Politics and the Yellowstone Ecosystem: Announcing the 2013 Stewardship of Public Lands Faculty Seminar

By George Mehaffy, Vice President of Academic Leadership & Change, AASCU

Throughout the United States, but especially in the West, the question of who will control public lands is a hotly debated topic. The public lands of the West, including national parks, forests, grazing, and prairie lands, are all sites of controversy. The major points of contention are over ownership and use of the land. Timber, mining, oil and gas producers, developers, farmers, ranchers, hunters, business owners, recreational users, and environmentalists are all groups who assert claims to influence and use. Yet whose interests have primacy? And in a democracy, how do the interests of all of these groups get addressed and resolved?

Registration is open for our 9^th annual summer “Politics and the Yellowstone Ecosystem” faculty seminar in Yellowstone National Park. Download the program announcement and registration form here. This Stewardship of Public Lands initiative program, one of ADP’s Civic Engagement in Action series imitative with The Yellowstone Association, is open to faculty from any discipline who are teaching at an AASCU college or university. Our community college colleagues from The Democracy Commitment are also welcome to participate!

Program Highlights:

• We spend six (6) days in Yellowstone National Park in a combination of classroom and field activities, examining four key political controversies:  bison, wolves, snowmobiles, and grizzly bears.  We begin the week examining the science and history of the controversies, listening to scientists and Park rangers.  Then at the end of the week, we interview local citizens on both sides of the issues, including political activists, business people, ranchers, and other citizens.

• The goal of this project is to develop new strategies and new approaches that colleges and universities can use to help undergraduates become thoughtful, informed, and engaged citizens.  In a world too often filled with bitter partisan politics, this non-partisan project seeks to move beyond verbal attacks and confrontation, providing students with new models that promote understanding and resolution.  In a political environment where special interest groups tend to push people to polarized positions, we seek common ground.  The key question of this initiative is: How are competing but equally legitimate interests about public lands resolved in a democracy?

• Family members or guests are welcome to come to Yellowstone with the faculty participant.  However, space does not allow for guest participation in the program except for some classroom lectures, a few field trips, and evening films and presentations.

• The cost of the program is $1,295, which includes five (5) nights individual room lodging at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel (in Yellowstone National Park; single occupancy hotel room or cabin); all instruction and instructional materials, AV rental, classroom rental; in-park transportation; and a number of meals, including reception and dinner the first night, lunch Tuesday, and breakfast Wednesday.

For details and registration, see the Program Announcement and Registration Form.

I hope some of you will join us for this program.  Please also pass this along to anyone who you think might be interested.

To read more about ADP’s Stewardship of Public Lands Initiative, click here.

You can also read about the 2012 Yellowstone Seminar on the ADP national blog, here.

Copies of ADP’s Stewardship of Public Lands: A Handbook for Educators monograph are available for purchase.

Stewardship of Public Lands Seminar: Yellowstone 2012

By Jo Arney, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration and ADP Campus Coordinator, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse

As you drive through the Roosevelt Archway entering Yellowstone National Park you notice an engraving that reads “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

The Roosevelt Arch is located in Montana at the North Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The arch’s cornerstone was laid by Theodore Roosevelt. The placard reads “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.”

While just over 3 million visitors both benefit from and enjoy the park each summer, a unique set of environmental policy problems arises in trying to manage this public good. From the reintroduction of wolves to debates about the winter use of snowmobiles, citizens hold divergent opinions about polices related to the park and its surrounding communities.

One of the current controversies involves control of a disease, brucellosis, in Yellowstone bison.  For over four decades the management of this idyllic symbol of the American West has been labeled as a “wicked” policy problem.  The brucellosis controversy stems from a biological disease, but manifests itself as a political conundrum for the state of Montana.  As the bison migrate out of the park they come into contact with herds of cattle; the livelihood of private ranchers is dependent upon keeping their cattle brucellosis free.  Over the course of the last decade, thousands of wild bison have been sent to slaughter in an attempt to protect the ranching industry.

In August 2012, 17 faculty members from a variety of disciplines and campuses gathered in Yellowstone for the eight annual Stewardship of Public Lands seminar, a Civic Engagement in Action Series initiative of the American Democracy Project.  We were led by the AASCU leadership comprised of George Mehaffy and John Hammang and a Yellowstone Association team comprised of Brad Bulin and Danielle Chalfant.  Together, we spent six days exploring controversial issues in and around Yellowstone.

This was my second time as a seminar participant.  After returning from my first SPL seminar in Yellowstone during the summer of 2009, I credited the seminar with being one of the single greatest learning experiences of my career.  I believed the same during this second iteration.  Over the past three years I have become very passionate about many of the issues covered in the seminar and I have been lucky enough to be able to take students to Yellowstone to have the same experience.  One of my student’s wrote the following upon his return:

Throughout my college career, I have always been extremely interested in public policy. However, I never considered myself an outdoorsman. Despite this fact, I still consider going to Yellowstone and studying public policy there one of my most positive experiences in my academic career. It was extremely beneficial to have the firsthand experience and chat with the Yellowstone locals about issues that impact them on a daily basis, such as brucellosis, the wolf population, the consequences of having non-native fish in Yellowstone, and efforts to reduce pollution in the area. Not to mention it is an added bonus to have the remarkable scenes around you every day at Yellowstone Park. Studying these challenging issues really opened my eyes to other public policy issues that I may not face in the Midwest region.

I encourage you to consider participating in next year’s Stewardship of Public Lands seminar (July 29 – August 3, 2013)!

Informed Citizen Project Survey on Media Literacy

The Informed Citizen Project, a special venture of ADP’s eCitizenship Initiative, is collecting information on campus media and information literacy efforts across the country.  We want to know your opinion of the role media and information literacy play in building student civic engagement and what efforts your campus is engaged in.  Please contact faculty and staff at your institution who may be engaged in media and information literacy efforts before completing this survey and ask them about any efforts they are involved with.  The survey will take you no more than 10 minutes to complete.  We ask you to complete the survey by August 20, 2012.

Here’s the link to the online survey: http://survey.fhsu.edu/takeSurvey.asp?surveyID=1174&invid=x

For the purposes of our survey, we utilize the Center for Media Literacy’s definition of media literacy as: “Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.”

We define information literacy according to the standards of the American Library Association: “Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the survey’s primary investigator, Chapman Rackaway of Fort Hays State University, at crackawa@fhsu.edu.

Take the survey here.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this important survey which will help guide ADP’s efforts to prepare informed, engaged citizens for our democracy.

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About the Informed Citizen Project

In the pursuit of greater student engagement, the American Democracy Project has tried to encourage civic participation among students.  The eCitizenship initiative focuses ADP’s efforts in the online world.   To help build the skills that college students need, the Informed Citizen Project brings campuses together to develop and share efforts towards one of civic engagement’s most important foundational skills: media and information literacy.

Media and information literacy are more important than ever.  The fragmented media environment requires that we are more critical of the information we consume than ever.  Online text, audio, and video tools all make for new ways to communicate and engage in civic leadership.  Web 2.0 tools mean that content consumers are now creators and must be cautious about what we communicate to the whole world.  The prevalence of polls mean that today’s voter must understand how survey research works to ensure they maximize the informational value of polls.

The Informed Citizen Project Areas of focus:

1)      News consumption

2)      Recall of news

3)      Print and online media

4)      Web 2.0 and students as content producers

5)      Source differentiation

6)      Critical thinking

7)      Polling and data criticism

The Informed Citizen Project is beginning to add member schools who are currently engaged in or interested in creating media and information literacy programs to join.  Project member schools share best practices in college-level media and information literacy and innovate new programs to ensure the next generation of graduates have the critical thinking skills necessary to be leaders in today’s society.

Announcing ADP’s New National Initiative: Campus & Community Civic Health Initiative with NCoC

 Announcing the Campus & Community Civic Health Initiative,
a new 10^th anniversary signature program of the American Democracy Project

A Civic Engagement in Action Series Initiative
in Partnership with
the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC)

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Civic health data have become an increasingly central component of the national dialogue on civic life. NCoC produces the national civic health assessment, “Civic Life in America”, on an annual basis in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service. NCoC also partners with 25 communities nationwide to use this data to produce reports and initiatives that drive sustainable civic strategies. These civic health initiatives are based on a variety of civic indicators – including how often citizens report discussing politics, involvement in community groups, addressing local issues with neighbors, participation in volunteer and service activities, political action and other measures of social connection and community engagement.

This is a call for participation. The American Democracy Project (ADP) seeks 20 institutions to join us in a two-year initiative with the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) designed to identify and develop campus and community civic health assessments and tools, as well as action plans that respond to the findings. Participating institutions will work together to study the civic health of our campuses and communities. We want to discover how our campuses support and facilitate civic health. Our goal is to provide insights into and strategies for measuring civic health on campus and off campus. This initiative will launch with an inaugural Campus & Community Civic Health Initiative Summit – a pre-conference workshop – at the American Democracy Project national meeting on June 7, 2012 in San Antonio, Texas. Participation in the initiative is open to any AASCU-member institution, with preference given to current ADP members. Institutions that are not already participating members of ADP will be automatically enrolled in the American Democracy Project if they are selected for participation in this initiative. This initiative is also open to our community college colleagues who are members of ADP’s sister organization, The Democracy Commitment (TDC). TDC participation is encouraged especially where there are opportunities for regional collaboration with other two-year or four-year institutions.

Core Activities

• Develop tools for assessing the civic health of campuses and communities;
• Expand our understanding of the current state of civic health on college campuses and in local communities;
• Identify and share ways that a college or university – in partnership with a local community – can improve the civic health of the campus and/or community; and
• Explore the interplay between campus and community civic health.

For more details, see attached Campus & Community Health Initiative Description.

Expectations of Participating Campuses
Each campus selected to participate in this initiative will have five specific expectations:

1. Participating campuses will be asked to create a campus team that will oversee the development of campus activities and projects. For operational purposes, most campuses will identify a campus team leader to provide leadership for the campus work. The project will greatly benefit from the inclusion of students. While it is not a formal requirement, we encourage participation by undergraduate students on the campus team.
2. Send at least one faculty member to the ADP National Meeting for the June 7, 2012 Campus & Community Civic Health Initiative Summit, a pre-conference workshop, for the convening meeting of this initiative. This meeting will provide an orientation to the project, and establish the design and development phase of a set of tools and processes with which to begin to assess the civic health of our campuses and the communities in which they are situated.
3. Serve as a pilot site to develop and test these civic health assessment strategies and tools. Each campus will have wide latitude to focus aspects of civic health specific to their institutional circumstances and what makes sense in their own local context. Some campuses may focus primarily on assessing campus civic health. Others may focus on both the health of their campus and the community in which it is situated. Focus may also be put on campus/community partnerships and their effects on campus and/or community civic health.
4. Share project results at the national American Democracy Project meeting in June 2013 in Denver and at the June 2014 meeting in Louisville. In a pre-conference session of these conferences, provide NCoC and ADP with electronic copies of all materials developed and used in the pilot phase for distribution to ADP member institutions.  Campuses will also be asked to provide general feedback on the successes and failures of this initiative. In addition, each campus will be asked to make a presentation during the conference about the experiences of the past year.
5. Campuses will also be asked to engage in a follow-up discussion of their assessment results with appropriate campus and community stakeholders. Action plans to improve campus and community civic health should be developed and undertaken. Subsequent reports about these phases of the initiative should also be shared with NCoC and ADP, and should be presented at a subsequent ADP meeting.

Benefits for Participating Campuses

This initiative offers a number of significant opportunities for campuses and individuals including:

Opportunities for Faculty, Staff, and Students:

• To become involved in an innovative national civic engagement project
• To collaborate with individuals on other campuses
• To create opportunities for presentations and publications
• To engage students in community-engaged research and civic action about civic health

Opportunities for Campuses:

• To gain national visibility as part of a research effort that reflects our roles as Stewards of Place
• Opportunity to measure actual student voter turnout for 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections via partnership with CIRCLE
• Opportunity to partner with NCoC on producing state and city-level Civic Health Index reports
• Opportunity to track campus civic work using Lyon Software’s Community Benefit Inventory for Social Accountability for duration of this project
• To develop relationships with other civic leaders and key stakeholders in the community focused around a civic health agenda

How much will it cost to participate?

There is no fee for participation in the project; overall costs should be minimal. There is no external funding for this project but we will try to keep any costs as low as possible. Some fundraising may be required for participation in specific research initiatives, such as partnership on a statewide Civic Health Index report. The only fixed expenses will be to send a representative to the national American Democracy Project meeting for the next three years — in San Antonio in June 2012, in Denver in June 2013, and in Louisville in June 2014 – where each campus will be expected to participate in a pre-conference workshop, as well as make a presentation about the project outcomes during the conference.

How do we apply?

Institutions interested in this project do not have to be participants in the American Democracy Project; the only requirement is that they are AASCU-member institutions or members of The Democracy Commitment. To apply, the chief academic officer (CAO) should send an email to Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, the ADP National Manager at AASCU (domagalj@aascu.org), with a brief statement about why your institution is interested in this initiative.

The deadline for applications is May 25, 2012. Campuses will be notified of their selection on a rolling basis, and by no later than June 1, 2012.  To apply to be one of the institutions participating in this initiative, please include the following information in your email, along with a statement about why your institution is interested in this initiative. 

Name of Institution:  ________________________________________________________

We would like to apply to be participants in the Campus Civic Health Initiative.

Name of the Chief Academic Officer:  ____________________________________________________________

Signature, Chief Academic Officer: ______________________________________________ Date: ___________

Campus Civic Health Initiative Campus Coordinator: ________________________________________________

(Please appoint a point person for this project on your campus.)

Please send to:

Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP National Manager, AASCU, 1307 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005; fax to (202) 296-5819; or email domagalj@aascu.org. You can reach Jen by phone at (202) 478-7833.

Organizations Involved in This Project

American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) | www.aascu.org/programs/ADP

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) is a nonprofit consortium of over 400 public colleges and universities, representing 3.7 million students, throughout the United States. AASCU institutions pride themselves on being “Stewards of Place,” committed to strengthening the role of state colleges and universities through support of their teaching-learning, research and service missions. In 2003, AASCU, in partnership with The New York Times, created the American Democracy Project (ADP), a civic engagement initiative now involving more than 240 AASCU institutions. The American Democracy Project and participating institutions are committed to preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens for our democracy.

National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) | www.ncoc.net

At the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), we believe everyone has the power to make a difference in how their community and country thrive. NCoC is a dynamic, non-partisan nonprofit working at the forefront of our nation’s civic life. We continuously explore what shapes today’s citizenry, define the evolving role of the individual in our democracy, and uncover ways to motivate greater participation. Through our events, research, and reports, NCoC expands our nation’s contemporary understanding of what it means to be a citizen. We seek new ideas and approaches for creating greater civic health and vitality throughout the United States. NCoC was chartered by Congress in 1953 to harness the patriotic energy and national civic involvement surrounding World War II, and we’ve been invigorated by this charge ever since. In 2009, Congress recognized the importance of our role once again and expanded our Civic Health Assessment to become the nation’s largest and most definitive measure of civic engagement. Today, we continue to discover and share best practices in civic engagement.

The Democracy Commitment | TheDemocracyCommitment.org

The Democracy Commitment (TDC) is a national initiative providing a platform for the development and expansion of community college programs, projects and curricula aiming at engaging students in civic learning and democratic practice across the country. The goal of TDC is that every graduate of an American community college shall have had an education in democracy. This includes all of our students, whether they aim to transfer to university, achieve an associate degree or obtain a certificate. Through national initiatives and partnerships TDC membership institutions will enhance the democratic engagement on their campuses, in their communities and local governments.

CIRCLE | www.civicyouth.org/

CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) conducts research on civic education in schools, colleges, and community settings and on young Americans’ voting and political participation, service, activism, media use, and other forms of civic engagement. It is based at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University.

Lyon Software | www.lyonsoftware.com/products/education.php

Lyon’s Community Benefit Inventory for Social Accountability (CBISA™) is a comprehensive way for colleges and universities to measure their impact on the communities they serve and to institutionalize community engagement and service learning.  CBISA streamlines reporting to a variety of stakeholders including the President’s Honor Roll and Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.

eCitizenship: FHSU Tiger Talkback

By Jen Verhagen and Shaley White, Student Project Coordinators, American Democracy Project, Fort Hays State University (Kan.)

The FHSU eCitizenship initiative is exploring new ways to get students involved in the conversation about the events that are important to them in the world around them.  In 2012, we’ve taken our Tiger Talkback democracy forum online.  We were inspired by projects like IUPUI’s Democracy Plaza, and when we posted dry erase boards in our student union, FHSU’s students had something to say.

But there’s no need to keep the conversation restricted to the Memorial Union.  Twitter has allowed us to let students participate in the Union, on the quad, from home, anywhere.  From the website to Twitter-friendly apps on smartphones and tablets, the weekly Tiger Talkback questions are prompting FHSU students to take the conversation into the cloud and engage with our virtual students as well as the world beyond. Follow Tiger Talkback at https://twitter.com/TigerTalkback!

With mobile students and a large virtual college population, FHSU is a great university to have a mobile discussion platform.  Traditional and virtual students might be classmates passing each other on the street and never know it.  Virtual students can feel disengaged from the campus community and campus students can feel like they have no voice.  By putting Tiger Talkback on Twitter (@TigerTalkback), we bring everyone into the conversation.

We have produced two short videos for Tiger Talkback online: one to promote it by Learning Commons Director Cynthia Garrety, and another instructional sign-up and use video by Dr. Chapman Rackaway.  As students become more accustomed to using Twitter participation has been expanding.  Students live-tweeted recent Student Government Association President and Vice-President debates, and the number of FHSU students with their own Twitter feeds grows every day.

For additional information:

• FHSU ADP Blog
• FHSU ADP Website
• FHSU ADP Facebook

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Jen Verhagen is a senior from Holland, MI. She is majoring in Political Science with International Relations and Pre-Law and also received a certificate in Leadership. Jen will graduate in May 2012 and plans to continue her  education at FHSU by getting a Masters in Liberal Studies in Organization Leadership. She is a Student Coordinator for the American Democracy Project. Jen works at organizing programs to engage students in the participation of democracy and allow students to have a better understanding of the current issues facing the world today.

Shaley White serves as a Student Project Coordinator for the American Democracy Project at Fort Hays State University. She creatively develops and assists in developing programs to engage the Fort Hays community in active participation and awareness of our Democracy as well as current issues. Shaley attends Fort Hays State University through the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science and intends on staying at FHSU to attain a Nursing Degree. She is from Leoti, Kansas.