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 Campuses Commemorate Constitution Day 2016

Constitution Day 2016 | Learning & Engaging the ADP Way

ADP campuses commemorate Constitution Day as a way to spur student to think more deeply, to consider opposing perspectives, to act and to wrestle with complex issues facing our communities and democratic institutions. We hope you take the time to peruse the 2016 Constitution Day offerings of just some of our ADP campuses. They’ve been busy registering new voters and discussing infringements on voter rights. They are urging their communities to focus on race, racism and other inequalities and social injustices that persist in our country. We encourage you to do the same today and every day.

Learn more about Constitution Day here.

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Emporia State University (Kan.)
Emporia State University students involved in the American Democracy Project are writing editorials on the U.S. Constitution, democracy and related topics for the local paper, the Emporia Gazette, in advance of Constitution Day, which is Sept. 17th. Read one of the op-eds by first-year student Emma Krause here. 

Illinois State University
Robin Fretwell Wilson, the Roger and Stephany Joslin Professor of Law and the director of the Program in Family Law and Policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign., will deliver the annual Constitution Day talk at Illinois State University. Her lecture, “Can the Constitution Protect Both LGBT Rights and Religious Liberty?” will be at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, September 15, in the Old Main Room of the Bone Student Center. The talk, sponsored by the Illinois State chapter of the American Democracy Project, is free and open to the public. Read more here.

Indiana University South Bend
IUSB’s ADP and Political Science Club co-sponsored Constitution Day celebrations on campus with music, mini Constitutions and voter registration efforts. Learn more here.

Middle Tennessee State University
Diane Nash, a civil rights activist who helped integrate Nashville lunch counters in 1960 and desegregate bus travel, spoke on Sept. 14^th at NTSU’s Constitution Day celebration. She advised students to work on issues that move them. Other events included readings of the U.S. Constitution and voter registration efforts. Learn more here.

Stockton University (N.J.)
Stockton University’s ADP/PEP with other campus partners will host Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University for Constitution Day. Amar’s presentation, “The Supreme Court and the Constitution: What’s at Stake in the 2016 Election?” will focus on the impact of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the stalled nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, current constitutional controversies and the potential effects on the Supreme Court. Constitution Day is one of a series of events at Stockton that will include voter registration efforts, a panel discussion with Stockton students who attended the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, debate-watching parties, and other lectures on history, politics and elections. Read more here.

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
UW Oshkosh’s Constitution Day activities included a presentation by Keith Findley, assistant professor of University of Wisconsin Law School and co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. Information on the U.S. Constitution was also on display and available for pickup.  More information about the American Democracy Project and Constitution Day events is available at http://adp.uwosh.edu/constitution-day. You’ll find more information here.

Western Carolina University (N.C.) 
Western Carolina University invites student contestants to present a potential constitutional amendment (what they would add or change to the current Constitution), discuss why their issue is important, and justify why their constitutional amendment is needed.  The contestants will then answer questions about their amendment from our judges (5 minutes max).  A panel of judges will select the top 3 amendments based on the importance of the issue, how well founded and researched the amendment is, and the quality of the presentation.  The top 3 contestants will earn a $50 Visa Gift Card. WCU is also planning debate watch events and voter registration drives this fall.

Western Kentucky University
WKU’s Constitution Week 2016 Celebration focused on individual rights and protections with four main sessions: 1) an interactive talk on Trans-bathroom Laws, Title IX, Equal Protection and Separation of Powers; 2) Pizza and Politics series; 3) a global citizen fair with study abroad; and 4) a Constitution birthday part with voter registration. Learn more here.

Let us know what your campus did to commemorate Constitution Day 2016 in the comments or by emailing adp@aascu.org!

 

Student Spotlight | University of Missouri St. Louis Constitution Day Essay Contest Winner

University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL) held an essay contest as part of their commemoration of Constitution Day 2015 asking students, ” What does freedom mean to you?” Undergraduate student Myra Dotzel won the essay contest with her strong and flowing words about what freedom means to her.

In Honor of the Human Spirit | By Myra Dotzel, UMSL first-year student

Freedom, like other ideas, is a value shared amongst many different peoples. Because of this, freedom is interpreted in many different ways. The term “freedom” is commonly defined as the absence of necessity or constraint in action. However, when mentioned in the United States Constitution, freedom intimates a much broader range of ideas and celebrated values. Our United States Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. In short, the Constitution promises individuals the right to be themselves.

Even though interpretations of “Freedom” vary across cultures, groups, and communities around the world, freedom is universally humanity’s natural right of choice. In other words, freedom is what allows an individual to value what they do in safety and confidence. More specifically, freedom should not and will never be taken away from humanity. A person is born with freedom and will die with it as well. In the direst of circumstances, people neither have the ability nor do they have the right to confiscate freedom from another. Furthermore, no one reserves the right to offend or diminish the freedom and liberty of others. In this way, freedom in itself is a symbol of equality amongst individuals, races, groups, and other communities. Freedom is about individual expression; it is color in a bleak world; it is what transforms a loud, violent world into a tolerable one. In these ways, freedom must be encouraged as it is part of the human spirit.

Freedom is generally defined as an absence of norm or coercion. However, freedom, is more than this. Acting to harm another’s freedom is acting to harm one’s own morals and what was ultimately intended for the human spirit and world as a whole. So today, in the midst of violence, hate, and persecution, it is important to remember that no matter who we are or where we come from, the human spirit of freedom always echoes through our hearts and must inform our actions. In general, acting to infringe another’s freedom is a moral crime. Ultimately, freedom serves as an example of the endurance and commitment to honoring the human spirit. Without freedom, there is no equality. Without equality, there is no freedom.

About the Author

Myra Dotzel is a dually enrolled freshman at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, she is a passionate writer and artist. Her writing has been recognized at the state level. Her paintings have been accepted into the Young Artist Guild Showcase and have won special awards through various organizations’ art contests. Myra is an active deacon at her church. She is very much a community-minded individual. In 2014, Myra organized a supply drive for the Department of Veterans Affairs at Jefferson Barracks. She brought over 6,000 brand new items to help stock the supply room at the VA hospital at Jefferson Barracks.

Campus Spotlight: Kennesaw State’s 2015 Constitution Day Events

By Carlton Usher, Associate Professor of Political Science, Kennesaw State University

For the previous seven years Kennesaw State University (Ga.) has honored Constitution Day by extending the day into a week of activities. This year was no different.

Jerry Gonzalez and KSU students

Our week of activities started on Constitution Day with voter registration activities on both Kennesaw and Marietta campuses. Michael Sanseviro, Dean of Students, led the effort to promote voter registration on behalf of ADP and CLDE. Registration sites were located on both campuses and included voter registration tables and student leaders serving as what Dean Sanseviro calls “roving registrars.” These roving registrars are student leaders with iPads canvassing the campuses encouraging students to sign up to vote on the spot. Sanseviro also collaborated with SGA president, TurboVote, and the Center for Student Leadership to focus on first-year and first-time voters.

On September 19, Professor Carlton Usher led a teach-in on the constitution and religious freedom. Each student was offered a pocket constitution and small gifts furnished by the New York Times were awarded to the winners of the constitution quiz.

Usher also coordinated two other events to advance civic learning. On September 22, Voter Registration Day Jerry Gonzalez the founding and current Executive Director of Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) and the GALEO Latino Community Development Fund was invited to campus. His lecture titled Electoral Involvement and Participation: A Latino Perspective was informative and engaging. As one student puts it “though I am not Latino, I walked away understanding the issues a little clearer, immigration especially. I am glad you invited us to this program and I met

KSU first year students focused on lecture

some great people.” Another remarked that “… the high level of conversation during the Q&A shocked me a bit, I assumed my friends of other ethnicities did not know the issues, it turns out they do, I feel good about that.” Some major themes of Gonzalez’s lecture included charging students to become involved, staying involved, staying abreast of the issues and to impact change now. He discussed the Georgia electorate, voting rights, immigration, representative government, and the impact of new laws on Georgia’s Latino citizens. The ethnically diverse audience was fully engaged and several students registered to vote at the end of the lecture. Our speaker was pleased with the high level of civic and electoral understanding of our student population. It was a great learning experience for all including staff and faculty who dropped by to offer their support for our work.

Tierra G registering to vote

To connect with the perpetual mission of advancing global learning and student engagement at Kennesaw State University, Michael Slackman, International Managing Editor for The New York Times gave a lecture on September 24 titled Currents in Global Reporting and Democracy. After a great introduction by a student leader, Slackman offered us on a compelling narrative of his work abroad. He successfully framed the discussion of global reporting within the context of citizenship, democracy, and participation. He engaged the students on popular subjects such as Middle East politics, citizen media, natural disaster reporting, and the challenges of global reporting. His enthusiasm for the subject coupled with firsthand accounts of his work made for a great afternoon. The audience, mostly first-year students were fully engaged and had plenty of post lecture observations and questions. Several journalism students remarked later about how helpful he was discussing the profession with them. His willingness to help and using his personal biography to explain his work was greatly appreciated by the students, staff, and faculty in attendance. It was a splendid and informative affair.

Michael Slacker, Carlton Usher and KSU students

Overall, Constitution Week was a great week of activities and lectures for our students, staff, and faculty. Our tradition of extending constitution day to a week focused on student civic empowerment requires various partnerships, long –term planning and support from the office of the provost; all of which made the planning quite rewarding. With all the exciting additions to ADP at Kennesaw State University, we are sure our tradition to encourage greater engagement from an already engaged university will continue with great success.

Just Mercy | Bryan Stevenson, the Equal Justice Initiative and Stockton’s Constitution Day

By Amanda Adams, AASCU Civic Engagement Intern & Stockton University student

Last week, Bryan Stevenson was the Constitution Day speaker at Stockton University in New Jersey; he spoke about his book, inequality, mass incarceration, the death penalty and the U.S. Constitution. The reason Stevenson wrote his book, Just Mercy (2014), was to change the way that people think the justice system works. As Stevenson was being introduced at Stockton, he was described as America’s young Nelson Mandela.

Stevenson was an undergraduate philosophy major, but during his senior year he had been asked by countless people what he was going to do with his degree. He realized that no one was going to pay him to be a philosopher. When he started looking into master’s degrees he found out that, “you don’t need to know anything to go to law school” so that is what he did. He became disappointed with law school until he interned in Atlanta.  Due to lack of lawyers at his internship site he was sent to visit death row to inform a man, a prisoner, that he would not be executed within the next year. After hours of talking to this man about their lives and interests the guards forcefully took the man out of the visitation room. Stevenson begged for them to be gentle, but they didn’t listen. While the man was being shackled and forced out the room he told Stevenson, ‘thank you, please come back.” Before the guards could get the man out of the door he started singing a the hymn ‘Higher Ground.’ This stuck with Stevenson and made him realize that that was what he wanted to do with his life; he wanted to help prisoners like this man reach higher ground. Stevenson started to buckle down and studied civil law, criminal law, and much more; that is how he got to where he is today.

During his speech he talked about inequality, mostly in the criminal justice system. Did you know that there are 15 states that do not have a minimum age to try a child as an adult? There are over 10,000 kids in jails and prisons today in the U.S. Did you know that 1 in 3 Black children born today will go to jail or prison at some point in their lifetime and that, based on the number of death row convictions over turned due to new determinations of innocence and, 1 in 9 people on death row are innocent of the crimes they are sentenced to death for?

In order to make a change we have to follow what the Constitution says, transform the narrative on what is going on in our country, and stay hopeful that things will change; without hope there is no chance for change. Stevenson is working on many ways to change the system. Slowly he is trying to change how the courts work along with his colleagues. It is a slow process because the Supreme Court is typically careful and cautious; it takes multiple steps and time to bring about change. A problem that has been seen during this process is that the Supreme Court’s ruling doesn’t always change what happens. Another way Stevenson and his colleagues are trying to help is by working with police units to help them gain respect in their communities, reduce crime rates and have officers treat the people in their community with dignity and respect. They have created a booklet of 40 pages of recommendations for police; the major goal is to steer police away from militarization.

Near the end of his speech Stevenson said,” we have not yet seen equality for all in this country,” and, ”the opposite of poverty is justice.” The U.S. Constitution can be an instrument for equality and justice, but it takes our actions as a society to ensure that this document lives up to our ideals.

To learn more about Stevenson’s work check out the website of his foundation, the Equal Justice Initiative.