Campus Spotlight: Cal State San Marcos

As Americans grow farther apart, could shared concerns about the health of our democracy bring us together? Learn more about Cal State San Marcos' Speaking of Democracy series.

ADP in the News | March 15, 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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IUSB’s ADP hosts Forums Designed to Help Identify ‘Fake News’

IUSB’s ADP along with St. Joseph County Public Library is hosting a Civic Leadership Academy over six consecutive Wednesdays starting March 22nd. Events are free and open to the public and speakers will include academics, political advisers, journalists, activists and politicians. Find more information, including specific topics here.

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Georgia College ADP Events

Every Wednesday at noon, the Georgia College ADP organizes a Times Talk and the fist one of every month focuses on issues of diversity, equality and inclusion. On March 15,  the talk is: Africa, Europe and Genocide: The German Genocide in Namibia and the Case for Reparations” facilitated by Dr. Aran MacKinnon and hosted by Dr. Jan Hoffman-Clark. The source article is “Germany Grapples With Its African Genocide,” and the link can be found here. Join the conversation via Twitter using #gctimestalk. Learn more here.

“How to Become an Engaged Citizen” was a brown bag discussion in the campus Black Box Theatre on Feb. 21, 2017 led by guest speakers: Dr. Jan Clark, associate professor of rhetoric; Dr. Stephanie McClure, professor of sociology and Andrew Robinson, president of the American Democracy Project at Georgia College. The discussion contextualized the Theatre and Dance Department production of “Green Day’s American Idiot.” Learn more here.

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UNK Students Present Civic Projects

University of Nebraska at Kearney students will present their civic engagement projects during UNK Talks in early April. UNK Talks are organized by UNK ADP and are inspired by TED Talks. Learn more here.

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AP Quotes MTSU ADP Campus Coordinator and Former Student

Middle Tennessee State University’s ADP Campus Coordinator Mary Evins and former student Brendon Holloway are quoted in an ADP News Brief on “As incivicliy hits new depths, many are working to combat it.” Read more here and here.

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Illinois State University’s ADP Talk focuses on Power of Protest

A March 8th talk by Patrice McMahon focused on the power of protests and movement building. McMahon is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and presented “The Power of Partnerships: Transnational Organizations and Global Women’s Empowerment.” Learn more here.

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Ferris State ADP’s Political Engagement Project: “From Russia, with Love”

A “Trump and Putin: A Permanent Reset in U.S. – Russian Relations” event was part of the Political Engagement Project’s “Passion for the Past” series and was hosted Tuesday, Feb. 21. Elena Gavrilova and Olga Zinnurova, who are professors at Kazan Federal University, joined Ferris history professors Tracy Busch and Christian Peterson in the panel. The Russian guests had their thoughts translated by Ferris adjunct English professor Lilia Caserta. Learn more here.

ADP Campuses in the News | November 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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• Bloomsburg University (Penn.): Pennsylvania has made it easier for residents to register to vote and students can register online with TurboVote. Learn more here.
• Fort Hays State University (Kan.) hosted several events in September to promote civic engagement. Learn more here.
• Georgia College’s ADP hosted a forum on Thursday, Oct. 8 to discuss issues important to the upcoming election; learn more here. They also hosted a panel event on racial discrimination (more here and here). On November 17, 2015 they will present the ‘Effects of Symbolism’ (more here).
• Illinois State University hosted a set of debate parties so that students can become engaged in the upcoming presidential election. Learn more here and here.
• Indiana State University is working on helping their students register to vote and become engaged in the election through debate watch parties. Learn more here and here
• Indiana University South Bend: An Elkhart Mayoral Candidate Debate was held Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, at the IUSB Elkhart Center. The debate was sponsored by the IUSB Political Science Club and the campus ADP. here
• Keene State College (N.H.) hosted presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on October 16. Learn more about this event made possible by Keene’s ADP chapter here.
• Middle Tennessee State University hosted a panel on civil rights and the U.S. Constitution. Learn more here, here and here
• Missouri State held a Public Affairs Week focused on building healthy communities. Learn more here.
• Rhode Island College held an event on the importance of healthcare. Learn more here.
• Texas A&M – Central Texas hosted a Provost Lecture Series event focused on youth homelessness as part of their participation in the ADP/TDC Economic Inequality Initiative. Learn more here and here.
• University of Northern Iowa: A UNI professor and ADP coordinator wrote about the Iran Nuclear Deal. Learn more here. UNI held events describing unlikely friendships and literacy. Learn more here.

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.

Text, Talk, Act: National Conversations about Mental Health

Text, Talk, Act is a nationwide conversation on mental health and how to help a friend in need. How does this work? A group of friends gets together and through text messaging the group receives discussion questions that lead them through a conversation about mental health. Talking about the importance of mental health issues is essential, but many people don’t know how to start the conversation.

You can register your school, club, or organization to win a prize for participating in Text, Talk, Act of $1,000 by clicking here.

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