2016 Faculty Seminar in Yellowstone National Park

Announcing the American Democracy Project’s
2016 Faculty Seminar in Yellowstone National Park:
Stewardship of Public Lands:
Politics and the Yellowstone Ecosystem
August 1 – 6, 2016

How does a democracy manage competing but often equally legitimate positions over public resources? How are the rights of all citizens protected in conflicts over public lands? How do universities design courses and programs to help undergraduates develop the understandings and skills necessary to think about, and become engaged in, conflict management and resolution? How do we help undergraduates become more thoughtful, more engaged citizens for our democracy?

The American Democracy Project (ADP) is creating new strategies to answer these questions.

2015 marks the 11th summer of our Yellowstone seminar, part of the American Democracy Project’s Stewardship of Public Lands Initiative. The seminar, a partnership with the Yellowstone Association, is open to faculty members from any academic discipline.

For the last 11 summers, we expanded the focus of the program to examine a variety of conflicts in the entire Yellowstone region, including bison and brucellosis, winter use, wolves, and grizzly bears. Our program is entitled Politics and the Yellowstone Ecosystem. In this program, we spend six (6) days in Yellowstone National Park in a combination of activities, beginning with a study of the science and history of the controversies, listening to scientists and Park rangers. Then we interview local citizens on both sides of the issues, including political activists, business people, ranchers, and other citizens.  At the end of the week-long program, we consider ways that faculty might develop programs on their own campus that focused on (1) national public resource issues such as wolf re-introduction and (2) local public resource issues such as oil drilling on national seashores, wind turbines in state parks, and restoration efforts in wetlands.

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 political environment where special interest groups tend to push people to polarized positions, we often try to seek common ground.

The program begins late afternoon on Monday, August 1st and ends at noon on Saturday, August 6th. The program will be held at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park. The cost of the program is $1,465, which includes five (5) nights individual room lodging at Mammoth Hotel (each participant will have a separate hotel room or cabin); all instruction and instructional materials, AV rental, classroom rental; in-park transportation; and several meals, including reception and dinner the first night, lunch Tuesday, and breakfast Wednesday. Space does not allow for guest participation in the full program. However, guests and family members are welcome to attend some classroom lectures, a few field trips, and evening films and presentations.

Seminar Highlights
• Participate in a study of political conflict in the world’s first national park
• Examine the political controversies over wolves, grizzlies, snowmobiles, and bison
• Meet and listen to stakeholders on all sides
• Learn how to design courses to help prepare students to understand and engage in conflict management and resolution over national and local public resources

To learn more, please visit http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/SPL/.

Register online here: https://www.etouches.com/yellow16.

ADP’s 2015 Stewardship of Public Lands Seminar | Yellowstone National Park

ADP’s 12th annual Stewardship of Public Lands faculty seminar was held in Yellowstone National Park from July 27-August 1, 2015. This year 14 faculty members from across the United States and Canada spent a week exploring three public lands controversies in and around Yellowstone. The group talked to various stakeholders about 1) wolf reestablishment, 2) disease management in elk and bison, and 3) winter use of the park.

Take a look at the seminar learning outcomes here.
See the final seminar schedule here.

What’s New with ADP? Summer 2015 Edition

by American Democracy Project on July 30, 2015

SAVE THE DATE

• #ADPTDC16 National Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana June 2-4, 2016

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• 2015 Civic Engagement Award Recipients

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BLOG

What We’re Reading 

• Wilderness and the Common Good-A New Ethic of Citizenship
  University of Wisconsin La Crosse political science faculty member Jo Arney has a new book out — Wilderness and the Common Good: A New Ethic of Citizenship (Fulcrum, 2015). Arney is one of the ADP faculty members leading our Stewardship of Public Lands 2015 faculty seminar as well as curating the emerging Stewardship of Public Lands AASCU National Blended Course. Read more here.

• New Report on the Health of State Democracies
  The Center for American Progress (CAP) released a new report about the health of state democracies.  At a panel discussion in early July, Delegate Alfonso Lopez (D-VA), former state senator Nina Turner (D-OH), political/election law attorney Dara Lindenbaum, and Senator Richard Katz (R-ME) shared their thoughts about the topic with moderator Michele Jawando of CAP. Read more here.

#CLDE15 Meeting in Review: Leveraging Academic and Student Affairs Partnerships to Advance Civic Learning & Democratic Engagement
Our recent 2015 ADP/TDC/NASPA Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Meeting in New Orleans, La. brought together a collection of faculty, students, administrators, community partners and representatives from our national sponsor and partner organizations committed to advancing civic learning and democratic engagement through higher education. Collectively, we considered one of higher education’s civic missions: to act as stewards of the communities they inhabit as well as to prepare students to be stewards of their present and future communities. Read more here.

Examining Economic Inequality at SUNY Cortland
In June, SUNY Cortland, one of 30 campuses participating in our ADP/TDC Economic Inequality Initiative, launched a monthly series of lunchtime talks addressing issues of economic inequality. The goal of the initiative is to bring together the area’s campus and community members to study the relationships between economic inequality, public policy, business opportunity, social mobility and civic engagement. Members discuss issues that include student loan debt, a livable hourly wage, and poverty. Read more here.

AASCU Policy Publication: Partnering for Prosperity
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) is pleased to present Partnering for Prosperity: Advancing the Institutional and State Agenda Through an Effective Collegiate State Relations Program. The report reflects AASCU’s longstanding efforts in fostering optimal state relations and state policy enabling America’s public colleges and universities to fully serve the public good. Read more here.

Partners & Friends

• CIRCLE:

• CIRCLE’s Call for Guest Blog Posts on Impact Measures
• New Data & Report

• Free Publication: AAC&U’s Civic Prompts-Making Civic Learning Routine across the Disciplines
• New NIFI Issue Guide: “Bridging and Bonding – Creating Engaged Communities in a Time of Rapid Change”
• Deliberative Democracy Consortium: Civic Engagement and Democracy News

DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR

August 1-6:  ADP’s 2015 Stewardship of Public Lands Faculty Seminar in Yellowstone
September 17:  Constitution Day
September 22:  National Voter Registration Day
November 3:  Election Day

Indiana State University & the Stewardship of Public Lands

This blog post includes excerpts from a recent Indiana State University news release. You’ll find the full release here: http://www.indstate.edu/news/news.php?newsid=4402.

***

Ten years ago, John Conant, chair of the economics department and the course instructor, and former Indiana State biology department chair Charles Amlaner designed the summer Yellowstone experience after participating in the Stewardship of Public Lands Program as part of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ American Democracy Project, a program that teaches faculty how to promote good citizenship and advocacy.

“We decided we could take secondary teachers to look at the science, policymaking process and economic factors that lead to public policy,” Conant said. “We wanted to show them how to take passionately held beliefs and create policy.”

This year, instead of teachers, the course was geared toward currently enrolled Indiana State students, Conant said, “to let our students see that the issues in Yellowstone are not all black and white.”

….

 

“I learned the importance of thoroughly examining an issue from all perspectives, and I realized how important it is to be politically involved,” she [Carter] said. “I really need to do a better job at paying attention to local politics – not just national politics. The best way to make change nationally is to start locally.”

It was an experience that put students at the center of Yellowstone’s “complex, interrelated system,” where [John] Conant said issues of wildlife, environment, politics and advocacy often come to a head.

“Yellowstone is an incredible, beautiful and fascinating lab in which everything clashes and you can see it all more clearly there,” he said. “The social science students can see how complex the science stuff is and a science student can see that it’s not just a research paper being published that gets things done, but it takes a whole process to make change happen.”

Read the full story here: http://www.indstate.edu/news/news.php?newsid=4402 

What We’re Reading: Wilderness and the Common Good–A New Ethic of Citizenship

University of Wisconsin La Crosse political science faculty member Jo Arney has a new book out — Wilderness and the Common Good: A New Ethic of Citizenship (Fulcrum, 2015). Arney is one of the ADP faculty members leading our Stewardship of Public Lands 2015 faculty seminar as well as curating the emerging Stewardship of Public Lands AASCU National Blended Course. Be sure to check out her new book which emerges from this work as well as her recent sabbatical in Yellowstone National Park — it’s certainly what we’re reading!

Review

“Weaving together her personal story, her teaching experiences, and insightful political analysis, Jo Arney has created a thoughtful study of the relationship between citizenship and wilderness. Throughout her study, she makes an eloquent plea for a quest for common ground, rejecting the bitter divisiveness and polarization that characterizes so much of our national political life today. On the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Wilderness Act, Wilderness and the Common Good is a fitting and illuminating tribute.”
— George L. Mehaffy, Vice President, American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)

Book Description

Why should we save America’s wilderness areas? True and lasting protection for the environment, political science professor Jo Arney (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse) argues, will be borne of a shared understanding of the answer to this question. Wilderness and the Common Good attempts to provide an answer by examining how wilderness and its preservation enriches human lives.

Pre-order your copy of the book from Fulcrum and receive 20% off in the month of June.

Get your copy 20% off and before it hits bookstores. Call (800-992-2908 or 303-277-1623) or email (orders@fulcrumbooks.com) us with the promo code “wild” throughout June 2015!