candidate debate this fall broadcast on WNIT Television and organized by the American Democracy Project and Political Science Club at Indiana University South Bend and the League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area. Read more here.

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MTSU Student Voter Registration Day Held

MTSU hosted a voter registration on Monday, Aug. 22nd as students returned to campus. The MTSU American Democracy Project states that only 44 percent of MTSU students were registered to vote in 2012 and only 62 percent of those registered cast votes in that year’s elections.Those statistics come from MTSU’s participation in the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE) out of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. MTSU was one of 600 institutions nationwide to take part in the study. Read more here.

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Illinois State U. Students Get Inside Look at National Political Conventions

10 ISU students attended the conventions as part of an independent study course organized by Professor Erik Rankin and supported by Illinois State University’s American Democracy Project and the Department of Politics and Government. Read more here.

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Western Carolina University Campus Polling Place Approved

The University Center at Western Carolina University (WCU) is the proposed location of the newly approved early voting polling place (EVPP) for the November election. This action, aimed at increasing voter engagement on WCU’s campus, comes after months of research, organizing, and lobbying by students working with the Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) and Campus Vote Project, collectively known as the Democracy Coalition. Read more here.

 

ADP Campuses in the News | August 2015 Edition

ADP in the News is a compilation of brief updates about American Democracy Project (ADP) activities at participating colleges and universities and is a semi-regular news feature on our blog. Below you will find the latest edition of this series.

If you have an ADP event you’d like posted in this format, please email adp@aascu.org.

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University of Nebraska at Kearney’ s ADP “Keeps Students in the Know on Voting, Cultural Topics”

UNK ADP was recently featured in UNK Today. At UNK, ADP students are developing a new voter registration guide. UNK’s ADP hosts a Times Talk series, a democracy poster contest, a book club and a Constitution Day event. Students are also creating a democracy wall in the Nebraska Student Union. ADP Coordinator Shawn Kaskie says of the projects, “These outreach projects teach students to be civically engaged, to do their homework on decisions and to apply the critical-thinking skills they learn in the classroom to real-world issues,” Kaskie said. “ADP is an avenue for them to do an applied project based on their critical-thinking skills from the classroom. That increases the value of a four-year education tremendously.” Read more here.
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Indiana State University Seeks ADP Undergraduate Fellow

Indiana State University is looking for an ADP Undergraduate Fellow to “create and envision engaging ADP programming throughout the course of the school year; help to plan details of ADP events; attend and coordinate ADP events; communicate with other event sponsors and members of the ISU community.” The fellow must be in good academic standing at ISU and students with a background in political science or current events are preferred. Students must be active in the American Democracy Project program and should make a commitment of approximately 5 hours per week for the entire academic year. Read more here.
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Indiana University South Bend’s ADP to Host Mayoral Debate

A debate between two Elkhart mayoral candidates is scheduled to be hosted by IUSB’s ADP and Political Science Club on Thursday, October 1st at the IUSB Elkhart Center. Incumbent Mayor Dick Moore, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Timothy Neese, have agreed to participate in the event. Read more here.
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Voting Rights Act Celebration at U of Northern Iowa

On August 3, 2015 the 50^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act was celebrated at Pertersen Town Hall in an event sponsored by the University of Northern Iowa’s ADP and other partners.  of the Waterloo Center. Read more here.

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Attributes of Robust Civic Engagement

David Hoffman, assistant director of student life for civic agency at UMBC, proposes that the attributes that describe robust civic engagement should include organic, integral, relational, and generative. Hoffman wrote on the American Democracy Project’s national blog to describe these attributes. Learn more here. And read (and comment on!) the original blog post here.

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A Celebration of Gay Marriage through Film at Stockton University

On June 30th Stockton University (N.J.) hosted a second screening of the documentary film, “Limited Partnership,” celebrating the 40-year long love story of one of the first gay couples to marry and their years of fighting for legal status. The free screening was held at Stockton’s Manahawkin Instructional Site. For more information click here.

ADP in the News │June 2015

ADP in the News is a compilation of brief updates about American Democracy Project (ADP) activities at participating colleges and universities and is a semi-regular news feature on our blog. Below you will find the latest edition of this series.

If you have an ADP event you’d like posted in this format, please email adp@aascu.org.

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SUNY Cortland Appoints New Director of Institute for Civic Engagement

Mary McGuire, an assistant professor of political science, will serve as the new director of Cortland’s Institute for Civic Engagement. She takes over for Richard Kendrick, who retired after 25 years of service. Kendrick led the institute as director since helping found it 12 years ago. Cortland’s ADP is housed in the institute. Read more here.

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Georgia College Holds Milledgeville, Ga. Mayoral Candidate Forum

The Georgia College American Democracy Project sponsored a student-facilitated forum on June 11^th with the three mayoral candidates. Questions were solicited from local citizens via social media and at a question booth prior to the event. A candidate meet-and-great was held following the forum. Read more here and here.

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Lander University (S.C.) Announces Campus 2015 American Democracy Project (ADP) Student Organization of the Year for Civic Engagement Award

Lander University’s American Democracy Project Student Organization of the Year for Civic Engagement award was presented at their annual Student Life Awards Ceremony. The award was presented to Zeta Tau Alpha for fundraising to benefit charitable causes, donating school supplies and performing more than 700 hours of volunteer service to several organizations. Read more here.

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RIC American Democracy Project Examines African Americans and Politics in America

Six leading figures in the state of Rhode Island’s African American community held a panel discussion on “African Americans and Politics: Challenges and Opportunities,” hosted by the American Democracy Project at Rhode Island College (RIC) and co-sponsored by the RIC Unity Center and the Dialogue on Diversity Committee. The panel was moderated by former R.I. Rep. and Deputy Secretary of State Ray Rickman. RIC ADP coordinator and professor of political communication Valerie Endress indicated, “Because the struggle for equality continues, this is an examination that is long overdue and an important discussion to have nationally and in Rhode Island.” Read more here.