|
Periclean Student Delegates Inspire at the 2019 Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference
Read the full Spring 2019 Newsletter. The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 15, Winter 2018-2019 "An educated citizenry is the essential instrument for promoting responsible social action and community well-being." - Eugene M. Lang To view the newsletter with photos: Winter 2018 Newsletter. National Office News
To the Polls - Student Teams Rally Their Classmates Comprised of student-led task forces on our member campuses, Student Choices-Student Voices (SCSV) encourages civic participation by hosting an array of events and activities about national issues for students and community members. Leading up to the November elections, many campuses ran active voter registration and get out the vote drives. Below are updates from Macalester College, Wagner College, Hendrix College, and Bates College. Mac the Vote! By Ryan Perez ('20) Leading up to election day, our Campaign Involvement Lunch, Elections Trivia Night, Mac the Vote Rally, and general publicity/communications made information about the elections unavoidable. I asked one student if he knew about the election (the week before), and his response was "How could I not? It's literally everywhere!" Our culminating event was a campus-wide "Mac the Vote!" rally to build student power in the upcoming elections, featuring organizers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina (COPAL), National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Planned Parenthood Action, OutFront MN, Sunrise Movement, and Students Demand Action MN. On election day, we had an election day party in our campus center and three parades. Despite bad weather, these events were well attended. Rough data/estimates from political parties indicate that our election day turnout was on-par with presidential election years! This corresponds to a nationwide trend. I can't wait for the next Tufts report [National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement] to know specifically just how well we did. Ryan Perez is one of the leaders behind the Macalester College SCSV team. The Wagner Student Choices-Student Voices Team Rolls Out the Vote By Bernadette Ludwig, Wagner College This semester Wagner College participated in Project Pericles' Student Choices-Student Voices (SCSV) program to increase voter turnout among college students. We offered many ways for students to register to vote including registration stations during first-year orientation, in-class registrations, and information sharing on social media. Our team of students, faculty, and staff from the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement used creative strategies to connect with students prior to and on Election Day. We partnered with Staten Island's Swing Left chapter to register New York residents (regardless of their political affiliation) to vote. The team posted flyers around campus and on social media, including one, developed by Andrew Kolar ('22), with a QR code that took students directly to information about absentee ballots. SCSV Get Out the Vote - Wagner College Election Day, we had shuttles to drive students to and from the local polling place. In addition to signs around campus to encourage voting, volunteers (students, staff, and faculty) walked or drove in a golf cart ( Seth Jolles '22 who got "van certified" just for this) to either remind students to vote or "reward" those who had voted with stickers, Mardi Gras beads, and candy. Dario Anderson ('19) said this outreach to students was, "a wonderful [and] exhilarating experience." Connie Campbell ('22), echoed this saying "it felt really good to hear all the students saying that they voted." The day ended with an Election Watch Party with pizza and a raffle. Bernadette Ludwig is Associate Professor, Sociology; Director of Civic Engagement Minor; and Project Pericles Program Director, Wagner College. Hendrix SCSV Encourages Conway Community to "Know Your Ballot" By Jay Barth, Hendrix College The Hendrix College SCSV Task Force organized a "Know Your Ballot" event on Monday, October 29th. This event was advertised to the broader Conway community through a newspaper advertisement and press releases. We also worked with the Faulkner County League of Women Voters in outreach efforts. Approximately 75-80 folks attended the event, including a number of off-campus community members. During the event, Drew Coker '19 provided an overview of the voting process (what students should expect, what ID they needed, etc.) Dr. Jay Barth then provided an overview of the ballot measures on the Arkansas ballot. Local candidates (state legislature, county, and city officials) then each spoke briefly. A reception was held after the event. On Election Day night, a watch party was held on campus and approximately 50 community members watched the results. Jay Barth is the M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of Politics, Director of Civic Engagement Projects, and Project Pericles Program Director, Hendrix College. Bobcats VOTE! Bates Students Lead the Way By Peggy Rotundo, Bates College Throughout the day on Election Day, Bates student leaders guided groups of their peers from the Dining Commons to the polling place, just a short walk from campus. President Clayton Spencer led the group at noon, and some athletic teams went together as a team to vote. For those who might have been anxious about voting for the first time, Patrick Sheils'19 and Tyler Baum'19 created a short video featuring the presidents of the Bates Republicans and Bates Democrats, who provided a virtual tour of the polling place and explained how things would work. Students roamed through Ladd Library and other parts of campus reminding people to vote. They even chalked the campus with messages such as "Voting is Sexy." Bates President Clayton Spencer and Students from the Electoral Engagement Task Force While many students were passionate about particular candidates and issues, the Get Out the Vote effort was non-partisan and entirely student driven , with support from the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. The message shared with the student body was, "We don't care where you vote or who you vote for; we just want you to vote!" Encouraging students to develop habits of electoral participation not only aligns with the Bates mission to "cultivate informed civic action," but it is also an essential building block of a thriving democracy. With an eye toward inspiring widespread electoral engagement in the midterm election, strategizing began in September. Student leaders, including Community Liaisons from student clubs and athletic teams, met with staff from Student Affairs and the Harward Center to talk about putting together acampus wide, non-partisan effort to get students to vote. Voter registration training was offered to interested students, who then went back to their teams and student organizations to register others. Registration opportunities were offered during lunchtime every day in Commons. There was even a registration table at one of the football games, with the announcer reminding everyone that "Bobcats vote!" There were requests from many faculty members as well to have students come into their classes to pass out registration cards. Throughout the fall semester, the Politics and Rhetoric Departments and the Environmental Studies program offered programming that considered different aspects of the election and issues that were on the ballot. Local, state, and federal candidates for office came to campus to meet students. In a show of bipartisan cooperation, which marked this election cycle on campus, the Bates Democrats and Republicans jointly sponsored the campus visit of U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME). Many students were actively involved in working on campaigns, particularly with two Bates grads on the ballot, State Senator Nate Libby (D-Lewiston) and Congressman-elect Jared Golden (D-2 ). Once again, a campus highlight was professor Stephanie Kelley-Romano 's course, Presidential Campaign Rhetoric, which engaged students in a semester-long mock election. Bates also participated in many national non-partisan efforts this fall, including National Voter Registration Day, the ALL IN Challenge, and Tufts University's National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement. While we are proud of all the election activity on campus this fall, the high participation rate of our students in the electoral process, and being named to the Washington Monthly's list of Best Colleges for Student Voting, we are still waiting for the official tallies of voter participation. A key component of the Bates experience is cultivating lifelong civic responsibility that is realized in many ways across time. Voting is a critical piece of this, and Harward Center staff enjoyed helping to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration to participate fully in the electoral season, including considerations of where and how to register to vote, how to access non-partisan information in order to make informed decisions, and how to have civil and respectful conversations about political differences. Peggy Rotundo is the Director, Strategic and Policy Initiatives, at the Harward Center, Bates College. She is also a former State Senator and member of the Maine House of Representatives. Updates from a D4D Letters to an Elected Official Student Team Pace D4D Team Fights Gun Violence By Laurianne Gutierrez '21, Pace University This fall, David Lê ('19) and I organized an anti-gun violence coalition at Pace University. We are focusing our efforts on overturning the Dickey Amendment, which prohibits the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding most research on gun violence. After forming "Pace Against Gun Violence," or "PAGV," we spent the month of November spreading the word about our initiative and gathering petition signatures. Through frequent email correspondence with members of PAGV, I emphasized that it is crucial that we direct our efforts at connecting with fellow Pace students. It was quite moving to see the level of enthusiasm that my fellow students expressed when signing our petition urging the repeal of the Dickey Amendment and addressed to Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10). I met with members of PAGV toward the end of November to discuss their experiences with obtaining petition signatures and to inquire about any difficulties. Many of them reported that the students they spoke with were impassioned and eager to see a future in which gun violence ceases to exist. We recently held a tabling event in collaboration with the Center for Community Action & Research at Pace. Hundreds of students expressed their interest in our anti-gun violence initiative. After learning about the Dickey Amendment and its restrictions on gun violence research, they eagerly signed our petition. David Lê and Laurianne Gutierrez wrote their Letter to an Elected Official to Senator Schumer urging the repeal of the Dickey Amendment. About: The Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ Letters to an Elected Official The competition engages students around public policy issues, the political process, and with their elected officials. The five winning teams receive awards to help them move their issue forward. The 2019 letters are due to Project Pericles Program Directors on January 30. Since this program began in 2008, we have received outstanding submissions from hundreds of student teams at our Periclean colleges and universities. Writing letters that clearly ask an elected official to take specific action is an effective way to assert civic power. In 2017, The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) released a report, Citizen-Centric Advocacy: The Untapped Power of Constituent Engagement. One of their major findings, based on nearly 1,200 responses from congressional staff, is that mass email campaigns are largely ineffective. With the rise of social media and mass email campaigns, congressional staffers are inundated with duplicate messages. A personalized, specific letter (or email) is far more powerful. For more information and to download the report, click here. The 2019 D4D National Conference March 28 and 29 The Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference will take place on Thursday, March 28 and Friday, March 29, 2019 at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts. A highlight of the conference is the D4D Legislative Hearing , in which students present and defend their "Letter to an Elected Official" and the issues it discusses to a panel of judges including current and former government officials. On the second day, students will have an opportunity to visit a non-profit organization and meet with its senior leadership. Seventy student leaders from our member Periclean colleges and universities will be joined by college presidents, provosts, foundation, government, and community leaders for a two-day agenda of workshops and panel discussions. The conference will feature Christopher Kush, CEO of Soapbox Consulting, who will facilitate an interactive workshop for students as part of the National Conference. Soapbox trains citizens to effectively communicate their issues to Congress, and to state and local officials. The workshop will provide an opportunity for students to practice skills and techniques for engaging elected officials and other decision-makers around issues the students are passionate about. Christopher led the D4D on the Road workshops for Project Pericles in 2008-2009 and 2012-2013 and presented a workshop at the 2017 D4D National Conference. AAC&U Presentation Accepted Our panel presentation "Creating Curricular Coherence: Three Examples of Institutional Change" has been accepted for AAC&U's 2019 Annual Meeting to be held January 23-26, 2019, in Atlanta, Georgia. Presenting with Jan Liss, Executive Director, Project Pericles will be Frederick Knight, Chair, History Department; Director, General Education Department, Morehouse College; Paul Schadewald, Associate Director, Civic Engagement Center, Macalester College; Karin Trail-Johnson, Associate Dean, Institute for Global Citizenship; Director, Civic Engagement Center, Macalester College; and James (Jim) E. Vike, Professor of Political Science; MPA Program, Director, Widener University. Higher education faces the challenge of creating efficient and cohesive educational experiences for students that integrate academic learning, civic engagement, and preparation for life after college. Project Pericles and three Periclean institutions are exploring distinct approaches to designing streamlined and integrative curricular pathways within majors, interdepartmental initiatives, and college-wide general education requirements.
Project Pericles to Present Multi-Campus Research Study on Well-Being with BTtoP at AAC&U Jay Barth from Hendrix College will be presenting work from a Project Pericles study as part of a Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtoP) panel, "The Well-Being Bridge: Connecting the Curriculum and Co-Curriculum through Holistic High-Impact Practices." He will discuss insights from our multi-campus research project that looked at the ways in which incorporating civic engagement in the curricula influences the well-being of college students. We examined several high-impact practices including community-based learning and first-year seminars across four campuses (Bates College, Goucher College, Hendrix College, and Pitzer College). This panel was organized by Ashley Finley, Senior Advisor to the President, AAC&U (formerly with BTtoP). Reed College Hosts Fall Program Directors' Conference The Project Pericles Program Directors' Conference was held October 23-24 at Reed College. Project Pericles is grateful to Acting President Hugh Porter, Dean of Faculty Nigel Nicholson, Dean for Institutional Diversity Mary James, Vice President for Student Services Mike Brody, Project Pericles Program Director Tara Sonali Miller, and the entire Reed College community for hosting a wonderful and very productive meeting. Program Directors from almost all of our member campuses attended. At our Fall 2017 Program Directors' Conference at Chatham University, participants expressed interest in conducting a review of Project Pericles' programs. At Reed, The Program Directors' Working Group that was formed at the 2017 meeting discussed their findings from a survey and a series of interviews with fellow Program Directors. The Program Directors reported on an analysis of all of our programs...what to keep, what to add, and what to change. In addition to our programs, we discussed 1) culture, structure, collaboration, and values; and 2) special programs (practice and research); and ideas for the future. In addition, we had fascinating tours focusing on engaged work in the Portland Community and the Reed canyon, a 28-acre watershed and wildlife refuge in the heart of the campus. We thank the members of the Working Group: Cass Freedland, Goucher College; Darby K. Ray, Bates College; Christian Rice, Ursinus College; Paul Schadewald, Macalester College; and Wilbur (Monty) Whitney, Morehouse College for all of their important work. Pericleans in the News Congressman-Elect Max Rose (D-NY-11) accepts students' invitation By Bernadette Ludwig and Paul Norden ('21), Wagner College Students in Professor Jessica Clark's Introduction to Social Welfare Practice all design a Social Action Project. This assignment consists of several parts, including writing a letter to an elected official to be considered for submission to the 2019 Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ Letters to an Elected Official Competition, and a concrete action to be carried out by students. One group of students (Jacqueline Kaminsky '19, Laura Kyvik '19, Mikaela Pritchett'19, Paul Norden '21, Emil Matti '21) wrote their letter to a congressman who had voted against the "Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act" that was proposed in Congress in June. The students outlined how the epidemic has affected our country and, especially, the borough of Staten Island. For the "action" part of the assignment, students invited Congressman-Elect Max Rose (D-NY) to speak at Wagner to raise awareness about this topic in Staten Island. The issue was an important part of his campaign. The students used their social networks to set up Rose's visit to Wagner on November 20th. The event was very well attended. A highlight of Rose's talk was the excitement he generated among the students from Staten Island, who were thrilled to meet someone for whom they had actually voted. Elon Periclean Scholars Class of 2019 and Sarvodaya: Together Moving Forward By The Elon Periclean Scholars Throughout the semester, the Periclean Class of 2019 has been steadily working to complete various components of its project to facilitate economic empowerment for local craftswomen in Sri Lanka. This fall the Class created and updated portions of the Sarvodaya (the Class' community-based NGO partner) website; developed content related to ethical community tourism, cultural competency, and a newly established internship position with Sarvodaya; and updated Sarvodaya's marketing materials. In addition, they developed an assessment tool for community tourism experiences hosted by Sarvodaya that they will use during their winter-term trip to Sri Lanka. In preparation for the winter trip, Dr. Mat Gendle, the Mentor of the Periclean Class of 2019 and Project Pericles Program Director, and three Scholars from the Class of 2019 traveled to Sri Lanka during the summer of 2018. The goals of the trip were to deepen the Class's relationships with Sarvodaya to become more familiar with the communities that the Class has visited in the past, and to determine the mechanisms through which the Class will enact its project of facilitating economic empowerment for local craftswomen. About the Elon University Periclean Scholars Program Students inducted into the Periclean Scholars program take a series of academic courses culminating in a Class project of global social change. The project is designed and carried out by the cohort of students from each year's Class under the direction of their faculty mentor. Potential projects are globally oriented, with the specific project chosen by each cohort [excerpt from Periclean Scholars website]. Drew Launches Changebuilders Program to Increase Engagement Over the years, student involvement in service opportunities has increased in the Drew community. Beginning with the Civic Scholars program in 2009, Drew has taken the responsibility of organizing and integrating civic engagement into the curriculum. To honor the commitment to service, the university has launched the Changebuilders program in collaboration with the New Jersey Campus Compact (NJCC). Like that of Project Pericles, its mission is to increase Drew's participation in community service and civic responsibility. The Changebuilders program requires students to complete 40-100 hours of service each year. The program will result in 10,000 to 50,000 high-quality volunteer hours dedicated to organizations in New Jersey for the next five years. This not only creates another cohort of student volunteers but encourages and spreads the importance of civic duty and social responsibility. Students will tackle social issues of inequality through community-based learning classes, off-campus experiences, and campaigns for nonprofit organizations. The goal of the Changebuilders Program is to increase engagement within New Jersey. The executive director of NJCC and director of the Changebuilders program, Saul Petersen, comments that, "Graduates in the 21st century must be able to adapt to different experiences, to understand different perspectives, and to be innovative. These are some of the qualities that strengthen communities and nurture a thriving workplace." The alignment of the Changebuilders initiative with the goals of Project Pericles demonstrates how higher education consortia can create synergies supporting civic engagement at their member institutions. To support the Changebuilders Program Drew University has received a full-time AmeriCorps member, Kendra Polk ('18), to connect the students to new opportunities. Her mission on campus is to increase the number of service opportunities offered for students through volunteering, internships and alternative spring breaks. Please make a donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue to prepare student leaders for lives of engaged citizenship. Donations can be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. The Periclean Progress is also available on the Project Pericles website. To subscribe or to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected] . Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Reed College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhodes College * St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Whitman College * Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss Assistant Director: Garret S. Batten Program Manager: Arielle del Rosario Board of Directors Founder and Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang (1919-2017) Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: David A. Caputo Janet S. Dickerson Richard Guarasci Helen Lang Suskin Jan R. Liss* Louis A. Martarano Michael S. McPherson James H. Mullen, Jr.* Vincent M. Ponzo Lyle D. Roelofs Lourdes M. Rosado * ex officio Presidents' Council Chair: Lyle D. Roelofs, Berea College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke David Baltimore * John Baugh * J. Herman Blake Roger W. Bowen * Harry C. Boyte * Sen. Bill Bradley * Paul Brest Russell L. Carson * Raymond G. Chambers * Jerome A. Chazen Nadinne Cruz * Richard A. Detweiler * Christopher F. Edley, Jr. Thomas Ehrlich * Jonathan F. Fanton * Nicholas H. Farnham Ellen V. Futter * Llewellyn P. Haden, Jr. * Samuel L. Hayes III Antonia Hernandez * Amb. James C. Hormel * Helene L. Kaplan Gov. Thomas H. Kean * Arthur E. Levine * Reuben Mark Elizabeth McCormack * Mary Patterson McPherson Robert D. Putnam * Judith A. Ramaley * David M. Scobey Allen P. Splete * Mark A. Vander Ploeg * Harris L. Wofford The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 15, Fall 2018 "An educated citizenry is the essential instrument for promoting responsible social action and community well-being." - Eugene M. Lang To view the Newsletter with photos: Fall 2018 Newsletter. National Office News
Project Pericles Announces New Round of the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ Project Pericles is pleased to announce the third round of the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™. With the support of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, we are now able to offer this signature program on an ongoing basis. This faculty leadership and course development program is dedicated to incorporating civil dialogue, civic engagement, and social responsibility across the undergraduate curriculum. Our nation's future depends on ensuring that our student leaders have the dispositions, habits, and skills to apply academic knowledge to real-world problems in ways that are meaningful, thoughtful, and that they can sustain over their lifetimes The Periclean Faculty Leaders (PFLs) create new courses that incorporate civic engagement; promote civil dialogue locally through lectures, town hall meetings, and public events; and advance public scholarship nationally and internationally through publications and conference presentations. Each PFL is paired with a colleague from another campus throughout their tenure. Demonstrating that civic engagement and community-based work can be incorporated intoany discipline, our second cohort (2017-2018) included a diverse group of professors from a wide range of disciplines including Archaeology and Classical Studies, Business Law, Computer Science, Dance, English, Environmental Studies, History, Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology, Sociology, Theatre, and Urban Studies. Praise for the 2017-2018 PFL Program: This program has changed the way that I think about citizenship, civic engagement, and community through first-hand experiences and thought-provoking course material. I have no doubt that this program has better prepared me for my future in law and the rigorous academic challenges that face me moving forward.- Student, "Inventing the Citizen: The History of Political Action and its Limits" taught by Ulrike Krotscheck, Member of the Faculty in Archaeology and Classical Studies (Course Lead) and Bradley Proctor, Member of the Faculty in History, The Evergreen State College ...YES, [Dr. Phong Le, PFL 2017-2018] and this course have been spectacular. I can't say enough good things about this."- José Antonio Bowen, President, Goucher College Through courses and other campus and community-based activities, Periclean Faculty Leaders reach thousands of students, faculty, staff, and community members. By developing and linking activities in the classroom, campus, and community, the PFL program promotes and reinforces social responsibility and participatory citizenship as essential elements of the educational experience. PFLs' Civic Engagement Course Syllabi are available online. We look forward to working with our future PFLs on this exciting and important program which aligns so clearly with the mission of Project Pericles and all our Periclean Colleges and Universities. Each Periclean institution is invited to nominate one or two eligible faculty members from different disciplines to be Periclean Faculty Leaders. Faculty in disciplines in which civic engagement is not traditionally a focus should be encouraged to apply. Applications are due by Monday, December 17, 2018. Please see your Project Pericles Program Director for detail. Award announcements will be made in March 2019 for courses to be taught in Fall 2019. The 2018-2019 PFL Program is made possible through the generous support of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. Previous support was provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and The Teagle Foundation. (See Periclean in the News for an Article by Two PFLs). Student Choices-Student Voices (SCSV) Influencing Young Leaders Comprised of student-led task forces on our member campuses, SCSV efforts encourage civic participation by hosting an array of events and activities about national issues for students and community members. Pericleans have successfully registered thousands of voters and distributed important information about candidates and issues. Ryan Perez ('20) of Macalester College and a leader of its SCSV Task Force recently wrote to Project Pericles to tell us about the impact Periclean programs have had on him. I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to Project Pericles. The D4D Letters to an Elected Official Competition, the D4D National Conference, the D4D on the Road workshop, and Student Choices - Student Voices have given me valuable skills and shaped my career interests in ways I would not have imagined at the beginning of my first year in college. I am currently interning for a state senator, and I plan on being involved in elections and voter engagement. Civic engagement related to our democracy has truly become one of my greatest passions. Thanks to Ryan, Avik Herur-Raman '20, and others, the Macalester College SCSV Task Force has been doing great work throughout 2018, hosting multiple voter registration tabling sessions and a discussion with a "March for Our Lives" student organizer (founded by students from Parkland and focused on ending gun violence). They also distributed valuable information on voting to members of their community. Avik and Ryan organized a "Campaign Involvement Lunch," an event designed to promote involvement in a variety of campaigns leading up to the November elections. Representatives from organizations including the Minnesota Youth Collective, Outfront MN, Faith in MN, and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund came and discussed opportunities for involvement. More than 40 students attended the event and many signed up to get involved with the campaigns. The SCSV Task Force at Skidmore College, led by Hannah Fishman '19, held a National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) event (September 25) in collaboration with the Skidmore Student Government Association and the Saratoga Springs League of Women Voters. This campus-wide event encourages students to register to vote. Earlier, in September they held a training session for newly recruited student volunteers teaching them how to register students in preparation for NVRD. They have also been sending e-mail blasts to registered student voters informing them about relevant voter information such as polling places (there is a location on campus) and absentee ballots. As part of National Voter Registration Day, Project Pericles supplied voter pledge cards to several campuses after receiving requests. We continue to support our campus-based Task Forces on their voter engagement projects. Through SCSV, we facilitate information and strategy sharing between task forces on different campuses allowing students to collaborate with their peers and organize similar activities on their own campuses. We share tools including TurboVote, which assesses voter engagement, and Text, Talk, Vote, which helps motivate political dialogue and awareness, with our campuses. Our partnerships include Civic Nation; Democracy Works; National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE); Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV); and YVote, among other organizations, to exchange ideas on how to increase student participation in voting and other civically engaged activities. Our Program Manager, Arielle del Rosario, is in regular contact with the student Task Force leaders. Small grants, of up to $200, are available to support innovative work. Chatham University Hosts First Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ 2018-2019 D4D on the Road™ Workshop Over 30 Chatham University students and Allegheny College students turned out for the first 2018-2019 Debating for Democracy (D4D) workshop. Hosted by Chatham, the workshop received high marks from those in attendance. A Chatham University student noted that the workshop made her realize that "I have influence as long as I take the time to look at who has power." While another student commented, "Just because something is not winnable now, it may be later." Using case studies on Immigration Reform, LGBTQ Rights, Race and Inequality, the workshop uses a systematic framework to help participants identify solutions to problems they are concerned with and then build winning strategies to make change. Through small group exercises and role playing, with trainer feedback, the daylong session takes students from researching a problem to analyzing solutions, developing strategies, and meeting effectively with decision-makers. Participants leave with concrete tools, which they can put to use in a wide variety of public policy settings and efforts. Pericleans will host a total of eight workshops with an additional seven Pericleans sending students to participate. Other issues addressed in case studies this year include Education Access, Mass Incarceration, and Voting Rights. For the second year in a row, we are partnering with Midwest Academy. They received excellent reviews from students and community members for the 2017-2018 workshops. All of their trainers have experience working as organizers on issue-based or political campaigns and we are pleased to work with them again. 2018-2019 D4D on the Road Workshop Schedule Friday, September 28 - Chatham University (Pittsburgh, PA) (Allegheny College visiting) Saturday, October 6 - Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) (Hendrix College visiting) Friday, November 16 - Pitzer College (Claremont, CA) Saturday, December 1- Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY) (RPI visiting) Saturday, February 2 - Carleton College (Northfield, MN) (Macalester College visiting) Saturday, February 9 - Bates College (Lewiston, ME) (New England College visiting) Saturday, February 23 - Ursinus College (Collegeville, PA) (Swarthmore College and Widener University visiting) Friday, March 1- Goucher College (Baltimore, MD) Project Pericles to Present Panel at AAC&U in Atlanta, Georgia We are delighted to share the news that Project Pericles' panel presentation "Creating Curricular Coherence: Three Examples of Institutional Change" has been accepted for AAC&U's 2019 Annual Meeting to be held January 23-26, 2019, in Atlanta, Georgia. Higher education faces the challenge of creating efficient and cohesive educational experiences for students that integrate academic learning, civic engagement, and preparation for life after college. Project Pericles and three Periclean institutions (Macalester College, Morehouse College, and Widener University) are exploring distinct approaches to designing streamlined and integrative curricular pathways within majors, interdepartmental initiatives, and college-wide general education requirements. This panel will share insights, strategies, and resources to inform and inspire curricular coherence and pathways at other institutions. The three-year project is part of The Teagle Foundation's Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence initiative and is also made possible through the support of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. Macalester will discuss the creation of civic engagement pathways within two academic departments (Geography and History), as models for other departments and as a foundation for broader institutional change. The project supports the development of sequenced course offerings paired with increasingly advanced community-based opportunities and highlights the public purposes of disciplinary learning. By focusing on change within departments rather than individual courses, the project creates more effective and efficient pedagogy and allows students to design more coherent academic careers. Macalester will share the process of working with faculty members to map and assess learning goals, create pathways, and discuss replication at other institutions. Morehouse will discuss transforming a large, fragmented, and costly general education program. Their redesigned "general education integrative learning experience" focuses on the African Diaspora and five other learning outcomes. Morehouse has significantly reduced required general education credits and combined student learning outcomes. They will discuss the challenging process of gaining approval for this large-scale undertaking and the effort to redesign courses to meet the new requirements. Widener will discuss its new Sustainability and Civic Engagement pathway with links to general education requirements and courses in a variety of majors. The pathway introduces more coherent curricular options within Widener's existing general education distribution system and thus, a more cohesive experience for students. The pathway model supports an interdisciplinary, inquiry-based approach employing multiple high-impact practices. The pathway network of courses features a freshman seminar, multiple approved pathway courses across nine academic departments and an option for an interdisciplinary capstone experience. Widener will share the process and challenges involved in developing this thematic pathway and how this approach can be replicated. Presenting will be: Jan Risë Liss, Executive Director, Project Pericles; Frederick Knight, Chair, History Department; Director, General Education Department, Morehouse College; Paul Schadewald, Associate Director, Civic Engagement Center, Macalester College; Karin Trail-Johnson, Associate Dean, Institute for Global Citizenship; Director, Civic Engagement Center, Macalester College; and James (Jim) E. Vike, Professor of Political Science; MPA Program, Director, Widener University. 2019 Debating for Democracy (D4D) National Conference The 2019 D4D National Conference at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts will once again feature the D4D Legislative Hearing, in which students present and defend their "Letter to an Elected Official" and the issues it discusses to a panel of judges including current and former government officials. On the second day, students will have an opportunity to visit a non-profit organization and meet with its senior leadership. Seventy student leaders from our member Periclean colleges and universities will be joined by college presidents, provosts, foundation, government, and community leaders for a two-day agenda of workshops and panel discussions. Christopher Kush, CEO of Soapbox Consulting, will facilitate an interactive workshop for students as part of the National Conference. Soapbox trains citizens to effectively communicate their issues to Congress, and to state and local officials. The workshop will provide an opportunity for students to practice skills and techniques for engaging elected officials and other decision-makers around issues the students are passionate about. Christopher led the D4D on the Road workshops for Project Pericles in 2008-2009 and 2012-2013, and also presented a workshop at the 2017 D4D National Conference. Project Pericles will cover the costs of transportation and lodging for the two student delegates from each campus, as well as for the ten students selected as finalists for the D4D Legislative Hearings. Two student delegates are selected to attend the conference by their Program Director based on their leadership and contribution to civic engagement activities on their campus. About Letters to an Elected Official The D4D Letter to an Elected Official Competition engages teams of students around public policy issues, the political process, and the roles of their elected officials. Every year, a panel of judges with significant legislative experience select the five winning letters written by teams of students from Periclean campuses. Winning teams are selected based on their letters and their advocacy proposals. Since 2008, hundreds of teams from all Periclean colleges and universities have participated in this competition. Letters have proposed innovative solutions on a wide variety of issues including climate change and environmental protection, education reform, financial literacy, gun control, immigration, prison reform and reducing recidivism, sexual violence, and negotiations with Iran over their nuclear program. Project Pericles Continues Work on Voting Module The Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition and Young Invincibles (YI)approached Project Pericles to design a classroom module on voting. For use by faculty, the curriculum will illustrate why voting matters, why students should care, and will provide an overview of the registration and voting process. Designed to fit into a single class period, it will include sections on deliberative dialogue that can be customized for courses in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. Over the Summer and continuing into the Fall, we reached out to our Periclean Faculty Leaders and Periclean Program Directors, in a range of disciplines, for advice on the development of this module. We are pleased to report tremendously positive responses from both groups. Domenick Scudera, Professor of Theater, Periclean Faculty Leader (PFL) 2010-2012, Ursinus College commented, "...This is a critical time for our democracy, so please let me know what I can do to help with this initiative." Input from faculty members is critical to the success of this project. We have had conversations with more than 30 colleagues that has been very illuminating. They provided feedback based on our questionnaire and have been eager to assist in the project. If you would like to provide input, please reach out to Jan Liss at [email protected]. We appreciate the support of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition and Young Invincibles. This work is also made possible by the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. Fall Program Directors' Conference at Reed College Our Program Directors' Conference will be held October 23-24 at Reed College. Program Directors from almost all of our member campuses will attend. At our Fall 2017 Program Directors' Conference at Chatham University, participants expressed interest in conducting a review of Project Pericles' programs (D4D National Conference, D4D on the Road™, Letters to an Elected Official, Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™, Program Directors' Conference, and SCSV). The Program Directors Working Group that was formed at the 2017 meeting will discuss their findings from a survey and a series of interviews with fellow Program Directors. In addition to our programs, they will discuss 1) culture, structure, collaboration, and values; and 2) special programs (practice and research.). We look forward to discussing their findings and much, much more. Pericleans in the News Peer Review: What We Learned from Each Other as Periclean Faculty Leader Peers By Jessica A. Magaldi, Assistant Professor, Legal Studies and Taxation, Pace University; and Casey Schreiber, Assistant Professor, Urban Studies, Dillard University We were selected as Periclean Faculty Leaders in academic year 2017-2018 and paired up as PFL peers, to offer support to one another as we embarked on our individual Project Pericles journeys. Although our grant year has concluded, we remain Periclean Faculty Leaders into the future and our commitment to Project Pericles and to civic engagement in our classrooms and on our campuses continues. It is in that spirit that we reflect back on what we learned from each other over that first year and how it might inform the civic engagement activities we undertake in the future. It was a great pleasure getting to know one another through our portfolios and our conversations and we have stayed in touch, as a resource to one another, to offer support for each other, and to continue to share ideas. Professor Magaldi taught "Business Law - Civic Engagement." Professor Schreiber taught "Housing Policy." Jessica Magaldi on Casey Schreiber: It was inspiring to get to know Casey Schreiber through her portfolio and our conversations about our courses and philosophies. Her portfolio demonstrated what a significant impact her project had in promoting the civic engagement of her students. I found the variety of projects her students undertook so interesting, including direct services work such as volunteering with UNITY of Greater New Orleans and homebuilding with SBP (formerly St. Bernard Project), as well as the campus awareness-raising work, and participation in the social sciences symposium "Civic Engagement: Action-Oriented Research," and the Housing, Health, and Community Resource Fair. What tremendous opportunities she offered her students to understand - and to have some direct impact on - the issues around the housing crisis in New Orleans and its effect on vulnerable populations. I feel certain that Casey's efforts and the efforts of her students have laid a strong foundation to continue collaboration between Dillard University and their community services partners for years to come. Dillard Students Plant University's First Community Garden on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. As different as our courses and our institutions are, both of our campuses share a spirit of civic engagement and volunteerism. I appreciate that we each designed our courses to harness that spirit with our relevant pedagogies to build courses that promote civic engagement in connection with our particular subject matter. We took very different approaches toward the same goal - to inspire civic dialogue on important topics and to inspire our students to action. I particularly want to thank Casey for inspiring me to think more broadly about the type of projects that students can engage in and with over the semester - and I want to credit her with a change I will be implementing the next time I teach this course. Since my course was in legal studies, I had sought out or created opportunities where students were directly involved in legal services activities. After reviewing her portfolio and learning about the variety of projects her students participated in and speaking with Casey about the ways in which law and policy classes are similar, I gained an expanded notion of what activities would be appropriate for my class. I am already planning to offer my students a wider variety of community service placements, which will provide more opportunities to my students without losing the valuable connection to our coursework. Casey Schreiber on Jessica Magaldi: I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing Jessica Magaldi's portfolio and seeing how another Periclean Faculty Leader chose to enact the civic engagement mission of Project Pericles. Being able to have conversations with her about our civic engagement courses and overall participation in the PFL Program was both insightful and helpful for my work. Her portfolio documented the ways in which she infused civic engagement into her coursework. Including reflections, from both herself and her students, provided an additional layer of analysis to her overall project that I found to be really valuable. The service learning component gave students a chance to get involved in different issues such as stop and frisk policies, civil forfeitures, and mortgage foreclosure. The variety of community service placements allowed students to perform specific community work that was meaningful to them. I was interested in the way that she packaged current news topics for her students as a way to connect legal studies with questions of fairness and equity. In many of the policy classes I teach, students are required to complete an oral brief of a current news article and classroom discussions often center around prominent news topics each semester. Based on her approach, I am reconsidering how to best package and deliver news content as part of a civic engagement framework. I particularly liked the way that Jessica talked about social justice and how infusing lessons about social justice is in itself an act of civic engagement. Prior to speaking with Jessica, I placed more emphasis on hands-on projects or acts of community service as a measure of student involvement. Jessica helped me see how the lessons and conversations about social justice can be a mechanism to achieve increased levels of civic engagement that lie at the intersections of classroom discourse and service work. While social justice feels like a natural extension of my field of Urban Studies and Public Policy, I was excited to see how she incorporated this into a class in the School of Business. From both her portfolio and our conversations, I can tell that Jessica is going to incorporate civic engagement into future courses and offer civic engagement opportunities for the great benefit of her students. We thank The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation for their support of the 2017-2018 PFL Program. Bates' Student Partners with Community Group to Promote Prisoner Re-entry Program Rachel (Raye) Chappell (Bates College '18) Discusses Her Video Project. Thanks to Rachel (Raye) Chappell ('18) of Bates College, a local prisoner re-entry program can tell its story far and wide. Working as part of the college's Short TermAction/Research Team last spring, Raye created a video that highlights the work of REPAIR, a program that provides supportive services for men and women re-entering communities from prison or jail. Based on extensive shadowing and interviews with REPAIR staff, volunteers, and participants, Raye's video offers an intimate account of the compelling needs REPAIR meets and the positive outcomes and community benefit of its services. The re-entry specialists at REPAIR of Maine now have an engaging and informative promotional video for use as they make presentations to churches, clubs, and organizations in search of volunteers, donors, and other forms of support. A Sociology/African-American Studies major at Bates and a four-year leader at the college's Harward Center for Community Partnerships, Raye was able to put her significant filming, editing, and storytelling talents to work in the production of a video that left REPAIR Chairperson, Eric Terrio, speechless. Raye's video captures the essence of REPAIR's mission and history while helping to ensure that this dynamic, community-changing organization can continue its work in the future. Check out the video for yourself: Click here to watch the REPAIR of Maine Video In the words of Bruce Noddin, director of the Maine Prisoner Re-Entry Network, "This project is a prime example of how community partnerships can benefit organizations, missions, individuals, relationships, and our neighborhoods and communities." Project Pericles Program Director Appointed to BTtoP Advisory Board We are pleased to announce that in August Tessa Hicks Peterson, Project Pericles Program Director at Pitzer College and member of the Project Pericles research team examining civic engagement and well-being, was appointed to the BTtoP Advisory Board. Tessa Hicks Peterson is an Associate Professor, Urban Studies; and Director, Community Engagement Center, Pitzer College. Please make a donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue to prepare student leaders for lives of engaged citizenship. Donations can be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. To subscribe or to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected]. Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Reed College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhodes College * St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Whitman College * Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss Assistant Director: Garret S. Batten Program Manager: Arielle del Rosario Board of Directors Founder and Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang (1919-2017) Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: David A. Caputo Janet S. Dickerson Richard Guarasci Helen Lang Suskin Jan R. Liss* Louis A. Martarano Michael S. McPherson James H. Mullen, Jr.* Vincent M. Ponzo Lyle D. Roelofs Lourdes M. Rosado Harris L. Wofford *ex officio Presidents' Council Chair: Lyle D. Roelofs, Berea College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke David Baltimore * John Baugh * J. Herman Blake Roger W. Bowen * Harry C. Boyte * Sen. Bill Bradley * Paul Brest Russell L. Carson * Raymond G. Chambers * Jerome A. Chazen Nadinne Cruz * Richard A. Detweiler * Christopher F. Edley, Jr. Thomas Ehrlich * Jonathan F. Fanton * Nicholas H. Farnham Ellen V. Futter * Llewellyn P. Haden, Jr. * Samuel L. Hayes III Antonia Hernandez * Amb. James C. Hormel * Helene L. Kaplan Gov. Thomas H. Kean * Arthur E. Levine * Reuben Mark Elizabeth McCormack * Mary Patterson McPherson Robert D. Putnam * Judith A. Ramaley * David M. Scobey Allen P. Splete * Mark A. Vander Ploeg The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. Project Pericles, 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1910, New York, NY 10176 SafeUnsubscribe™ {recipient's email} Forward email | Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by [email protected] in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today! Highlight from the issue include:
The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 14, February 2018 "An educated citizenry is the essential instrument for promoting responsible social action and community well-being." - Eugene M. Lang To view the Newsletter with photos: Winter 2018 Newsletter Featured Article:
Pitzer Takes D4D Letter to an Elected Official Competition to "Inside-Out Prison Exchange" Classes By Tessa Hicks Peterson, Pitzer College "This letter writing personally motivated me to voice my opinion and to get others to voice theirs in order to push legislative agendas that are important to us as inmates... because mass incarceration is out of control and legislation can make a difference. It's important to try to push things forward with these assemblymen and try to make a difference. I plan on getting involved with policy organizations and giving back when I get out." (MJ, inside student) During the Fall 2017 semester, Pitzer College decided to introduce a new twist to our usual participation in the Project Pericles "Letter to an Elected Official" national letter writing competition. The letters would be written in prison, by prisoners, about prison (continued at the end). National Office News: Debating for Democracy (D4D) Students Protect the Hudson River from Oil Tankers - Rowan Lanning ('18) and Christina Thomas ('19), Pace University, won the 2017 D4D Letters to an Elected Official competition for their letter seeking to halt the use of the Hudson River as an anchorage for oil tankers, a practice the Coast Guard had proposed without consultation with local communities or developing an environmental impact study. In collaboration with Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the Pace University D4D team ran a successful campaign to protect the Hudson River from the threat of oil spills. Thanks to the work of Christina, Rowan, and many others, the Coast Guard withdrew its proposal to permit anchorages for oil tankers. The Coast Guard appointed the students as official observers for its Port and Waterway Safety Assessment meetings held in November. "In light of these recent and exciting developments [the withdrawal of the Coast Guard's proposal], we are left in the unexpected position of ... being able to declare victory.... We are thrilled to continue on [with] this exciting experience and appreciate your [Project Pericles'] ... support."-Rowan Lanning, Pace University ('18) The Reed College Team Met with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Oregon State Senator Kathleen Taylor (D-21) as part of their work on Federal and State Legislation to protect students from sexual assault. Leilani Ganser ('19) spoke with Senator Merkley about the health care needs of sexual assault survivors and is working with Senator Merkley's office to introduce a bill that amends FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) to classify sexual assault as a public health issue that must be included on transcripts (the bill proposed in their letter). The team is also working with Oregon State Senator Kathleen Taylor and a representative from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's office to lower the state standard of evidence in Title IX investigations to a "Preponderance of the Evidence" standard. For the D4D Letter to an Elected Official Competition Leilani Ganser ('19) and Sonya Morud ('19) wrote "A Letter in Support of the Safe Transfer Act" (would require post-secondary institutions to disclose sex offenses on students' transcripts) to Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). About D4D - The Debating for Democracy National Conference features a Legislative Hearing in which teams of students compete for $5,000 in prize money by presenting in front of a panel of former government officials. The teams use the awards to develop advocacy and educational campaigns focused on their issues. In 2017, a panel of three judges- Constance Berry Newman, Martha Kanter, and Ruth Messinger-selected Pace University as the winner of the D4D Letters to an Elected Official Competition. The winning team received $3,000 to move their issue forward and the finalist teams each will receive $500. In this issue, we provide updates on the Pace University and Reed College teams. Berea College, Carleton College, and Swarthmore College were the other 2017 finalists. We provided updates on Berea and Carleton in the Fall 2017 Newsletter and will highlight Swarthmore in the future. Project Pericles Highlighted in The Chronicle of Higher Education In his recent Chronicle of Higher Education overview of civic engagement, Michael Anftdiscussed the work of Project Pericles. For the piece, Anft interviewed Project Pericles Executive Director Jan R. Liss as well as Project Pericles Program Directors from Goucher College and Pitzer College. "Project Pericles encourages colleges to map out their civic offerings and to find gaps by measuring them against those of other member institutions. 'We're getting more and more inquiries from colleges asking, 'How do we get this started?'' says Ms. Liss. 'We're really starting to get some serious traction on this.'" "The goal isn't limited to campus activism, community work, or courses, she says. It's to tie them all together into a cohesive strategy geared to each campus." We are pleased that The Chronicle is focusing on civic engagement. In collaboration with all of our member colleges and universities, we look forward to having a strong voice in the evolving national discussion about the critical role of civic engagement in safeguarding our democracy. The article is available online and appeared in the January 12 print edition. D4D on the Road™ Prepares Student Leaders for Activism The 2017-2018 Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ workshops resumed on January 20 at Macalester College with Carleton College visiting and on January 27 at Hendrix College with the University of Central Arkansas visiting. We are pleased to partner with Midwest Academy for 2017-2018. D4D workshops provide both novice and seasoned activists with the skills they need to develop advocacy and education campaigns through effective messaging to policymakers, community leaders, and the public. Workshops are open to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. During the D4D on the Road™ workshops, seasoned organizers and activists walk participants through the critical steps in running successful campaigns to win on important issues. From the evaluations and surveys from the 2016-2017 D4D on the Road workshops, we know that our students are concerned with Climate Change, Education Access, Immigration Reform, LGBTQ Rights, Mass Incarceration, and Race and Inequality. We are using these topics to teach students tools to enable them to become more active citizen and effective advocates on issues of concern. Following the January 20 workshop at Macalester, The Mac Weekly featured front page coverage of the workshop. "People care about lots of issues, and I think you hear [it] at the walk-in, etc.," [Macalester College Civic Engagement Center (CEC) Outreach Coordinator Derek] Johnson [said], "but how do you continue to work on these things? This is giving [students] a toolbox, a framework, and some skills." For Hannah Whipple [Macalester College] '21, [the trainer Jhatayn] Travis' experience as an activist was a major highlight of the training. "I think my favorite part of it was seeing her real-life examples," Whipple said. "After she told us about all these strategies, she walked us through a specific campaign that she went through and then she showed us a video to succinctly wrap it up. I really appreciated that." New Project Pericles Board Members, Lou Martarano and Jim Mullen Please join me in welcoming Louis (Lou) A. Martarano and James (Jim) H. Mullen Jr.as Project Pericles' newest board members - Lou and Jim were elected to the Project Pericles Board of Directors at our December meeting. With their expertise, insight, and wisdom, we are very pleased to have both of them join the board. Jim, President of Allegheny College, will serve in an ex officio capacity as a representative of the Project Pericles Presidents' Council. Biographies for Lou and Jim can be found at the end. Periclean Faculty Leaders - Changing the Civil Discourse on Campus This fall, we launched a second round of the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ on 13 campuses. The PFL Program is a leadership and course development program dedicated to incorporating civil discourse, civic engagement, and social responsibility across the undergraduate curriculum. The Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ encourages faculty members in a wide range of disciplines to create and teach courses that address issues of social concern, enrich the curriculum, and enhance student engagement. Periclean Faculty Leaders (PFLs) from the first cohort are serving as mentors to the 2017-2018 PFL cohort. The PFL Program is supported by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. 16 Periclean Faculty Leaders taught courses from a wide range of disciplines: Archaeology and Classical Studies, Business Law, Computer Science, Dance, English, Environmental Studies, History, Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology, Sociology, Theatre, and Urban Studies. Their syllabi have joined the 100 other courses incorporating civic engagement on our website. Periclean Faculty Leaders Wow at AAC&U Annual Meeting in DC At AAC&U, PFL Phong Le discusses a student mapping project using 911 data. Photo by Jennifer Magee. On January 25, four Periclean Faculty Leaders presented, "From Curriculum To Community: Encouraging Faculty and Students To Change The World" as part of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) 2018 Annual Meeting. Joining Jan R. Liss, Project Pericles Executive Director, on stage to talk about their experiences were Periclean Faculty Leaders from Goucher College, New England College, Skidmore College, and Swarthmore College. Phong Le, Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the Center for Data, Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Goucher College and Lynne Steuerle Schofield, Associate Professor of Statistics, Swarthmore College, spoke about the benefits for their students of incorporating civic engagement into their math and statistics courses. Lynne also provided data on how courses with civic engagement components are attracting students who might not otherwise take math or statistics classes. Alex Picard, Associate Professor of Theatre, New England College talked about what a powerful experience writing and producing an original play on current social issues had been for her students and the entire New England College community. Students used the course to channel their concerns with the current political climate by working for positive change. Picard described her course as fundamentally changing the civil discourse on campus. After class, discussions continued in the dining and residence halls. Finally, Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies and Sciences, Skidmore College discussed her students' work to measure the college's scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, with a focus on emissions generated by study abroad programs, and developing plans to mitigate the campus's environmental impact. AAC&U and CIC - Project Pericles at National Meetings Project Pericles presented at AAC&U as part of their Pre-Meeting Symposium, "The Power of Civic Engagement-Across Campus, Within Communities, Beyond Borders". Our panel was one of the "sessions highlighting our [AAC&U's] key partners." We were pleased to be a co-sponsor along with Campus Compact and Imagining America. For our panel, "Incorporating Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility in the Classroom, on Campus, and in the Community," Project Pericles Program Directors discussed how we collaborate across the consortium and advance civic engagement. They each highlighted one of our programs, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement, Creating Curricular Coherence, Debating for Democracy (D4D)™, and the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™. Presenting with Jan R. Liss, Executive Director, Project Pericles were Darby K. Ray, Director, Harward Center for Community Partnerships and Donald W. & Ann M. Harward Professor of Civic Engagement, Bates College; Karin Trail-Johnson, Associate Dean, Institute for Global Citizenship and Director, Civic Engagement Center, Macalester College; Ella Turenne, Assistant Dean for Community Engagement, Occidental College; ; and Christian Rice, Assistant Dean for Civic Engagement and Director, Bonner Leader Program and UCARE, Ursinus College. The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) invited Project Pericles to present at their 2017 Institute for Chief Academic and Chief Student Affairs Officers in San Antonio, Texas. We discussed our work as part of Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement, the three-year initiative that spurred member institutions to inventory, map, and strengthen civic engagement across the curriculum. Joining Jan R. Liss on the panel were Chad Berry, Academic Vice President and Dean of the Faculty, Berea College; Yolanda Williams Page, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dillard University; and Jenna Templeton, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Chatham University. The session was chaired by Mark Schneider, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean, Ursinus College. Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement was a project to reconceptualize the organization and integration of programming for civic engagement and social responsibility on 26 Periclean campuses. With support from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation, member colleges and universities inventoried, mapped, strengthened, and developed more cohesive and integrated civic engagement programs to enable students in all disciplines to incorporate civic engagement into their courses of study. In our 2017 White Paper Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement: Five Approaches to Institutionalizing Civic Engagement by Garret S. Batten, Project Pericles; Adrienne Falcón, Carleton College; and Jan R. Liss, Project Pericles we discuss insights from this multi-campus project. Campus Pursue Greater Institutionalization of Civic Engagement Through Collaboration Representatives of the three campuses (Macalester College, Morehouse College, and Widener University) participating in Creating Curricular Coherence through Inquiry-Based and Thematic Pathways (2017-2020) and Project Pericles met in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with AAC&U's 2018 Annual Meeting. All three teams reported making considerable progress on their projects which are exploring different but allied approaches to creating greater coherence in the undergraduate curriculum. Macalester College has held a series of meetings and workshops with the History and Geography departments, including a "Deep Dive" where the departments met together, as they work to further integrate civic engagement and community-based learning into the departments' approaches to instruction using a pathway or scaffolded approach. Morehouse recently passed significant changes to its general education requirements. As part of Creating Curricular Coherence, Morehouse held a series of faculty development workshops to assist faculty as they redesign courses. Widener solicited proposals for redesigned courses that will be included in its new, inter-disciplinary sustainability pathway and made 14 mini-grants to support faculty course development. Creating Curricular Coherence is a faculty-led initiative that involves comprehensive reviews of the curriculum. These are ambitious undertakings that will redefine undergraduate education at each institution for years to come. Funded by a $225,000 grant from The Teagle Foundation and with support from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, three institutions are streamlining their curricula using civic engagement and community-based learning as catalysts in their efforts. Macalester is piloting pathways in Geography and History with plans to expand their efforts. Morehouse and Widener are redesigning their curriculum with an emphasis on inquiry-based learning. Morehouse is using questions about the African diaspora to help shape its work while Widener is focusing on sustainability. In 2019, all Periclean campuses will be invited to a convening where we will discuss insights and best practices on curricular organization, streamlining, and institutional change. Building Campus-based Student Task Forces Comprised of student-led task forces on our member campuses, Student Choices - Student Voices (SCSV) encourages civic participation by hosting an array of events and activities about national issues for students and community members. SCSV activities on campus are in full swing. Wagner College held a political film screening and voter registration event featuring films exclusively produced by Wagner students. Each film included a Q&A with the audience and filmmakers which initiated valuable conversations about current events. At Ursinus College, a student moderated an election panel on campus and reported "a great turnout and the students were very engaged." Macalester College students assisted with voter registration at the Civic Engagement Center and are now collaborating with BallotReady to collect information to support the 2018 election. This fall, we released a SCSV guidebook and regular newsletter for student task forces working on voter registration and political engagement. Project Pericles would like to extend a warm welcome to our new Pericleans Presidents and Provosts. Presidents Hubert L. Grimes, Interim President, Bethune-Cookman University David A. Thomas, President, Morehouse College Provosts Scott Sibley, Interim Provost, Goucher College Crystal Dea Moore, Interim Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Skidmore College Fred Akl, Provost, Widener University New Members of the Project Pericles Presidents' Council Executive Committee Please join us in congratulating the following on their recent appointment: President José Antonio Bowen, Goucher College President Valerie Smith, Swarthmore College Pericleans in the News Whitman College Receives Large Grant from Mellon Foundation for Community-Based Teaching The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Whitman College an $800,000 grant to support ongoing and new initiatives related to community-based teaching and research, with a special emphasis upon increasing diversity and inclusion across campus. The grant will support, among other things, a faculty director position to guide and support community-based learning efforts across campus, faculty support for CBL pedagogy, community outreach, and new initiatives to develop themed curricular clusters based in experiential learning and community engagement. Whitman has made significant progress to deepen relationships with the Native American groups living in the region. In May, the college signed a historic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the nearby Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). The MOU lays out a plan for streamlining communication between Whitman and the Tribes and will be the platform for various types of community engagement activities, including an anticipated "Semester on the Reservation" program. Noah Leavitt (Director of Whitman's Student Engagement Center) and Jason Pribilsky(Prof. of Anthropology and Chair of the Social Sciences and Project Pericles Program Director) hosted an event for tribal stakeholders and Whitman faculty and staff called "Realizing the MOU." The event served as a knowledge exchange between the institutions. Over a day of programming, both groups shared key initiatives, ending with a brainstorming session to identify potential future collaborations between CTUIR and Whitman faculty and students. Project Pericles Board Member Biographies (continued from National Office News) Louis (Lou) A. Martarano has significant financial, managerial, educational, and board experience. He led groups in the United States and Europe in the financial services industry and is involved in higher education. He is the Director overseeing Penn State's prestigious Science BS/MBA accelerated joint degree program. For the Yale University Alumni Non-Profit Alliance (YANA), he is a board member, Vice President, and serves on the Executive Committee. He has served as Board of Trustees member (2002 to 2011) and Chair (2011 to 2013) for Marymount Manhattan College. Lou came to know Theresa Lang and Gene Lang through his service at Marymount. He attended our 2017 D4D National Conference to see the five finalist teams present at the legislative hearing. Starting his financial services career at Kidder Peabody & Co. in 1981, he was a specialist in the energy, environmental and infrastructure industries managing transactions to successful completion. Lou was recruited in 1992 by Merrill Lynch to take a leading role in its project finance business, eventually establishing and managing its London Project Finance Group in 1997. Lou received a Master's Degree in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry with honors from The Pennsylvania State University, where he serves as Chair of the Dean's Advisory Board and on its Development Committee. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of Penn State's Palmer Art Museum, which he has also chaired. James (Jim) H. Mullen, Jr. became the 21st president of Allegheny College in 2008. With more than 30 years of experience in leadership roles in higher education, and a keen appreciation for Allegheny's history and traditions, he is continuing the work of earlier presidents in building community while at the same time enhancing the College's reputation as one of the nation's preeminent colleges of the liberal arts and sciences. Dr. Mullen's tenure, Allegheny celebrated its bicentennial and also publicly launched the largest comprehensive fundraising campaign in College history, both in 2015. In addition, one of his key initiatives has been the establishment of the national Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life, which was created in 2011 to annually recognize two political figures, one liberal and one conservative, who argue passionately but with civility for their beliefs. In 2017, the Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania was awarded at the state level for the first time. Dr. Mullen has served as chair of the board of directors of the American Council on Education (ACE), the nation's most visible and influential higher education association with a base of more than 1,800 member institutions. He continues to serve ACE as a representative of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), which represents more than 1,000 private nonprofit institutions of higher learning on higher education policy issues with federal and state governments. Dr. Mullen also serves as chair of the board of directors of the Great Lakes College Association (GLCA) and as vice president of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Dr. Mullen also serves on boards for the Pennsylvania Economy League of Greater Pittsburgh and the Meadville Medical Center. In addition to his leadership roles in higher education and civic organizations, Dr. Mullen has been a sought-after lecturer in public policy and civility in public discourse, where his work focuses on the American presidency, as well as history and political science. Dr. Mullen is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He holds a master of public policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a doctorate in higher education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Pitzer Takes D4D Letter to an Elected Official Competition to "Inside-Out Prison Exchange" Classes (continued from Featured Article). By Tessa Hicks Peterson, Pitzer College To explain, let me provide a bit more information about Pitzer College and the unusual kind of community engagement it practices that has led it to partner with prisons. Pitzer was founded in 1963 as an experimental liberal arts college influenced by social reform movements with deep roots in American progressivism and a commitment to the founding ideas of participation and community. Given its mission and values, it is unsurprising to find that many of its faculty, staff, and students are deeply invested in one of the greatest social justice issues of our time: the devastating impacts that result from mass incarceration, the school to prison pipeline and the collateral damages people face while attempting people to re-enter and find success in "free" society after serving prison time. Given that 2.3 million people are incarcerated in the United States (which is five times higher than most of the countries in the world), this is an issue that impacts not just some of us, but all of us (if not by personal experience or that of our immediate community, then by the fact that all American taxpayers are complicit in upholding our current criminal justice procedures and correctional facilities by way of the industry's $26 billion annual charge to taxpayers). In an attempt to address the need for higher education in prison and to use our engagement there to educate students about the vast injustices borne of the criminal justice system, Pitzer has been teaching a number of "inside-out prison exchange" classes in at the California Rehabilitation Center (a local men's prison) since 2014. The "Inside-Out Prison Education program" is a nationwide effort aimed at connecting "outside" students from colleges and universities with "inside" students, who are incarcerated in local prisons, for the mutual benefit of each. While this practice has been gaining steady popularity and become established at colleges and universities across the country for the last 20 years, there are fewer examples of it on the West coast. Pitzer is spearheading a trend in California to offer semester-long, dual credit-bearing shared courses by providing nine of these courses in the last three years and securing a commitment by the entire Claremont College Consortium to teach eight of these classes annually, from an array of disciplines, into the future. Having had the opportunity to oversee this development at the Claremont Colleges and teach annually in this program since the first pilot year, I have come to see what a profound experience this form of community engagement creates, both for inside and outside students, as well as their teachers. The array of perspectives and life experiences in the classroom infuse class discussions and theoretical analysis with a new energy and purpose. The breaking down of barriers, assumptions, fears, and biases (from all sides) is deep and on-going. Furthermore, the critical pedagogy approach that is embedded in this model and the willingness of participants to try new things as part of this learning adventure means that innovative, interactive learning occurs daily inside the most unlikely of places. Thus, the stage that was perfectly set for introducing the "Letter to an Elected Official" national letter writing competition. The assignment was also perfectly aligned with my current course, Critical Community Studies, which explores current movements, theories, and narratives centered around critical issues in our local communities, namely education and incarceration. As such, the students needed to pull on what had sparked their interests in the readings we had done about mass incarceration, the school to prison pipeline, and pedagogies of education aiming at social change and liberation, and link these topics to current legislation. They researched local and federal legislation and found some fascinating bills surrounding incarceration and education that allowed them to connect the theoretical models they had studied to practical solutions, advocating passionately for the issues that directly impacted at least half our class. They discussed together what issues they wanted to pursue, what legislation best aligned with their interests, the additional research they'd need to do in order to substantiate their arguments, and what kind of compelling personal narratives they might include to make their letters persuasive and engaging. They worked together over seemingly insurmountable divides (based on their differing life experiences, academic levels, and the obvious distance between them that forbade any contact outside of class). Despite these challenges, they collaboratively wrote some of the most thoughtful, well-researched and impassioned letters than I have seen in my 10 years overseeing this competition. They wrote to elected officials about a range of bills concerning prison reform, bail reform and aims to reduce the recidivism rate of formerly incarcerated people as well as bills related to education, nonviolence, and peacebuilding. Through their letters, they advanced not only their own respective civic engagement abilities and interests but also used the assignment as a way to advance prison education and social change. On the last day of class, they discussed the incredibly meaningful impact the collaborative letter-writing assignment had on them. I end with examples of this impact, as articulated in their own words: "I consider myself a politically involved person but I had never written a letter to an elected official before. Ever. It had never been a part of my school curriculum, either. This assignment was a great example of how to teach civic engagement." (SK, outside student) "What we are writing about are bi-partisan issues-nobody wants recidivism! There is power in somebody reading a narrative they aren't familiar with and seeing how policies are impacting people's lives. Even if it doesn't mean huge change in laws right away, it can change people's minds." (SH, outside student) "It's one thing to have people speak for you. It's another to have your voice heard." (SA, inside student) "This was a very cool exercise in hope. It's hard to stay hopeful in the midst of current events. This was a cool way to incorporate abstract solutions into something that is concrete-a bill that could actually be passed." (OK, outside student) "When you come to prison, a lot of your own voice and choice is gone. Someone always tells you when, where and how. This assignment gave us an opportunity to come together and discuss what is an actual problem we are facing that we want to bring up and give voice to." (XX, inside student) About The Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ Letter to an Elected Official Competition: The competition engages students around public policy issues, the political process, and with their elected officials. Since 2008, hundreds of teams from all Periclean colleges and universities have participated in this competition. Every year, a panel of judges with significant legislative experience selects the five winning letters written by teams of students from Periclean campuses. Winning teams are selected based on their letters and their advocacy proposals. Letters have proposed innovative solutions on a wide variety of issues including the DREAM Act, nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Iran, a national food waste management systems, the student debt crisis, and K-12 education reform. Letters are sent to elected officials throughout the United States. About the Author Tessa Hicks Peterson is Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement, Project Pericles Program Director, and Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Pitzer College, USA and also the author of the newly released book, Student Development and Social Justice: Critical Learning, Radical Healing, and Community Engagement. Project Pericles Needs Your Support! Protect our democracy! Please make a donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue to prepare student leaders for lives of engaged citizenship. Donations can be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. To subscribe or to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected]. Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Reed College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhodes College * St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Whitman College * Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss Assistant Director: Garret S. Batten Program Associate: Arielle del Rosario Board of Directors Founder and Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang (1919-2017) Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: David A. Caputo Janet S. Dickerson Richard Guarasci Helen Lang Suskin Arthur E. Levine Jan R. Liss* Louis A. Martarano Michael S. McPherson James H. Mullen, Jr.* Harris L. Wofford *ex officio Presidents' Council Chair: Richard Guarasci, Wagner College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 13, Spring 2017 To view the Newsletter with photos: Spring 2017 Newsletter The Periclean Progress is a publication of Project Pericles, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential element of their educational programs in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.
National Office News: The Nation Loses a Moral Compass Project Pericles is deeply saddened by the loss of our Founder and Chair Emeritus, Eugene M. Lang on April 8. Gene was a visionary concerned about our democracy, civic engagement, and social responsibility long before these issues were prominent. From our founding in 2001, Gene's leadership, passion, and support have enabled Project Pericles to grow and thrive pursuing our mission of preparing future generations of thoughtful and involved citizens. We will miss his intelligence, humor, and indomitable spirit. Thank you to our Periclean Presidents and campuses for their many condolence calls, emails, and letters. We and the Lang family appreciate everyone's support. We honor Gene's memory by building upon his legacy of civic engagement and by holding ourselves to the highest standards as we continue to work on programs that embody Gene's vision. Gene's obituaries appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Project Pericles Receives Second Installment of $3 Million Endowment from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation In February, Project Pericles received the second half of a $3 million endowment from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. The Lang Foundation has made a $4.325 million commitment to Project Pericles, including the endowment and annual contributions through 2021. The foundation's support of Project Pericles' work ensures that we will continue to thrive for years to come. This substantial gift is an important investment in Eugene M. Lang's vision and in Project Pericles' mission of championing civic engagement in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community. We thank the Eugene M. Lang Foundation for this generous gift and for its many years of guidance, support, and wisdom. Project Pericles Announces 13 Periclean Faculty Leaders Awards The second cohort of the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ in 2017-2018 will create new courses incorporating civic engagement; promote civil dialogue locally through lectures, town hall meetings, and public events; and advance public scholarship nationally and internationally through publications and conference presentations. They will champion civil discourse, civic engagement, and social responsibility in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community. We are pleased to have a diverse group of professors from a wide range of disciplines including Archaeology and Classical Studies, Computer Science, Dance, English, Environmental Studies, History, Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology, Theatre, and Urban Studies. Through courses that utilize high impact learning strategies and address social, economic, environmental, health, and income inequality, among other issues, students gain an understanding of how they can use their knowledge and skills to improve their communities. Professors and community members model civil discourse, as stakeholders, to address pressing issues. Students gain experience working as part of a team with community members. Two Examples: At Dillard University, Assistant Professor Casey Schreiber will use the city of New Orleans as a living classroom to teach about housing policy by examining the city's affordable housing crisis, gentrification, and mixed-income development. At New England College, Associate Professor Alex Picard and Professor Glenn Stuart of the Theatre Department will work with their students to produce an original production that addresses issues of concern to the community and provides a space "to engage in theatrical civic education." Student engagement with real world issues supports academic excellence. By utilizing classroom learning and mobilizing it towards issues of civic and social concern, these courses promote "High Engagement Learning". The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation are supporting the Periclean Faculty Leadership Program. Article continues with a list of the 13 PFL awards, courses, and peer mentors. Debating for Democracy (D4D) Letters to an Elected Official Competition (from left, Judges: Constance Berry Newman, Ruth Messinger, and Martha Kanter; Contestants: Sonya Morud and Leilani Ganser, Reed College; Matt Thibodeau, Carleton College; Rowan Lanning, Pace University; Charles Williamson and Elizabeth Balch-Crystal, Swarthmore College; Danielle Graves, Berea College; Allison Tucker, Carleton College; Kerringtan Maddox, Berea College; Christina Thomas, Pace University; and Jan Liss, Executive Director, Project Pericles. Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference Attendees Impress All "Attending the D4D Conference finally made me believe in the power of youth. We are actually the change, and we are actually the future, and these AREN'T simply empty inspirational words. I know that there are future leaders in that conference room, and I can't wait to see where we all go from here." - Kwani-Fawn Marcellay, Reed College ('20) For two days this spring, 57 student leaders and activists from 24 Periclean campuses gathered in New York City for the 2017 Debating for Democracy Conference, hosted by Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts in the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center. Together, they shared their concerns and efforts on immigration reform and sanctuary cities, clean drinking water, climate change and healthy waterways, racial and economic justice, to name just a few of the issues students are working on. The conference featured two interactive workshops for students, the Legislative Hearing, four panels, and visits to New York City based nonprofits. With new-found skills and contacts on other campuses, student delegates returned to their colleges to advance civic and political engagement among their classmates and community. Representing the mission of Project Pericles in action - the conference provided a forum to share ideas and advocate for issues of critical social and political concern. The conference was, "Democracy in action," commented Ryan Perez, Macalester College ('20), "a gathering of so many civically-engaged individuals in one room." Student leaders were joined by college presidents, faculty, staff, nonprofit activists, foundation, government, and community leaders, and members of the media (Additional Photographs of Conference). "I can't wait to get out and mobilize my campus for environmental issues!"- Alyssa Bueno, Skidmore College ('18) "The most valuable part of the national conference was the interaction with people from other colleges. This is an amazing tool for organizing [and it] kindles hope in each participant to know that so many people exist that are invested in creating social change." - James Williams, Goucher College ('19) Project Pericles designed the D4D National Conference to provide students with concrete steps they can take to move the issues they care about forward. Prior to the March 30-31 conference, all student attendees, in teams, wrote Letters to an Elected Official, on pressing policy issues. These were mailed to elected officials across the country and submitted to Project Pericles. Our judges and reviewers commented on how well argued and written the letters were. For the full line-up of panels and workshops that students participated, check out the 2017 conference agenda. Student Teams Take Home $5,000 to Work on Advocacy Campaigns on their Campuses and in their Communities The Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ Legislative Hearing is a highlight of the conference. Prior to the conference, a panel of judges with significant legislative experience selected five letters from the letters submitted by more than 70 student teams from Periclean campuses. The letters proposed innovative solutions to issues including education, immigration, and the environment; and were sent to elected officials across the United States. The five teams of students responsible for the winning letters then presented at the Legislative Hearing. Teams from Berea College, Carleton College, Pace University, Reed College, and Swarthmore College discussed their public policy proposals with a panel of former government officials: Constance Berry Newman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Martha Kanter, Executive Director of the College Promise Campaign and former U.S. Under Secretary of Education; and Ruth Messinger, Global Ambassador and former CEO/President of American Jewish World Service and former Manhattan Borough President. After writing superb letters, the teams faced stiff questioning about the pros and cons of their policy recommendations. The teams did an exceptional job defending their positions. Pace University won the Letters to an Elected Official Competition for "A Letter in Support of Amending the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act to Protect the Hudson and Other American Rivers from the Unwarranted Expansion of Commerce in Bakken Oil" to Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) by Rowan Lanning ('18) and Christina Thomas ('19). In this letter, the authors request that Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) introduce an amendment to the Coast Guard and Marine Transportation Act declaring a proposal to create 43 special anchorages for oil barges on the Hudson River a "major federal action" under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The potential environmental, economic, and social impacts of the proposal are significant and not restricted to the Hudson alone, especially given the expected increase in national maritime commerce in Bakken oil. Under its NEPA rules, the Coast Guard enjoys a national "categorical exclusion" from conducting Environmental Impact Statements for special anchorages that can only be remedied by an act of Congress. The Pace team received $3,000 to move their issue forward and the four finalist teams each received $500. We are looking forward to working with Pace and the other teams as they work on the issues over the coming year. Pace has already met with staff members from Representative Nadler's office. See the brief description of the four finalists' letters and read the letters submitted by the five teams here. Jan Liss moderates Social Action - Panel Discussion with Dev Aujla, Founder & CEO; Catalog, Greta Zarro, New York Organizer, Food & Water Watch; Jason Mangone, Senior Advisor, New York City Department of Veteran Services; Charlotte Turovsky, Head of Operations, RapidSOS Other Conference Highlights: The students met with leaders from non-profits and media organizations who are on the forefront of social change. Through panels on Social Action; Media, Political Engagement, and Reporting in an Age of Partisanship; and Mobilization and Movements, they provided students with concrete steps to move their policy or social issue forward. To start the conference, Jan R. Liss, Project Pericles Executive Director, moderated a panel with four leading social activists from innovative organizations: Dev Aujla, Founder & CEO, Catalog; Jason A. Mangone, Senior Advisor, New York City Department of Veteran Services; Charlotte Turovsky (Carleton College, '11 and former D4D Legislative Hearing Winner), Head of Operations, RapidSOS; and Greta Zarro, New York Organizer, Food & Water Watch. The four panelists promote social change by empowering individuals with the skills and tools to advocate for themselves. Following the discussion, the students met in small groups for a workshop with one of the panelists. The students learned to develop their "public narrative," and explored the essential elements of effective narrative that can be used in advocacy work. The "Media, Political Engagement, and Reporting in an Age of Partisanship - Panel Discussion" was moderated by Stephanie Browner, Dean, Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts and featured a diverse range of reporters discussing the challenges of covering the news in a charged political climate. Students were excited to have Bhaskar Sunkara, Founding Editor, Jacobin, one of, if not the, leading socialist magazines in the United States. Jason Willick, Staff Writer for The American Interest, offered a more conservative view with Jillian Berman, Reporter, MarketWatch and David Nir, Political Director, Daily Kos; rounding out the panel. The "Mobilization and Movements - Panel Discussion" moderated by Christina Dawkins, Director of the Office of Civic Engagement, Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, featured representatives from cutting-edge social and political movements and organizations discussing their plans. Panelists included Phil Aroneanu, co-founder of 350.org and Senior Campaigns Director, Purpose; Iain Keith, Campaign Director, Avaaz(the globe's largest and most powerful online activist network); Matthew Slutsky, former Managing Director of Partnerships, Change.org; and Sarah Taylor, Women, Peace and Security Advocate of the Women's Rights Division, Human Rights Watch. "I love your students, they are doers!" - Iain Keith (returning panelist) The second interactive workshop at the conference was facilitated by Christopher Kushand Kevin Schultze of Soapbox Consulting. They train citizens to effectively communicate their issues to Congress. Christopher and Kevin led the D4D on the Road workshops for Project Pericles in 2008-2009 and 2012-2013. Their session provided an opportunity for students to practice skills and techniques for engaging elected officials around issues the students are passionate about. "Debating for Democracy helps to develop the multidimensional toolbox for advocacy work; I'm grateful I've had the opportunity to engage in hands-on work that puts my strengths in the spotlight while simultaneously building proficiency in other areas." - Isabelle Turner, Goucher College ('20) At the conclusion of the conference, Garret Batten, Assistant Director, Project Pericles, moderated a panel of representatives from New York City based non-profit organizations. With an organization leader, students then toured the non-profit of their choice: Community Voices Heard, Harlem Grown, Friends of the High Line, "I Have a Dream" Foundation, or Museum at Eldridge Street/A Landmark Synagogue Story. For many students, this was a highlight of the conference. "My overall mindset about how successful cooperations are built and how they function was challenged in a positive way, which gave me new insight [into] how ... I would be able to create my own non-profit." - Ryan Bell, Morehouse College ('19) This year's D4D National Conference was dedicated to Eugene M. Lang, whose vision inspired this conference. Project Pericles thanks the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York for their support. Project Pericles Receives $225,000 Grant from The Teagle Foundation for "Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence" Project Pericles, Macalester College, Morehouse College, and Widener University are participating in a new, three-year initiative, Creating Curricular Coherence Through Inquiry-Based Curricula and Thematic Pathways. The initiative explores different but allied approaches to creating greater coherence in the undergraduate curriculum. These faculty-led initiatives involve comprehensive reviews of the curriculum and are ambitious undertakings that will redefine undergraduate education at each institution for years to come. Colleges are streamlining their curricula using civic engagement and community-based learning as catalysts in their efforts. Some campuses are piloting pathways in specific departments with plans to expand their efforts, others are redesigning their curriculum with an emphasis on inquiry-based learning. Macalester is using pathways within Geography and History to bring greater structure to students' educational experiences and illustrate how specific disciplines can address public issues. Morehouse is using questions about the African diaspora to help shape its work while Widener is incorporating sustainability. Macalester, Morehouse, and Widener and Project Pericles have formed a community of practice and will meet on a regular basis to collaborate, to provide feedback, and to share information. This work will be shared with our member institutions and higher education more generally. Each of the three campuses will receive grants for participating in the three-year initiative. In the summer of 2019, representatives from all 31 Periclean campuses will convene to discuss how lessons from the "Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence" initiative can be applied to their campus. This work is made possible through the generous support of The Teagle Foundation and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. Our Sympathies to The Morehouse Community on the Passing of William Taggart Morehouse President It is with great sadness that we share the news that William J. "Bill" Taggart, Interim President of Morehouse College, passed away suddenly on June 7. We express our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and the Morehouse College community for their loss. Provost Michael Hodge will serve as Acting President until a new Interim President is named by the Board of Trustees. To learn more about Bill Taggart's legacy and his many accomplishments, please refer to the Morehouse College news release. Continued from Project Pericles Announces 13 Periclean Faculty Leaders Awards The Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ was first launched in 2010 with support from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation. This second round, funded by the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, builds upon the work carried out under the initial program. Insights and best practices from the initial PFL Program are discussed in our white paper, The Periclean Diamond: Linking College Campuses, Communities, and Colleagues via Social and Civic High Engagement Learning by Ben Berger, Associate Professor of Political Science and Periclean Faculty Leader at Swarthmore College, and Jan R. Liss, Executive Director of Project Pericles. Project Pericles provides an award of $2,000 per campus with campuses providing matching funds. The awards support the design and teaching of a course incorporating civic engagement and civil dialogue activities at the college. The Periclean Faculty Leader applications were reviewed by Project Pericles staff and selected by outside evaluators. We were impressed with the excellent quality of the proposals and the enthusiastic response of the participating colleges and universities. Each Periclean Faculty Leader (PFL) is paired with a PFL from another institution at the beginning of their tenure. They consult each other throughout the program. At the conclusion of the program the PFLs prepare a brief portfolio of their work which includes (a) the syllabus of their CEC course and other instructional and evaluation materials, (b) a copy of the abstract they sent describing their research paper/project; and/or (c) an overview of the activity they developed that brought diverse campus and community members together to participate in an activity that enriched public life, addressed current public/community issues, and enlivened democratic debate and discourse. The paired PFLs share their portfolios with each other and discuss the impact of their projects in promoting the civic engagement of their students. After reviewing each other's portfolios, the faculty members prepare a review of their partner's work for their partner and Project Pericles. Campuses Awarded PFLs for 2017-2018: Dillard University, New Orleans, LA Casey Schreiber Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy Course: Housing Policy Peer: Jessica Magaldi, Pace University Drew University, Madison, NJ Emily Hill Assistant Professor of Computer Science Course: Innovation I (Co-taught with Andrew Elliott, Associate Professor of Theatre) (An interdisciplinary course offered under Civic Engagement) Peer: Mark Goadrich, Hendrix College The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA Ulrike Krotscheck Member of the Faculty in Archaeology and Classical Studies (Co-taught with Bradley Proctor, Member of the Faculty in History) Course: Inventing the Citizen: The History of Political Action and its Limits Peer: Wilson Valentín-Escobar, Hampshire College Goucher College, Baltimore, MD Phong Le Assistant Professor of Mathematics Course: Data Analytics Peer: Lynne Steuerle Schofield, Swarthmore College Hampshire College, Amherst, MA Wilson Valentín-Escobar Associate Professor of American Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, and Sociology Course: Citizens(hip) and Colonialism in our Backyard: Puerto Rican History, Civic Engagement, and Decolonial Social Change Peer: Ulrike Krotscheck & Bradley Proctor, The Evergreen State College Hendrix College, Conway, AR Mark Goadrich Associate Professor of Computer Science Course: Foundations of Computer Science Peer: Emily Hill, Drew University Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA Michael H. Janis Associate Professor of English Course: Honors College Composition Peer: Glenn Stuart, New England College New England College, Henniker, NH S. Alexandra (Alex) Picard, Associate Professor of Theatre (Co-taught with Glenn Stuart, Professor of Theatre) Course: Language and Discourse: How a Resistance Can be a Production Peers: Victoria Fortuna, Reed College, paired with Alex Picard & Michael H. Janis, Morehouse College, paired with Glenn Stuart Pace University, New York, NY Jessica Magaldi Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Taxation Course: Business Law - Civic Engagement Peer: Casey Schreiber, Dillard University Reed College, Portland, OR Victoria Fortuna Assistant Professor of Dance Course: Community Dance and Collective Creation Peer: S. Alexandra (Alex) Picard, New England College Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY Nurcan Atalan-Helicke Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Course: Political Ecology Peer: Vanessa Volpe, Ursinus College Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA Lynne Steuerle Schofield Associate Professor of Statistics Course: Topics in Statistics, Data Analysis for Policy Reports Peer: Phong Le, Goucher College Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA Vanessa Volpe Assistant Professor of Psychology Course: Minority Health and Health Disparities Peer: Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, Skidmore College Continued from Student Teams Take Home $5,000 to Work on Advocacy Campaigns on their Campuses and in their Communities The four finalists are: Berea College, "A Letter in Support of the Safe Drinking Water Act (H.R. 417) and an Amendment to Require the Improvement of Consumer Confidence Reports and Stabilize Funding for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund" to Representative John Yarmuth (D-KY) by Danielle Graves and Kerringtan Maddox. This letter urges Congressperson John Yarmuth (D-KY 3rd) to join his colleague Brenda Lawrence (D-MI 14th) in sponsoring an amendment to H.R. 417 to stabilize funding for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program while streamlining the accessibility and understandability of consumer confidence reports on drinking water safety. With 33 cities in the U.S. suffering from contaminated drinking water, it is vital that the new administration and EPA director not cut funding for the DWSRF program, which designates funding for cities to treat their unsafe water supplies as well as upgrade their drinking water intake, treatment, and distribution infrastructure. Carleton College, "A Letter in Opposition to the Defense of Dwelling and Person Act of 2017 (H.F. 238)" (known as the Stand Your Ground Bill) to Minnesota State Senator Rich Draheim (R) by Naomi Borowsky, Victor Huerta, Matt Thibodeau, and Allison Tucker. This letter urges Senator Rich Draheim of Minnesota to oppose the color-blind policy of the Defense of Dwelling and Person Act. With the current national political climate, it becomes even more important to oppose this policy that could potentially lead to increased violence against people of color and immigrants. We ask that Senator Draheim advocate for his constituents in Minnesota affected by this bill and oppose H.F. 238. Reed College, "A Letter in Support of the Safe Transfer Act" (would require post-secondary institutions to disclose sex offenses on students' transcripts) to Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) by Leilani Ganser and Sonya Morud. This letter urges Congressman Blumenauer to sponsor Representative Jackie Speier's Safe Transfer Act as well as introduce similar legislation in the state of Oregon. This bill requires Title IX violations be disclosed on post-secondary institution transcripts. We see the current state of Title IX protections as lacking to a point of a public safety concern. Swarthmore College, "A Letter in Support of Funding Online Access to College Courses for Rural Pennsylvania High School Students" to Pennsylvania State Representative Leanne Kruger-Braneky (D) by Elizabeth Balch-Crystal and Charles Williamson. This letter urges Pennsylvania State Representative Leanne Kruger-Braneky to sponsor legislation providing funding for rural Pennsylvania high school students to enroll in online college courses free of charge. While many urban and suburban schools allow students to take on-site courses at local state universities for free, rural schools do not have this opportunity because they lack the geographic proximity. To correct this inequality, we propose funding for rural high school students to take online university courses for free. The complete version of the letters from the five teams are available here. Project Pericles Needs Your Support! Please consider making a donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue our work preparing tomorrow's engaged citizens. Donations can be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. To subscribe or to submit to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected]. Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Reed College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhodes College * St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Whitman College * Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss Assistant Director: Garret Batten Program Associate: Elisabeth Weiman Program Intern: Victoria Gonzalez Board of Directors Founder and Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang (1919-2017) Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: David A. Caputo Presidents' Council Chair: Richard Guarasci, Wagner College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 13, Winter 2016-2017 To view the Newsletter with photos: Winter 2016-2017 Newsletter The Periclean Progress is a publication of Project Pericles, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential element of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.
National Office News: Project Pericles Releases New White Paper We have just released our white paper, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement: Five Approaches to Institutionalizing Civic Engagement by Garret S. Batten, Project Pericles; Adrienne Falcón, Carleton College; and Jan R. Liss, Project Pericles. The white paper documents the accomplishments of 26 participating colleges and universities as part of a three-year initiative to promote an intentional approach to civic engagement that prioritizes coherent program design and the incorporation of civic engagement throughout the undergraduate experience. As part of the initiative, teams on each campus inventoried and mapped all curricular and co-curricular civic and community engagement on their campuses, shared insights with their colleagues from other campuses, developed actions plans for strengthening their approaches to civic engagement, and implemented a wide range of initiatives. Campuses developed new thematic pathways for linking courses and co-curricular activities around specific substantive issues such as education, health, and sustainable energy; restructured their approaches to civic engagement; developed civic engagement certificate programs; revised their civic engagement/social justice requirement; held numerous faculty and course development workshops; designed enhanced assessment and tracking tools for documenting student participation; strengthened advising around civic engagement; and incorporated student reflection through courses and workshops. The white paper discusses five basic approaches to organizing curricular and co-curricular programming for civic engagement: Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility Requirements, Civic Scholars Programs, Pathway Approaches, Certificates, and Entrepreneurial/Open Choice Models. The white paper highlights mapping of civic engagement as a catalyst for change on campus and shares many takeaways from this ambitious project. The white paper is available on our web site. The white paper and the Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement Initiative were supported by the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation. The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund hosted our 2014 convening. Project Pericles Launches Second Round of Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL)™ Program Through support from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Project Pericles is pleased to offer 12 Periclean Faculty Leader awards. The award carries with it $2,000 for each participating campus. The Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ is a faculty leadership and course development program dedicated to incorporating civil discourse, civic engagement, and social responsibility across the undergraduate curriculum. Periclean Faculty Leaders (PFLs) will champion civil discourse and social responsibility in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community. As with the initial round of the program, Project Pericles will look to include faculty members from across the disciplines, especially those that have not traditionally incorporated social responsibility. Competitively selected PFLs will develop, teach, and evaluate new or substantially revised academic courses that incorporate civil discourse and social responsibility as critical elements of the educational experience. PFLs will promote civil dialogue locally through lectures, town hall meetings, and public events; and advance public scholarship nationally and internationally through publications and conference presentations. In order to promote collaboration, PFLs from different campuses will be paired for peer mentorship. Additionally, PFLs from the first round of the program will provide support to this second cohort. The new Periclean Faculty Leaders will be announced in April. Our white paper The Periclean Diamond: Linking College, Campuses, Communities, and Colleagues via Social and Civic High Engagement Learning by Ben Berger, Swarthmore College and Jan R. Liss, Project Pericles documents best practices from the initial PFL Program. Debating for Democracy (D4D )™ workshop D4D on the Road™ Rocks at Carleton On January 21, Carleton College and Macalester College co-hosted a Debating for Democracy D4D on the Road workshop at Carleton. Despite falling on the same day as the Women's March, the workshop drew over 50 students and community members from the two Periclean campuses, as well as student from neighboring St. Olaf College. One of the students commented, "This [workshop] really challenged my understanding of advocacy." Another noted, "...Any advocate or activist needs to be able to frame (communicate) his or her issue, which is exactly what this workshop aimed to teach us." Participants expressed interest in a wide range of topics including climate change, education reform, healthcare reform, immigration, LGBTQ rights, prison reform, racial justice, student debt, and women's rights. They valued the chance to work with like-minded peers from nearby colleges. With six workshops so far this year, Project Pericles has trained students from 17 different campuses as well as community members and students from middle and high schools that have partnerships with Periclean campuses. These one-day workshops empower student leaders and community members. Attendees gain the knowledge, skills, and techniques needed to construct persuasive messages about their issues and effectively communicate with elected officials and the general public. This year Project Pericles is pleased to partner with FrameWorks Institute, which is facilitating the workshops. Frameworks teaches a strategic approach to framing that helps communicators build support by changing the conversation about social issues. Participants learn how to use explanatory language in new ways, how to apply the tools of social science to understand what they are up against when communicating with the public, and how to present solutions to the important social concerns of students in a persuasive way to make change. The D4D on the Road workshops are made possible through the support of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. Let us know if you would like to attend a workshop in February or March. See the last page for the complete schedule of workshops. Update on Student Teams from the 2016 D4D Letters to an Elected Official Competition Teams from Allegheny College, Berea College, Carleton College, Hendrix College, and Pitzer College were selected as the winners of the Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ Letters to an Elected Official competition. The competition engages students around public policy issues, the political process, and with their elected officials. Please consider making a donation to support the work of our student activists and leaders. Our democracy needs active and engaged citizens. A donation of $500 supports a campus based team working on critical public policy issues. A donation of $1,000 sends a student leader to the Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference in New York City. Below are highlights from two of the teams. We will provide updates on the other teams in future newsletters. Carleton College-Students Start Agricultural Program: Heart of the Heartland Five students at Carleton College are launching an agricultural-based educational program called Heart of the Heartland. Their initiative grew out of their support of the 2014 Farm Bill. Two of the team members, Sarah Goldman '17 and Jenni Rogan '19, wrote a letter to Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in support of subsidizing crop insurance to allow for more diversified crops of fruits and vegetables and away from an overreliance on corn and soy. In turn, they argued, this would help secure healthy and nutritious food grown within the United States. The Carleton students started organizing Heart of the Heartland by building connections with farmers and nonprofits in the Northfield area, and by raising additional funds. The Carleton team is initially developing a summer program with plans to expand beyond this. During a "five-week intensive agricultural program" students will be placed with farmer mentors and also take "topical seminars in agricultural biology and policy (from http://heartoftheheartland.com/young-farmer-summer-seminar/)." Working with Carleton's Center for Community and Civic Engagement, the students are coordinating logistics for summer 2017. In order to raise awareness about the program, they have started holding informational workshops at area colleges including Macalester College and St. Olaf College. The website they created is now live: heartoftheheartland.com. Hendrix College-Standing Up for the Rights of Juvenile Defendants Currently in Arkansas, news media can publicize the names of juveniles charged as adults for crimes. Katie Dobbins '17, Emma Gaither '18, Casey Hawkins '18, and Tejas Soman'18 wrote to State Senator Joyce Elliott (D-AR) about restricting local media sources from publishing the names of juveniles. This fall, the Hendrix team coordinated a local awareness concert with a letter writing campaign. The concert opened with remarks from a Little Rock attorney who shares their concern. During the show as two local bands played, the team passed out postcards for people to sign to show their support and concern. Their next move is to further engage the community and students by hosting an open discussion event with people working on the issue: a local juvenile defense attorney, representatives from local NGOs, and a student advocate. Project Pericles Receives First Installment of $3 Million Endowment from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation In 2016, Project Pericles received the first half of a $3 million endowment from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. The Lang Foundation has made a $4.325 million commitment to Project Pericles, including the endowment and annual contributions through 2021. The foundation's support of Project Pericles' work ensures that we will continue to thrive for years to come. This substantial gift is an important investment in Eugene M. Lang's vision and in Project Pericles' mission of championing civic engagement in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community. We thank the Eugene M. Lang Foundation for this generous gift and for many years of on-going support. Conference & Meetings Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference Plans for the D4D National Conference on March 30 and 31 at The New School are coming together. The Honorable Martha Kanter, Executive Director of the College Promise Campaign and former Under Secretary of Education; The Honorable Ruth Messinger, President and CEO of American Jewish World Service and former Borough President of Manhattan; and The Honorable Constance Berry Newman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; will serve as judges for the Letters to an Elected Official Legislative Hearing. Christopher Kush, Author of The One Hour Activist, and Kevin Schultze, both of Soapbox Consulting and former facilitators for D4D on the Road™, will run a workshop focused on how to effectively communicate with elected officials and the general public. This session will help the student attendees with the next steps to take their letters to an elected official and issues and move them forward. The D4D National Conference is supported by the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. "If the Wind Doesn't Blow - Row: Empowering All Students through Integrated Civic Engagement Curricula Panel"-Project Pericles at AAC&U On January 26 as part of AAC&U's 2017 National Meeting in San Francisco, Project Pericles and four Periclean Colleges presented a panel on how campuses are working to provide coherent and integrated programs to more effectively empower students. Panelists discussed how their campuses represented one or more of the five models presented in our recently released white paper, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement: Five Approaches to Institutionalizing Civic Engagement, as well as other insights from the Creating Cohesive Paths initiative. The session was well attended with a standing room only audience of more than 100 attendees. The Q and A was particularly exciting. Over half of the attendees signed up for more information about our work and how it could help them advance civic engagement on their campuses. Presenting were Adrienne Falcón, Carleton College; Amy Koritz, Drew University; Jan Liss, Project Pericles; John McLain, The Evergreen State College; and Tessa Hicks Peterson, Pitzer College. Project Pericles Board Member Levine Receives Award from CIC Rich Ekman, President of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and Project Pericles Vice Chair, presented Arthur Levine with the Allen P. Splete Award for Outstanding Service. Levine is the President of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and also serves on the Project Pericles board. Splete is a member of the Project Pericles National Board of Advisors. We congratulate Arthur Levine on this award and thank him for his longstanding contributions to Higher Education and Project Pericles. The Project Pericles breakfast at CIC's Presidents Institute was once again hosted by Jan Liss, Executive Director of Project Pericles and Lyle Roelofs President of Berea Collegeand Project Pericles Presidents' Council Executive Committee member. Project Pericles Program Directors' Conference at Drew We had an excellent Program Directors' Conference at Drew University on October 27 and 28. President MaryAnn Baenninger hosted a dinner for the group, and we had substantive discussions about the organization of civic engagement programs on our campuses and how to advance our work. Other topics included engaging with diverse communities, reflection, institutionalizing civic engagement, assessing impact, and curricular coherence. We also heard from students in Drew's Civic Scholars program and community partners. We were pleased to have representatives from our newest campuses - The Evergreen State College, Reed College, Skidmore College, and Whitman College - attend the conference. Pericleans in the News: Bates, Goucher, and Occidental Continue Groundbreaking Work with Prisoners Several of our Periclean campuses have developed groundbreaking educational programs for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. Below we highlight work at Bates College, Goucher College, and Occidental College. Goucher College to Award B.A.s Through Goucher Prison Education Partnership By Amy Roza This fall, Goucher College received the state and regional permissions necessary to confer a Goucher College Bachelor of Arts degree to students in prisons. While this has been the vision since the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP) was founded, to date students have taken Goucher courses and earned college credit, while staff pursued the approvals necessary to confer a degree. Now GPEP college students can officially be recognized as Goucher College bachelor's degree candidates. Students will major in American Studies, an existing interdisciplinary Goucher major, allowing them to take courses in sociology, history, political science, religion, English, media studies, and other fields within a single dynamic degree. Goucher Prison Education Partnership students are currently the only men and women in Maryland who can complete a bachelor's degree onsite in prison. GPEP staff and faculty, along with students, continue to forge a path regionally and nationally. GPEP students greeted the news of the bachelor's degree with cheers. Prison in Higher Education: Expanding Opportunities in California By Cynthia Magallanes-Gonzalez (Occidental '17) and Anna Palmer (Occidental '19) In the Fall of 2016, the Office of Community Engagement (OCE) at Occidental College and the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program partnered to host a gathering of instructors who were previously trained in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program methodology, which equips instructors to teach inside prisons. This gathering was generously funded by the Kalliopeia Foundation. Oxy student coordinators Cynthia Magallanes-Gonzalez and Anna Palmer helped facilitate the gathering. The Inside-Out program's mission is to increase opportunities for people - inside and outside of prisons - to take courses inside prisons and create dialogue on topics such as crime, justice, and other social issues. Instructors from various institutions including Pitzer College, Scripps College, and Imperial Valley College attended the gathering. During the day-long event, Magallanes-Gonzalez present a mapping project that shows the location of college instructors trained to teach courses inside prisons, as well as prisons, juvenile halls, and jails near affiliated higher-level educational institutions. The goal of the project is to allow faculty who teach inside prisons to network with one another and see what resources are available in their area. Instructors and members of nonprofit organizations praised the map and thought it could be a useful way to expand the courses offered at different prison facilities. Following the gathering, the Education Justice Consortium (EJC) held a meeting. EJC works across institutions to make education more attainable to incarcerated and previously incarcerated people. Attendees included colleagues from California State University Long Beach, California State University Fullerton, California State University Los Angeles, and Pomona College. Participants strategized about how to bring a bachelor of arts college program into California prisons. The meeting highlighted the flourishing relationships between academics and nonprofits in efforts to build resources for people inside of prisons. This Spring the OCE plans to follow-up with another gathering focused on bringing a B.A. college program into California prisons. The OCE plans to hold Incarceration Awareness Month in March and is working to connect the work of Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and the mapping project with the Occidental community. The Meaning and Depiction of Suffering: Mass Incarceration in the Spotlight at Bates Winter 2016-2017 marked the fourth time Bates College Professor Cynthia Bakerincluded community-engaged projects as a central component of her Religious Studies course, "Human Suffering." Students were once again emphatic about the meaningful impact this work had on their learning. Complementing their close readings and discussion of the meaning and depiction of suffering in the biblical books of Job, Revelation, and Genesis, class members collaborated with partner organizations working to end mass incarceration and improve the lives of prisoners and those who are re-entering society. Working in small groups, students supported the work of their partner organizations through both action and research-based projects. One group offered detailed feedback on essays written by prisoners participating in the College Guild's correspondence education program. Based in Brunswick, Maine, the College Guild offers courses on a wide variety of subjects for prisoners from around the country, operating on the motto that "Respect Reduces Recidivism." Bates students spoke highly of the written work submitted by students in the program, while acknowledging the complicated struggle between hopefulness, resilience, and anguish that came through in their poems and creative essays. In order to institutionalize the relationship between Bates and the College Guild, the students plan to establish a campus club in the coming year, which will become a platform for an ongoing partnership. Other projects for the course laid the groundwork for sustained collaborations as well. Responding to concerns within Lewiston's new American community about increasing rates of juvenile arrest and detention, three students researched culturally aware programs to educate immigrant youth and prevent them from entering the juvenile correctional system. Their findings are supporting the programming efforts of Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services. Another student in the class mentored students in the Police Activities League Center in Auburn, which aims to foster positive relationships between youth and law enforcement in a local neighborhood with a high rate of juvenile crime. Still another student made a comprehensive list of addiction recovery services in Androscoggin County and is working to bring the information together into a mobile app that will provide a resource for law enforcement and justice department personnel seeking to offer alternatives to incarceration. And a group of students developed social media accounts and strategies to support efforts by the Center for Wisdom's Women to establish a house for women re-entering society after incarceration. For their final projects, each student group developed poster presentations that brought together their analysis of biblical texts and their work in the community. They shared their results at the public symposium, "Chaos or Community: Conversations on Criminal Justice Reform in Maine," organized by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and several affiliated faculty members. Speakers included formerly incarcerated individuals, two U.S. Attorneys, and law enforcement, corrections, and justice officials from around Androscoggin County. One of the highlights of the day was a short film by a group of "Human Suffering" students, which featured four people in treatment at Grace Street Recovery Services responding to Maine Governor Paul LePage's call for vigilante violence against drug traffickers. The film and the personal narratives served as a powerful testament to the role that collaborations between community members and Bates students have for transforming perceptions of issues of social injustice. Pace University Students Ramp Up Campaign to End the Use of Wild Animals in Circuses What do Austria, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Paraguay, Peru, and Singapore all have in common that the United States does not (yet) share? They have enacted a nationwide ban on the use of wild animals in circuses. The Environmental Policy clinic, one of Pace University's Civic Engagement and Public Value courses, are advocating for a new state bill to ban elephants from performing as entertainment in New York. Pace students first went up to Albany and discussed the legislation with State Senator Terrence Murphy and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin who told them to come up with a bill. Pace students had done research on elephant abuse and found that elephants used for entertainment purposes suffer physical and psychological harm due to harsh living conditions and training techniques. They drafted a bill and got 1,100 signatures on a petition in support. In June 2016, the Elephant Protection Act passed the NY Senate 62-0, but their work isn't over. This year, students will need support to get the bill re-introduced and passed in the Assembly and are working on building coalitions all over New York State to get it done. Pace Senior Nicole Virgona, one of the students behind the bill, said times had changed and people no longer support animals being kept in captivity. "Elephants kept in captivity live half as long, suffer from foot disease, and social isolation," Virgona said. "They are forced to put themselves in unnatural positions. It's up to us to voice our opinion and make a difference." Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey®, one of the nations oldest circuses announced that it would close in 2017 in part due to issues raised by animal rights activists. Hendrix Community Discusses On-Campus Voting This fall, Hendrix College Politics professor, Director of Civic Engagement Projects, and Project Pericles Program Director Jay Barth and Peter Butler '17, an interdisciplinary politics, philosophy, and economics major and Student Senate President from Naperville, Illinois, discussed the importance of on-campus voting centers at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. In 2015, Hendrix successfully lobbied to keep their on-campus voting site in the face of plans by the Republican controlled election commission to eliminate the site. Making on-campus voting sites available to Arkansas college students was an active topic across the state in the lead-up to the 2016 elections. Barth and Butler shared their experiences in working for expanded access to student voting sites on their campus and reflected on the centers' importance for making democracy come to life for our newest voters. Watch the video here. 2016-2017 D4D on the Road Workshop Schedule Please let us know if you will be able to join us at a workshop. Saturday, October 8--Pitzer College in Claremont, California (Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, Occidental College, Pomona College, and Scripps College visited) Friday, November 4--Pace University in Pleasantville, New York (The New Schoolvisited) Saturday, November 5--Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Friday, December 2--Wagner College in Staten Island, New York (Drew University and The New School visited) Saturday, December 3--Bates College in Lewiston, Maine (Hampshire College and New England College visited) Saturday, January 21--Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota (Macalester College and St. Olaf College visited) Saturday, February 11--Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania (Swarthmore College and Widener University visiting) Saturday, February 25--The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington (Reed College visiting) Friday, March --Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland Project Pericles Needs Your Support! Please consider making a generous donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue our work preparing tomorrow's engaged citizens. Donations can now be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. To subscribe or to submit to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected]. Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University * The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Reed College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * Rhodes College St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College * Spelman College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Whitman College * Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss, [email protected] Board of Directors Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: David A. Caputo Presidents' Council Chair: Richard Guarasci, Wagner College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 12, Spring 2016 To view the Newsletter with photos: Spring 2016 Newsletter The Periclean Progress is a publication of Project Pericles, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential element of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.
National Office News: D4D Letters to an Elected Official Competition Winners Teams from Allegheny, Berea, Carleton, Hendrix, and Pitzer were selected as the winners of the 2016 Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ Letters to an Elected Official competition. The competition engages students around public policy issues, the political process, and with their elected officials. Since this program began in 2008, we have received outstanding submissions from student teams at our Periclean colleges and universities. This year was no exception. For the first time, students also shared a project proposal explaining how they would use the $500 award. The letters submitted proposed innovative solutions to a wide variety of issues ranging from implementing food waste management systems at the national level, to advocating for financial literacy services for struggling families, to supporting redistricting to ensure equal access to a quality education in Pennsylvania. The teams sent their letters to elected officials throughout the United States. A panel of external experts reviewed the letters. An elected official who served as one of the external evaluators wrote, "let all these students know what wonderful and impressive work they did," adding that "if [she] had received any of the letters from a constituent, [she] would have been blown away." Another outside evaluator commented that the letters were, "so well written and inspiring." We look forward to working with the five winning teams of the 2016 D4D Letters to an Elected Official competition throughout the 2016-2017 academic year: Hayden Moyer '17 and Walter Stover '17 (Allegheny College) wrote to Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) about online privacy and adapting Europe's Right to be Forgotten law in the United States. They will develop a website "promoting digital privacy rights and serving as a database" for cases supporting their endeavor. Tran Nguyen '17 and Megan Yocum '17 (Berea College) sent State Senator Jared Carpenter (R-KY) a letter discussing the expansion of Kentucky's 2013 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The pair plans to create a public service announcement and present it to elected officials during informational meetings. Sarah Goldman '17 and Jenni Rogan '19 (Carleton College) penned a letter to Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) regarding the 2014 Farm Bill Crop Insurance and Subsidies Policy. The students will create a mentorship program for students to work with farmers in their state and participate in a training program during the summer of 2017. Katie Dobbins '17, Emma Gaither '18, Casey Hawkins '18, and Tejas Soman '18 (Hendrix College) wrote to State Senator Joyce Elliott (D-AR) about restricting local media sources from publishing the names of juveniles charged as adults for crimes. The team will partner with student organizations in Arkansas to publicize their issue and organize a concert to raise awareness. The students also plan to hold a panel discussion and a letter writing campaign to petition elected officials to address the matter. Amina Farías '18 and Eleanor Neal '18 (Pitzer College) wrote to Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) on the issue of Medicaid-funded mental health treatment and recovery support programs. Working with a community partner to "prevent recidivism while promoting community reintegration," they will create and distribute a resource guide to support women with mental illness and substance abuse problems as they pursue self-sufficiency and stability. Debating for Democracy (D4D) Student Spotlight As part of the D4D Letters to an Elected Official competition, we will be highlighting some of the participating students and will provide updates on all of the teams as their projects progress during the 2016-2017 academic year. See the last section for pieces from the Berea, Hendrix, and Pitzer Teams. Project Pericles Works as Institutional Partner with The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University recently named Project Pericles as a partner. NSLVE provides colleges and universities with information about their student registration and voting rates. It also provides information about "campus climate for political learning and engagement and correlations between specific student learning experiences and voting." Most of our Periclean Colleges and Universities are participating in the study. Multi-Campus Research Project on Student Well-Being and Civic Engagement We commenced work this spring on a multi-campus research project that examines the impact of civic engagement on student well-being. We are undertaking this work in collaboration with Bates, Goucher, Hendrix, and Pitzer. The project looks at the impact of incorporating civic engagement in the curricula on the well-being of college students. We are examining a number of high-impact practices including first-year seminars and community-based learning courses. In addition, close attention will be paid to the impact of programs on Pell-eligible and first-generation students. This work is supported by Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtoP). Our collaborators explain below what excites them about the project and this line of inquiry: "Bates College is delighted for the opportunity to revisit the question of the impact of civic engagement on student well-being. The education of the whole person and the cultivation of informed civic action are animating priorities at Bates, which makes this cross-institutional study of the implications of civic engagement for student flourishing of particular interest to us. We look forward to joining with others in asking questions such as these: Does the full-bodied integration of the civic into the academic enterprise -- not as an afterthought or footnote but as integral to student learning and experience -- have a demonstrable effect on students' resiliency, self-efficacy, or responses to stress? When student learning is focused not only on the edification and preparation of the individual, but also on the transformation and flourishing of communities, are students (and communities) more likely to flourish? We need to be asking these kinds of questions in higher education, and this study invites us to do so. We are grateful for the opportunity." - Darby K. Ray; Director, Harward Center for Community Partnerships; Donald W. & Ann M. Harward Professor of Civic Engagement; and Project Pericles Program Director; Bates College. "Goucher College is so pleased to be a contributing member of the Project Pericles team investigating the impact of incorporating civic engagement in the curricula on the well-being of college students. Our institution has been deeply engaged in this very conversation for the past two years, and we believe that working in a focused way with our distinguished colleagues will help us ask better questions and more knowledgably define key factors that link community-based work to psycho-social well-being. We will also tie this work to our conversations around the equitable dissemination of high impact practices (e.g. community-based learning, study abroad, internships) throughout the entire student body." - Cass Freedland, France-Merrick Director of Community-Based Learning, and Project Pericles Co-Program Director, Goucher College. "Our goal is to gain a fuller understanding of the distinctive impact of our required first semester course, The Engaged Citizen, on our students both in that first year and then as they follow their civic engagement pathways across their time at Hendrix College. Of course, this impact includes the students' social and emotional development as young adults honing their citizenship skills." - Jay Barth, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of Politics; Director of Civic Engagement Projects; and Project Pericles Program Director, Hendrix College. "Pitzer College is thrilled to participate, once again, with long-time partners Project Pericles and Bringing Theory to Practice, in the important work of studying the impact of civic engagement on student wellness. This unique focus on well-being within community engagement is one that does not get nearly enough attention across schools and disciplines but is one we believe is a crucial component to why students choose to participate in community engagement initiatives. With this study, we hope to garner evidence that students' sense of belonging, purpose, and community, both on campus and off, is deeply enhanced when they are a part of meaningful and reciprocal community-campus partnerships for social change. We believe that aims to enhance the well-being of our students (as well as our communities) must be at the forefront of our efforts to educate, support, and inspire those in and connected to Pitzer College around our core values of social responsibility and social justice." -Tessa Hicks Peterson;Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement; Assistant Professor, Urban Studies; and Project Pericles Program Director, Pitzer College We are pleased to be undertaking this work with such a distinguished group of scholars and colleagues. Get Out the Vote: Student Choices - Student Voices (SCSV) Since last November, our campuses have registered thousands of voters and distributed important information about candidates and issues. Pericleans have shared their ideas and inspired other campuses to organize similar activities. Periclean campuses are invited to participate in Student Choices - Student Voices (SCSV) Week, September 24-30, 2016. SCSV Week overlaps with National Voter Registration Day on September 27 and represents a concerted effort at the national level to engage students, faculty, staff, and community members in the election process. During SCSV Week, Periclean campuses across the country will organize activities connected to the 2016 Presidential Election. See the article in Pericleans in the News for an update on the Pitzer College SCSV team. About SCSV With the guidance of our Program Directors and Christine Martin, our Program Manager, we have relaunched SCSV, a favorite program of Gene Lang's, to engage students in the democratic process. SCSV seeks to strengthen political engagement across campuses by encouraging the active participation of eligible voters in the American democratic process by (1) sharing information and resources to encourage students and community members to be knowledgeable about candidates and issues, (2) creating a space for dialogue, and (3) helping to register students and community members to vote. Program Directors nominated students on their campuses to join the SCSV national taskforce, a network committed to sharing innovative ideas and practices that is developing guides and other voting resources. Periclean Students to Travel to California for College Debate 16 Seven Periclean Campuses (Bates, Goucher, Hendrix, Macalester, Morehouse, Spelman, and Wagner), are sending delegates to College Debate 2016 at Dominican University of California. Delegates will travel to San Rafael in June to learn how to organize issue-focused events at their schools. They will then return in September for the 2016 College Convention focused on national youth issues. Project Pericles has been an active member of the CollegeDebate 16 working group. Pericleans in the News: Swarthmore Names Periclean Faculty Leader as New Director of the Lang Center (Adapted from an Article by Mark Anskis on Swarthmore College Website) Swarthmore College announced that Associate Professor of Political Science Ben Bergerwill assume the position of executive director of the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility for a five-year term. Berger has served as the interim executive director of the center since July 2015. "During that time, he has demonstrated his energetic commitment to the social justice mission of the Lang Center, and an ability to bridge disciplinary boundaries in pursuit of deepening its support of the curriculum," says Provost Tom Stephenson. Berger credits Jan R. Liss, executive director of Project Pericles, for his successful transition into the role, noting that his experience as a Periclean Faculty Leader and Project Pericles Program Director helped prepare him for his current position. Going forward, Berger wants to expand the center's circle of usefulness to even more faculty colleagues and students. "Eugene Lang '38 always aspired for his center to connect the curriculum to the community, and I look forward to sharpening the details and definitions of 'community,' " Berger says. "I want us to connect our rigorous teaching and research to the campus community and its many, vital student groups; to the local communities of Chester and the greater Philadelphia region, where we aspire to create reciprocal partnerships and to co-create knowledge; to more far-flung communities around the country and the world; and to the community of scholars and activists who share knowledge via publications and conference presentations for the purpose of social amelioration." Berger, who will continue teaching in his new role, studies the intersection between normative political theory and empirical political science. His current projects include a book on civic education and a book chapter on democratic theory. His book, Attention Deficit Democracy: The Paradox of Civic Engagement, won the North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award for the best social philosophy book published in 2011. With Jan R. Liss, Executive Director of Project Pericles, Berger co-authored the White Paper, The Periclean Diamond: Linking College Classrooms, Campuses, Communities, and Colleagues via Social and Civic High Engagement Learning. He received his A.B. from Princeton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Pitzer Student Choices - Student Voices (SCSV) Succeeds with Major Push for Voter Registration By Dana Nothnagel, Pitzer College '19 & SCSV Coordinator and Tricia Morgan, Civic Engagement Center Assistant Director, Pitzer College The Pitzer College Student Choices - Student Voices (SCSV) team dedicated this last semester to voter registration, absentee ballot applications, and debate watching events. The team has helped register almost 300 students to vote or apply for absentee ballots this year. Since Pitzer draws its students from almost every state, the small group has become expert on the registration and absentee process for each state. They have worked closely with the Pitzer registrar to ascertain which students need information about out-of-state voting. Upon learning how difficult absentee voting can be, the SCSV team has been determined to make sure that a confusing process does not get in the way of any student who wants to exercise his or her right to vote. In addition, they have been in close collaboration with other groups on campus to host registration tables at snack nights and speaking events. The Pitzer team put on door-to-door registration drives and tabled outside of the dining hall to ensure that every student has the opportunity to register. By connecting with the study abroad office, they have ensured that they provided students who will be abroad for the general election with information on how to vote overseas. The group has also submitted a proposal to have voter registration as an official part of the first-year orientation week. Through the Community Engagement Center, Pitzer's SCSV team worked to connect with local high schools and other partner organizations to host voter registration drives in the local community. SCSV has also worked closely with campus affinity groups to host special voter registration events. Debate-watching events hosted in dorms have been successful and generated political conversations among students. The team is especially proud of these events because many students that attended may not have watched the debates otherwise. The team is also creating infographics to post around campus that explain candidates' stances on many issues, the difference between a caucus and a primary election, and the delegate system. After the general election, the team is planning on connecting further with community engagement partners and participating students to continue raising awareness of local political issues that affect our communities. Pace Gets Out the Vote By Daniel Botting, Associate Director of Project Pericles, Pace University The Vote Everywhere Ambassadors have been busy! The Pace Vote Everywhere Ambassadors collected 259 voter registration cards this spring, bringing their total up to 544 for the year. They reached that number by dormstorming, clipboarding in the dining halls, tabling at events, presenting to Introduction to College Life courses, and more. Leading up to, and on Primary Day in New York, they postered to remind students of the Primary date and to help students with 'day of voting logistics'. In addition, Pace distributed information on where Pace community members could find non-partisan resources on the candidates. They worked with Residence Life to have set times throughout the day where students walked together to their polling site. Vote Everywhere Ambassadors organized two debate-watching events in residence halls. The screenings were followed by a discussion on the debates and the impact of the youth vote. Two Political Science faculty and a campaign professional participated. Bates Holds Dialogue on Criminal Justice Reform By Sam Boss, Associate Director for Community-Engaged Learning and Research, the Harward Center, Bates College A full-day symposium at Bates College put community-engaged learning students into conversation with a range of off-campus interlocutors. The symposium, "Chaos or Community: Conversations on Criminal Justice Reform in Maine," was designed to respond to both national and local concerns about structures of inequity in the U.S. criminal justice system by promoting collaboration and continuing dialogue among a range of stakeholders. The day began with "inside/out" perspectives shared by formerly incarcerated individuals and continued with panel presentations featuring U.S. Attorneys, local law enforcement and corrections officials, leaders of local advocacy groups, and Dr. Kaia Stern of the HarvardPrison Studies Project. Bates students also shared results from semester-long community-engaged projects on incarceration reform. With more than two million people behind bars, the United States has the highest rate of incarceration of any nation in the world. Maine has one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country, but that rate has increased 300% since 1980. An ongoing heroin epidemic threatens to drive these figures upward. As increasing attention to the human and financial costs of mass incarceration has intensified calls for reform from across the political spectrum, the symposium offered a venue for sharing ideas, establishing partnerships, and laying a foundation for collective action among diverse stakeholders. Students in Associate Professor of Religious Studies Cynthia Baker's Human Suffering course put theory into practice throughout the semester by working on a range of community-engaged projects, from serving as respondents in correspondence courses with incarcerated persons to developing a juvenile justice curriculum and a short video featuring the experiences of adults in recovery from addiction. Widener Students Travel to D.C. to Study Portrayal of Presidential History This spring, Widener University students enrolled in Contemporary Issues in PoliticalEngagement and The American Presidency traveled to Washington, D.C. for an Urban Excursion focused on all things presidential. "This trip allowed students to see how the presidency is portrayed in historical memorials and museums. Understanding this form of public history and its importance to educating people about democracy really helped to tie together some of the major themes from The American Presidency and Contemporary Issues courses," said Associate Professor of Political Science Wes Leckrone. The students visited the graves of Presidents Kennedy and Taft at Arlington National Cemetery. Next, the students witnessed a play at Ford's Theatre centered on the assassination of President Lincoln. Students also visited the presidential display at the Smithsonian and walked to the White House, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. "The students in Contemporary Issues will create short videos educating junior high students about presidential history and the election process. The trip to D.C. allowed for our students to conduct research and film historical sites," said Associate Professor of Communication Studies Angela Corbo. Widener communication studies students plan to give these videos to local middle school teachers to use when covering presidential and election material. Corbo and Leckrone have worked together throughout the semester with their students to promote interest in political issues among a middle school age group and to educate young students on the presidential election process. Students in Contemporary Issues have also focused this semester on the additional goals of raising awareness about the rising costs of higher education and lobbying for legislation to make college more affordable. The students organized a panel on March 21 that featured Associate Professor of Political Science Jim Vike (Project Pericles Co-Program Director) and Associate Professor of Higher Education Timothy Sullivan, Nicole Crossey '16 and Widener President Julie E. Wollman discussing how students can manage the costs of higher education, the history and current status of higher education in America, the experience of today's students regarding financing a degree and ways to advocate for individual scholarships and legislation that impacts higher education funding. The students headed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on April 12 to participate in Student Lobby Day, where they discussed their concerns about college costs with state legislators. Lang College Student Wins Community Service Award Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School student, Sade Swift, Urban Studies '17, was recognized by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities with an Independent Sector Student Community Service Award, as well as a $500 scholarship. Swift has worked to confront social justice issues, including gender inequality, the portrayal of women in the media, gun violence, and police brutality. She was also one of two Lang College student delegates at the 2015 Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference. As part of the conference, Swift wrote a letter protesting police brutality and the use of stop-and-frisk tactics by the New York Police Department. The letter was addressed to New York Assemblyman Karim Camara (D). New School President David Van Zandt accompanied Swift to Albany in March to receive the award. "Being selected as a recipient ... is very humbling and reminded me that as a Afro-Latina, I have have a long way to go before justice is served to my people," said Swift. I want to recognize all the women of color that came before me to make this possible. La lucha sigue, pero se peude." Active in the community, Swift works with the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, a program designed to promote leadership and activism among young women and helped found the youth contingent to Justice League NYC, where she fights for justice for people of color. Donation to Project Pericles in Honor of Jim Vike Project Pericles received a gift in honor of Jim Vike's years of service as the Associate Dean of the Social Science Division at Widener University. Vike's colleagues at Widener University made the donation. "I was honored to hear that my colleagues decided to recognize my upcoming departure as Associate Dean in such a fashion," said Vike. "I think it reflects very positively on our collective commitment to furthering the cause [of civic engagement]." Vike will continue in his role as Associate Professor of Political Science. The move will allow him to devote more time to students and Project Pericles as the Co-Program Director at Widener. Vike is an active member of the Project Pericles community and we look forward to our continued collaboration. Debating for Democracy (D4D) Student Spotlight (continued from first section) Berea Student Describes Her Motivation to Write on Kentucky Senate Bill 180 [The bill allows business owners to deny services to LGBTQ+ customers based on religious beliefs.] By Megan Yocum '17 We selected this particular topic because it affects many people within Kentucky. Just because gay marriage is now legal, does not mean that the LGBTQ+ community has conquered all of its challenges. There are still many discriminatory issues that the alphabet community face, such as housing discrimination and Senate Bill 180. This bill is critical for all Kentuckians because the state is attempting to discriminate against its own citizens. I know people who will be negatively affected by this senate bill, which is one reason why we decided to team up and work on this together. We are hoping to bring awareness to the public about the problems with Senate Bill 180 through a PSA video that we will create. Hendrix Students Describe Their Passion for Juvenile Justice Reform By Katie Dobbins '17, Emma Gaither '18, Casey Hawkins '18, and Tejas Soman '18 It started as an assignment for our Public Policy class. When looking through possible topics, we eventually decided on juvenile justice. Among all the juvenile justice related topics, the issue of media protection stood out. We knew little about the process of juveniles being charged as adults, but were outraged at the instantaneous way their names could be released to the press. This issue is especially relevant in our community because of gang-related crimes involving juveniles in the Little Rock area. Once we were aware of the current lack of protection for juveniles, it was an easy issue to write about because we truly believe it needs to be changed. Katie Dobbins - I am a double major in biology (with an emphasis on plant science) and Spanish. This semester, I decided to take a public policy course in which the professor encouraged us to participate in the Debating for Democracy (D4D) Letters to an Elected Official competition. Once we realized how widespread the problem was, we knew we needed to focus our letter on the issue. While conducing our research, we consulted with several experts in the field to broaden our understanding of the problem. Emma Gaither - I am an environmental studies major (with a biology focus) and Spanish minor. I serve as a representative for the Environmental Concerns Committee at the college. From Little Rock, I enjoy spending time outdoors and reading. This project and the interest it sparked in me were completely unexpected, and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue working on this juvenile justice issue. Casey Hawkins - Originally from Little Rock, I am a politics major and serve as the managing editor of the student newspaper, The Profile, and as a member of student senate. In my free time you can probably find me working at Chipotle or relaxing with my three dogs. I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to be working with Project Pericles. Tejas Soman - I am an environmental studies major with a politics minor. I enjoy the outdoors whether it is camping, hiking, rock climbing, or mountain biking. I work in the Hendrix bike shop and am a member of the student senate's financial committee. I am also from Little Rock. Pitzer Students Describe Their Passion for Healthcare Reform By Amina Farías '18 and Eleanor Neal '18 Amina Farías - For the past two years I have helped facilitate art classes for the women at Prototypes. While teaching them arts and crafts, I have had the privilege of seeing their patience, determination, and strength. Every week they inspire me, no matter how tired and stressed they may be. It is from this place that I decided to work on the D4D Grant with Eleanor and I cannot tell you how appreciative I am to be able to give a little back to the women who give me so much every week. Born in Washington D.C., I have always had a passion for learning, community service, and art. After working in the New York Film business for five summers, I decided to focus on community service, working at Pine Ridge Native American Reservation during my senior year in High School. During my gap year, I traveled to South East Asia and got certified in Wilderness First Response, Animal First Aid and Elephant Caregiving. I spent the rest of my time in Asia setting up clinics in rural Thailand and Laos as well as working with domestic pets and elephants. At Pitzer, I study International Politics, Economics, Psychology, and the Middle East. I am also vice president of the Mental Health Alliance. Eleanor Neal - I am concerned about public health and social justice, and hope to use my background in policy to promote equity and inclusion in my community. This year, I am an intern at Prototypes Women's Center in Pomona, California, where I help facilitate the Mindful Arts & Crafts program for women in recovery. Inspired by both the women and staff at Prototypes, I hope to continue focusing my work on maternal and child health after graduation. At Pitzer, I study Spanish and Human Biology. As an ally for women in recovery, I believe that prison diversion promotes positive community reintegration. Prototypes works with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to operate the Community Prisoner Mother Program that allows women to remain with their children throughout all stages of recovery. On behalf of Prototypes, I addressed Representative Judy Chu to advocate for evidence-based alternatives to incarceration. Prototypes is a clear example of how government can collaborate with community partners on programs that strengthen parent-child relationships and decrease the likelihood of social service interventions. I hope that programs like Prototypes will continue to receive the support they need from both state and federal legislators. Project Pericles Needs Your Support! Please consider making a generous donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue our work preparing tomorrow's engaged citizens. Donations can now be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. To subscribe or to submit to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected]. Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University * The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * Rhodes College St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College * Spelman College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss, [email protected] Board of Directors Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: Alison R. Bernstein Presidents' Council Chair: Richard Guarasci, Wagner College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 12, Fall 2015 To view the Newsletter with photos: Fall 2015 Newsletter The Periclean Progress is a publication of Project Pericles, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential element of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.
National Office News Project Pericles Reaches Milestone of 30 Member Colleges and Universities with the Addition of The Evergreen State College Project Pericles is pleased to announce that The Evergreen State College is our newest member institution. Evergreen is our first campus in the Pacific Northwest. With the addition of Evergreen and Skidmore College, which joined earlier in 2015, Project Pericles has grown to 30 colleges and universities in 18 states. Project Pericles Executive Director Jan Liss visited The Evergreen campus in November. She met with President George Bridges, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Michael Zimmerman, and Director of the Center for Community-Based Learning and Action Ellen Shortt Sanchez. In addition, Liss met with Wendy Endress, Vice President for Student Affairs; Nancy Koppelman, member of the faculty and instructor in the Evergreen Student Civic Engagement Institute; and David McAvity, Academic Dean. Liss left impressed by Evergreen's commitment to civic engagement. "At its core, Project Pericles is about collaboration and leveraging our collective expertise in order to build stronger and more coherent curricular programs incorporating civic engagement and social responsibility. We are adding campuses that can significantly contribute to and elevate our conversations. Our board decided to extend an invitation to Evergreen given their demonstrated commitment to civic engagement and their interest in working with Project Pericles and its member institutions. We are extremely pleased to have them join Project Pericles and we look forward to working with their President, George Bridges, and the entire Evergreen community," said Liss. Each member campus appoints Project Pericles Program Directors to coordinate programs on campus and serve as a liaison to the national office. We are pleased to be working with Evergreen's Academic Grants Manager, John McLain and Member of the Faculty, Andrea Gullickson. Both Gullickson and McLain attended the Project Pericles Program Directors' Conference at Bates College in November. In addition to teaching, Gullickson is an oboist who has toured widely, performing in concert halls in the United States and abroad. McLain has long worked with students on civic engagement as part of the Evergreen Student Civic Engagement Institute among other projects. He helps students to explore and cultivate "humility, empathy, persistence, hope, patience, self-reflection, and a commitment to embracing complexity," or, as he puts it, "the virtues of civility and democratic engagement," and believes that Project Pericles will provide an even greater support structure toward that end. Project Pericles to Study Impact of Civic Engagement on Student Well-Being on Campuses This fall, Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtoP) awarded Project Pericles a grant to study the impact of participation in courses with a civic component on student well-being. Periclean campuses will collaborate with the Project Pericles National Office on this study, which will be led by Project Pericles Assistant Director Garret Batten. Participating campuses will be announced in early 2016. This study will allow us to examine a number of high impact practices including first-year seminars and community-based learning courses and assess their impact on well-being. In addition, close attention will be paid to the impact of programs on Pell-eligible and first-generation students. This study of well-being builds on our current project, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement (CCP). In discussing our new study, Batten said, "This study offers us the opportunity to look at the impact of different approaches to civic engagement on well-being across multiple campuses. Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement, has enabled us to examine issues of breadth and depth in terms of students reached by different approaches and overall organization of programming. This new study allows us to compare the impact of different approaches to civic engagement on student well-being and look at variations among student populations." The Teagle Foundation Supports Additional Work on Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement We are delighted to announce that The Teagle Foundation awarded Project Pericles a grant for a Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement (CCP) convening on January 20, 2016 at the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) in Washington, DC. The convening is an opportunity for campuses to reflect on their progress, share what they have learned with each other, and brainstorm about how to further this work. Through CCP, we have mapped curricular and co-curricular approaches to civic engagement on 26 of our colleges and universities, and identified five general approaches to organizing civic engagement curricula: Requirements; Pathways Approaches (theme based, i.e. education, food, health, etc.); Civic Engagement Scholars Programs (intensive, multi-year, cohort programs); Certificate Programs; and Open Choice Models. The convening is an opportunity to reflect and build on promising approaches to civic engagement outlined during this three-year project. In addition to discussing different approaches, we will also focus innovative technological strategies for presenting opportunities to students and for tracking students' participation. Goals for discussion include:
Program Directors' Conference at Bates College By Christine Martin Bates College graciously hosted the 2015 Project Pericles Program Directors' Conference on November 10-11. The annual conference is an unparalleled opportunity for Program Directors to utilize the knowledge and expertise of the consortium to strengthen civic engagement and social responsibility (CESR) on Periclean campuses and in their communities. Project Pericles thanks President Clayton Spencer; Darby K. Ray, Director, Harward Center for Community Partnerships; Donald W. & Ann M. Harward Professor of Civic Engagement; and Project Pericles Program Director; and Kristen Cloutier, Assistant Director, Center Operations, Harward Center for Community Partnerships, and the entire Bates College community for hosting. On the first day, Jay Barth, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of Politics, Director of Civic Engagement Projects, and Project Pericles Program Director at Hendrix College led a discussion of successful approaches to engaging students in policy work and action. The group also enjoyed a lively discussion of the emerging sub-field of social entrepreneurship and innovation led by Paul Schadewald, Associate Director, Civic Engagement Center and Project Pericles Co-Director, Macalester College. Program Directors' Conference Attendees after Lunch at the Nutrition Center of Maine in Lewiston The two-day conference included a dinner at President Clayton Spencer's house, a poster session led by current Bates students on their ongoing civic engagement involvement in areas including: affordable housing, America reads, and STEM education for elementary students. At lunch, the program directors enjoyed a panel discussion with Bates alumni describing how their undergraduate experience affected their paths. Two of the alums on the panel have gone on to careers in politics. Nate Libby '07 is a state Senator in Maine representing District 21, while Ben Chin '07 is the Political Engagement Director of the Maine People's Alliance. Chin came in first out of five candidates in the Lewiston mayoral race, but failed to secure a majority, losing a tightly contested runoff. Chin wrote: "I came to Lewiston in 2003, on a scholarship to Bates College. At the time, I wanted to graduate and go to seminary to become a pastor. But in 2004, our former city administrator tried to displace over 800 people from their homes through the so-called "Heritage Initiative." That's when I got involved with the Visible Community and Maine People's Alliance. After a year of hard work, we stopped the project. Eventually I decided community organizing would be a better fit for me than seminary." Chin is one of countless students to discover a passion for civic engagement through community involvement orchestrated by a Project Pericles Program Director on their campus. The self-discovery journeys shared by the students and alumni reaffirmed the importance of our work promoting CESR as intrinsic elements of higher education. On the second day, Christian Rice, Assistant Dean for Civic Engagement, Director, Bonner Leader Program and UCARE, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Project Pericles Program Director from Ursinus College talked with the group about the importance of establishing clear learning outcomes for assessment purposes. This was followed by a presentation by Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology and Periclean Faculty Leader, Bates College, on community based-research and her experiences as a Periclean Faculty Leader. The group spent the remainder of the day discussing strategies to foster greater collaboration between Periclean colleges and universities and approaches for leveraging our institutions considerable expertise in designing and running civic engagement programs. Carnegie Corporation of New York Hosts the 2015 Presidents' Council Meeting The Presidents' Council Meeting took place on November 5 at Carnegie Corporation of New York. We were pleased to have a conversation with Carnegie's President, Vartan Gregorian; Geri Mannion, Program Director, U.S. Democracy and Special Opportunities Fund; and Ambika Kapur, Officer of Special Projects, National Program. Our Presidents had a productive meeting led by the Presidents' Council Chair, Richard Guarasci, President of Wagner College. They highlighted best practices from programs on their campuses, sought ways to increase collaboration between institutions, and discussed how Project Pericles can best advocate for the importance of civic engagement within higher education. Thank you to Carnegie Corporation of New York, Vartan Gregorian, Geri Mannion, Amkika Kapur, and the entire Carnegie staff for hosting our Presidents. Student Choices - Student Voices Helps Engage Students in the Election Process By Christine Martin Eugene M. Lang founded Project Pericles in 2001 to tackle the growing political cynicism and civic disengagement among young people. In 2016, Project Pericles will celebrate its 15th anniversary, and to honor Mr. Lang's vision we are expanding a program he cherished: Student Choices - Student Voices (SCSV). As part of the SCSV program, Project Pericles shared with its Program Directors helpful materials to engage students in the election process. The goal of SCSV is to both inform voters about the candidates and issues at stake while supporting efforts to register citizens to vote. To that end, a reference table containing registration deadlines and requirements by state was distributed in the beginning of the fall semester. Program Directors also received a document with activity ideas and useful websites to share with students and faculty. A Bingo game was created as a means to generate excitement and open a space for dialogue to accompany debate screenings. TurboVote offered a special promotion to Periclean colleges and universities to help track registration on campus and to facilitate the voting process. On October 14th, Wagner College students gathered to review how effective and ineffective dialogue can shape political perceptions through the Democratic and Republican Presidential Debates. This conversation was paired with the SCSV Bingo created by Project Pericles. The Bingo activity not only helped engage students with complex socio-economic problems, it provided a fun, interactive way to discuss democratic ideals. Carleton Builds New Online Assessment Tool with Support from Project Pericles and The Teagle Foundation By Daria Kiefer (Carleton College, '13) Carleton College's Creating Cohesive Pathways to Civic Engagement mini-grant from The Teagle Foundation and Project Pericles, in collaboration with Goucher College, made possible a new and comprehensive assessment system for our campus. Getting to this point has truly been a collaborative effort. Adrienne Falcόn, Director of Academic Civic Engagement and Project Pericles Program Director and Cindy Plash, the Center for Community and Civic Engagement's (CCCE) administrative assistant. Work on overhauling the assessment system commenced during the summer of 2014. Since then, the CCCE has worked closely with information technology services (ITS) at Carleton in order to create a system that can accurately capture the breadth and depth of students' engagement. "These things take a lot of time and patience," says Plash, "but it is well worth it." In the new system, all hours that students spend on civic engagement are captured in the same online location. At Carleton College, student civic engagement falls under several different categories: curricular, co-curricular, and paid positions. By working with ITS, the CCCE was able to create a system in which supervisors and peer leaders can record hours for students in each of these categories. Students, supervisors, and students' advisors can then pull up the summary of each of these categories in "the Hub", an online portal for personal student information. For example, one student fellow at the CCCE, Shira Kaufman '16, is able to see all of the Academic Civic Engagement classes she has taken, including her Sociology and Anthropology Methods course, as well as all of the hours that she logged for Eat the Lawn and the Food Recovery Network, two ongoing programs for which she volunteers. In addition, she sees all of the hours that she has logged through her paid position as a CCCE fellow during the year. Being able to see all of these contributions in one place allows Shira to get an overview of how she is spending her time. Shira's engagement demonstrates a clear passion for all things related to food. She and her advisor can use this information to help Shira understand how her interests have shifted and evolved throughout her time at Carleton and to plan for her future. As Periclean campuses continue to make a case for civic engagement, data collection tools such as Carleton's can help us tell our story. "When someone asks me how many hours of programming a program has done since the dawn of time....well, we can at least pull information as far back as 2004," says Plash. Reports can be pulled by issue area, program, term, or student and the data can be manipulated in a variety of ways. These reports have been useful both to show funders what is happening as a result of their support, and to help the CCCE understand itself better as it continues to evolve in response to student needs. Throughout the past year, Falcόn has also refined surveys that get at some of the more qualitative aspects of civic engagement work, such as student learning outcomes and community cohesion. Taken together, these assessment tools create a more holistic picture of the CCCE's work. Kelly Scheuerman, Program Director for Civic Engagement Pathways at the CCCE, says that even a first look at the data has helped illustrate the ways in which the CCCE engages with students. One important find, for example, is that more freshman volunteer than any other class year. Those students then go on to engage with their community in a great variety of ways. "[The data] makes a strong point for how important this work is to students," Scheuerman says. "We always had the sense that we are working with a lot of students, but now we are illuminating the robustness of the various programs, and the extent to which students are involved in not just one, but multiple ways." Liss visits Dillard In October, our Executive Director Jan Liss visited Dillard University. She had a very productive meeting with President Walter M. Kimbrough; Vice President for Academic Affairs Yolanda W. Page; Associate Professor of Political Science and Project Pericles Program Director Gary Clark; Nick Harris, Director, Community Development; and Dillard's two student delegates to the 2015 D4D National Conference, Jacquelyn Fuller '16 and Hope Hill '16. Liss said, "It was extraordinary meeting with Fuller and Hill, who described what a life changing experience the National Conference had been for them and how they are working with Dillard students to empower them." Clark emphasized that the National Conference was one, among many, benefits of membership in Project Pericles. Inauguration of MaryAnn Baenninger as Thirteenth President of Drew On October 1, Drew University celebrated the inauguration of MaryAnn Baenninger as the thirteenth President of the University. Jan Liss represented Project Pericles at inauguration events. As part of the festivities, Drew organized a symposium on engagement between the University and the city. Professor of English and Project Pericles Program Director Amy Koritz moderated "Stewardship, Service, and the Common Good: Re-Imagining University-City Partnerships" featuring Ira Harkavy, Founding Director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania. This was followed by "Organic Community: Universities, Cities, and Diversity" moderated by Christopher Taylor, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Comparative Religion and featured Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Scholar and Director of Civic Learning and Democracy at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Liss Travels North to visit New England College and Address Faculty On December 4, Project Pericles Executive Director Jan Liss visited New England College. Liss had a breakfast meeting with President Michele Perkins. President Perkins has led the college through a significant strategic planning and repositioning process, emphasizing a curricular focus on the civic and natural environment, as well as innovative pedagogical strategies such as experiential learning. Liss addressed members of the faculty providing an overview of Project Pericles approach to civic engagement and discussed our emphasis on embedding civic engagement in the curriculum. An approach, she noted, that New England College clearly shares. Liss also met with Provost and President for Academic Affairs Mark Watman, who was a key architect behind the strategic planning process. She had lunch with Periclean Faculty Leader and Co-Director of Creative Writing Maura MacNeil; Co-Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Leadership and Project Pericles Program Director Inez McDermott; and Associate Professor of Writing Brian Partridge, who previously served as the Project Pericles Program Director. She later visited with Wayne Lesperance, Co-Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Leadership and Professor of Political Science. PERICLEANS IN THE NEWS: Chatham Program Director Dana Brown Named to the Pennsylvania Commission for Women Dana Brown, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women in Politics at Chatham University and Project Pericles Program Director is one of 26 members appointed to the Pennsylvania Commission for Women. Under that capacity, Brown will advocate for legislation and policies benefiting women and girls in the State of Pennsylvania. In addition, Brown also serves as a member of the Community Advisory Board for the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh Center for Race & Gender Equality, the Executive Women's Council and its Women on Boards Committee, and 74% Kitchen Cabinet at Robert Morris University Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management. She is a Pennsylvania delegate to the Vision 2020 program at the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership at Drexel University, the Ellis School's Council on Innovation, and serves on the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. Project Pericles congratulates Dana Brown on her latest appointment, and wishes her continued success in all her endeavors. Widener Celebrates Constitution Day with Workshop on Engaged Citizenship by Project Pericles Co-Program Director James Vike Widener University's Constitution Day 2015 featured Jim Vike, Associate Dean of the Social Science Division and Project Pericles Co-Program Director, who facilitated a workshop on the topic: "Civility and Engaged Citizenship." The workshop introduced Vike's research on variables that influence political engagement and activism. The audience engaged in an interactive discussion addressing the nature of contemporary civic life and the generally accepted expectations and responsibilities of modern citizenship. Vike examined the competing perspectives of civic duty and engaged citizenship and factors that may promote informed and civil political participation in a deeply polarized era. During the event, Vike presented a summary of campus initiatives that promote a culture of political engagement. Multiple levels of engagement that embed both curricular and co-curricular programs and activities are intended to develop the civic knowledge of undergraduate students. The Office of Civic Engagement hosted Constitution and Citizenship Day on September 17. In collaboration with the Student Government Association, the Office of Civic Engagement hosted a voter registration drive, polling for the upcoming presidential election, and provided students an abridged version of the U.S. Citizenship test. Fact sheets were provided to educate students about the candidates' positions on important issues. Additionally, the sophomore class of the Presidential Service Corps Bonner Program participated in training about citizenship. Bates Professor Named New England Resource Center for Higher Education and the Center for Engaged Democracy Finalists for the 2015 Lynton Award (Excerpted from the New England Resource Center for Higher Education Website) Assistant Professor of Education Mara Tieken from Bates College was one of eight scholars selected by the New England Resource Center for Higher Education and the Center for Engaged Democracy at Merrimack College for the 2015 Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty. The pool of candidates represents a range of institutions and disciplines. Ernest Lynton framed faculty scholarly activity as inclusive, collaborative, and problem-oriented work in which academics share knowledge-generating tasks with the public and involve community partners and students as participants in public problem solving. The community-engaged work of nominees serves as a model of the public scholarship that Lynton championed. Leveraging Our Knowledge: Wagner College Implements Food Recovery Program after Visit to Carleton College Assistant Professor of Sociology Bernadette Ludwig, Wagner College's Project Pericles faculty liaison attended the Project Pericles Program Directors' Conference at Carleton College in the fall of 2014. There she learned about the Food Recovery Network (FRN) that Carleton College created. Ludwig returned to Wagner College and started a program this fall with the help of students Kirsty Hessing and Erica Curry, Associate Professor of Anthropology Celeste Gagnon Anthropology, and the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement. Since then, Wagner College students have been recovering food twice a week, averaging about 80 pounds of food that is donated to City Harvest, which distributes it to various soup kitchens around Staten Island. Wagner students have shown an overwhelming support for the program and the FRN leadership team at Wagner is in the process of adding additional recoveries. All Wagner College students participate in multiple experiential learning experiences throughout their time at Wagner. Most of this happens in placements outside of the Wagner Campus. The FRN is among the first efforts that enables students to become involved in a social justice issue right on campus. Upcoming Presentations: CIC Presidents Institute - Jan Liss and Periclean Presidents Mary Ann Baenninger (Drew University), Jonathan Lash (Hampshire College), and James H. Mullen, Jr. (Allegheny College) will present a session on the Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement work at the Council of Independent College's Presidents Institute, January 7, 2016 in Miami Beach. Project Pericles will hold a panel presentation, "Expanding our Reach: Innovative Approaches for Increasing Impact and Exposing Diverse Students to Curricular and Co-Curricular Programming Incorporating Civic Engagement " at AAC&U's Annual Meeting on January 21, 2016. Kristen Cloutier, Assistant Director, Center Operations, Harward Center for Community Partnerships, Bates College; Cass Freedland, France-Merrick Director of Community-Based Learning, Goucher College; Jan Risë Liss, Executive Director, Project Pericles; Ella Turenne, Assistant Dean for Community Engagement, Occidental College; and Marcine Pickron-Davis, Chief Community Engagement and Diversity Officer, Widener University will present on findings from Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement. Campus Compact, 30th Anniversary Conference, Boston, MA - Project Pericles will present a panel: "Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement: Intentionality in the Organization and Integration of Programming for Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility." Debating for Democracy - D4D on the Road D4D on the Road workshops are designed to provide novice and seasoned political activists with the tools and tactics they need to get their message across to policy makers, community leaders, and the public. Whether participants are interested in service, public policy, issue-based organizing, or advocacy campaigns, this highly effective workshop gives participants the core skills needed to start a new project or expand an existing one. They empower participants to effectively work within the democratic process to address pressing social, civic, and economic issues. Through these non-partisan workshops, Project Pericles has reached more than 3,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members on campuses over the past seven years. During the fall semester, we held five workshops at Berea College with Centre College, Lindsey Wilson College, and Union College; Chatham University with Allegheny College and The College of Wooster; Drew University; Hendrix College; Occidental College with Pitzer College and Pomona College; January 23 Macalester College (visiting campus: Carleton College), St. Paul, MN February 19 Pace University (visiting campuses: The New School and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), New York, NY February 26 Wagner College, Staten Island, NY March 19 Ursinus College (visiting campuses: Goucher College, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Swarthmore College, and Widener University) Collegeville, PA Project Pericles Needs Your Support! Please consider making a generous donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue our work preparing tomorrow's engaged citizens. Donations can now be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. To subscribe or to submit to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected]. Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University * The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * Rhodes College St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College * Spelman College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss, [email protected] Board of Directors Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: Alison R. Bernstein Presidents' Council Chair: Richard Guarasci, Wagner College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter Volume 11, Winter 2015 To view the Newsletter with photos: Winter 2015 Newsletter National Office News
Eugene M. Lang Foundation Makes $4.325 Million Commitment to Project Pericles We are pleased to announce that Project Pericles will receive a $3 million endowment and annual gifts through 2021 from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation totaling $4.325 million. The strong commitment of the foundation to the work of Project Pericles ensures that we will continue to thrive for years to come. We are grateful to the foundation for its support. This substantial gift is an important investment in Eugene M. Lang's vision and Project Pericles' mission of championing civic engagement in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community. It plays an important role in ensuring our continued success. Jane Lang, Acting Chair of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, wrote that "The Eugene M. Lang Foundation is proud to be associated with Project Pericles and its achievements. In recognition of Project Pericles' excellent work to advance the cause of civic engagement in higher education, and in honor of our Board Chair and the founder of Project Pericles, Eugene M. Lang, we are delighted to make [this] commitment." We thank our Periclean Presidents, Program Directors, and their colleges and universities. It is their hard work, dedication, and support that has done so much to advance the cause of civic engagement in higher education and beyond. This gift is a testament to all that we have achieved together and to all that we will do in the future. This support will enable Project Pericles to continue to provide its member institutions with the excellent programming that defines us - from research projects like Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement to the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™, the Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference and D4D on the Road™ to our collaboration with the Project Pericles Program Directors on each campus. We thank the Eugene M. Lang Foundation for this generous gift and many years of support and look forward to a bright future. The New School to Host Project Pericles Debating for Democracy National Conference On March 19 and 20, Project Pericles will hold its Debating for Democracy (D4D) National Conference, hosted by President David Van Zandt and The New School. Student leaders from Periclean campuses will be joined by college presidents, faculty, and foundation, government, and community leaders, and members of the media for a series of panels and workshops with leading experts. All of the panels and workshops will focus on how students can take effective action on critical public policy issues. Topics include climate change and the evolving environmental movement; media and millennials; how to effectively advocate; and the role of non-profits in society. The conference will feature two interactive workshops, the first with leaders of successful non-profits about developing powerful narratives and the second on effective issue-based messaging. Student Teams to Present at Legislative Hearing A highlight of the Debating for Democracy (D4D) ™ National Conference is the Legislative Hearing in which teams of student leaders will present and defend their original legislative recommendations to a panel of government officials. The Legislative Hearing provides five teams of Periclean students-who have competed to participate-a forum to articulate their solutions to some of today's most pressing public policy issues by presenting before a "Legislative Committee," including U.S. Senator Harris Wofford (D-PA); U.S. Congressman Thomas Downey (D-NY); and the Honorable Edwina Richardson-Mendelson. Teams will compete for $5,000 in prize money. Each year, Project Pericles holds a Letters to an Elected Official Competition and more than 75 students from around the country write their elected officials about issues they are passionate about. The five teams with the strongest letters then compete in the Legislative Hearing. We received many excellent letters from our Periclean colleges and universities. The letters proposed innovative solutions on a wide variety of issues ranging from the Arms Trade Treaty, to living wages, to local farms and food, to reporting of sexual assault in the military. The five Letters to an Elected Official that will be featured in the Legislative Hearings are: Bates College, "A Letter in Support of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and General Assistance Benefits for Non-Citizens ,"by Meghan Lynch, Eva Goldstein, and Ali Rabideau. This letter was sent to Governor Paul LePage (R-ME). Carleton College, "A Letter in Support of Senate Resolution 40 and Current Diplomatic Negotiations with Iran," by Hannah Nayowith and Reilly Simon. This letter was sent to Senator Edward Markey (D-MA). Macalester College, "A Letter in Support of a Death with Dignity Bill for Pennsylvania," by Sarah Coleman and Emmet Hollingshead. This letter was sent to State Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf (R-PA). Occidental College, "A Letter in Support of an Amendment to SB 862 to Earmark Ongoing Cap and Trade Funds for Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC)," by Adrian Adams and Karen Romero. This letter was sent to State Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León (D-CA). Rhodes College, "A Letter in Support of Net Neutrality by Reclassifying Internet Service as a Public Utility under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934," by Alexandra Dileoand Samuel Holder. This letter was sent to Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA). At the Legislative Hearing on March 19, the winning team will receive a $3,000 award to develop an advocacy campaign related to the issue they wrote about. The four semifinalist teams will each receive a $500 award also to be used to develop an advocacy campaign to move their issue forward. We commend all of the Periclean students who participated in the Letters to an Elected Official Competition. Over the past eight years, hundreds of teams from all 29 Periclean colleges and universities have participated in the Letters to an Elected Official competition. Student leaders and activists have worked on a wide range of issues, including: fracking, education reform, the Dream Act, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and mountaintop-removal coal mining. They have met with their elected officials and organized campaigns to raise awareness on campus and in their communities. Member of Swarthmore 2014 Letters to an Elected Official Competition Team Meets with American Ambassador to Peru When Mackenzie Welch and Jason Mendoza submitted their Letter to an Elected Official on human rights and coca fumigation in Colombia, Mackenzie never imagined that it would lead to a lunch with the American Ambassador to Peru, Brian Nichols, but that is what happened. Their submission "A Letter to Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) concerning Human Rights Considerations and Effectiveness of U.S. Sponsored Coca Fumigation in Colombia" was one of six winners of the 2014 Letters to an Elected Official Competition. The pair received a $500 award to move their issue forward. Hoping to gain greater insight into United States eradication policies in South America, Mackenzie interned with the State Department in Peru. While there she spoke to a DEA Field Intelligence Manager and the U.S. Department of State: Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Director for Peru. Mackenzie came away from these meetings with a greater understanding of the need to pair eradication with development projects. These meetings eventually led to a lunch with Ambassador Nichols. In addition to these meetings, Mackenzie and Jason conducted research on eradication policies. With a deeper understanding of the issues around eradication, the pair plan to present Senator Menendez with their policy recommendations this spring. As ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the architects of the Western Hemisphere drug eradication programs, Menendez is uniquely positioned to act on the pairs' recommendations. Project Pericles Presents Panel at the 2015 AAC&U Annual Meeting At the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Annual Meeting in January, Jan Liss, Project Pericles Executive Director, moderated a panel highlighting some of the work being conducted by Periclean campuses as part of Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement. Panelists discussed their unique pedagogical approaches to civic engagement as well as the projects they are undertaking with mini-grants received through Creating Cohesive Paths. Jay Barth, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of Politics and Bill and Connie Bowen Odyssey Professor at Hendrix College, discussed The Engaged Citizen course, a newly implemented requirement for first year students, as well as a mini-grant project to offer faculty leadership workshops to assist with the incorporation of civic engagement components into sections of The Engaged Citizen course. Laura Wenk, Dean of Curriculum and Assessment and Associate Professor of Cognition and Education at Hampshire College, provided an overview of Hampshire's civic engagement requirement that encourages students, with faculty assistance, to develop their own Campus Engaged Learning Activity course followed by a Community Engaged Learning Activity course. As part of their mini-grant, Hampshire is strengthening the documentation and reflection components of the experience by utilizing activities, e-portfolios, interviews, and workshops. They also plan on expanding student training prior to the students' engagement with the community. Terry Bensel, Associate Provost, Director of the Gateway, and Professor of Environmental Science at Allegheny College, discussed structural changes the college is making to promote greater coherence among programs focused on civic engagement and social responsibility. Bensel is overseeing "The Allegheny Gateway [which], integrates curricular and co-curricular initiatives in the areas of global learning, civic engagement, and diversity. The Allegheny Gateway builds on the success (and continues to provide the programs and services) of the Center for Experiential Learning while expanding to include initiatives in the areas of diversity, undergraduate research, political participation, nationally competitive fellowship mentoring, and interdisciplinary studies." Adrienne Falcόn, Director of Academic Civic Engagement in the Center for Community and Civic Engagement and Lecturer in Sociology at Carleton College, discussed Carleton's pathway approach that focuses on particular issue areas as a way of organizing and focusing the curricular and co-curricular. Falcόn notes, "While we also continue to offer the more episodic and unconnected experience, our efforts are more dedicated to the longer term evolution of individuals and projects that can lead to real social change." They are using their min-grant to strengthen assessment and tracking of students engaged in pathways. Carleton's mini-grant also includes a partnership with Goucher College, Occidental College, and Spelman College designed to increase student awareness of civic engagement opportunities. Goucher is taking the lead on developing an online system for organizing and displaying civic engagement programing. Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement is a three-year project to reconceptualize the organization and integration of programming for civic engagement and social responsibility (CESR) within higher education. With support from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation, our member colleges and universities are inventorying, mapping, strengthening, and developing more cohesive and integrated civic engagement programs to enable students in all disciplines to incorporate civic engagement into their courses of study. Pericleans in the News RPI Students Help Design Certificate in Civic Responsibility as Part of Project Pericles Funded Project Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is developing a Certificate in Civic Responsibility that they plan on introducing this fall. In January, 28 RPI students joined with Deans, faculty, and staff for an all day charrette to discuss the new certificate. The students focused on the many forms of civic engagement on campus that should be considered for inclusion in the certificate. Ten of the students will serve on a working group to provide feedback as RPI develops the certificate. This work is undertaken as part of Project Pericles' Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement. New concentration recognizes publicly engaged work of Bates students By Emily Kane, Professor Sociology and Women & Gender Studies; Periclean Faculty Leader, Bates College In spring of 2014, a group of Bates College faculty and staff began meeting to develop a new General Education Concentration (GEC) related to community and civic engagement. We are pleased to report that the new concentration, Knowledge, Action and the Public Good, was recently approved by the college's Curriculum and Calendar Committee. Its description captures the purpose and range: "This concentration is designed to recognize and cultivate two elements of the college's mission, informed civic action and responsible stewardship of the wider world. The concentration focuses on coursework and other learning experiences related to civic and community engagement at the local, state, regional, national and global levels, as well as exploration of the reciprocal co-creation of knowledge and its role in promoting the public good." Faculty members from all corners of the college worked together with the staff of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships to come up with the new GEC. Drawing on the college's mission and the array of community engagement happening in our courses across the curriculum, as well as the range of richly reflective co-curricular activity already sponsored by the Harward Center, the concentration aims to help students deepen their understanding of engagement and reciprocity through the connections they will be encouraged to draw across experiences within a variety of departments, programs, and activities. Students in the concentration will take courses tagged as "Community Engaged Learning" and other approved courses in at least three different departments or programs for a total of four courses. Opportunities for reflection and connection will be offered along the way, with a senior year reflection required as a culminating activity. We are delighted to have this new concentration available as one more avenue to advance community engaged work and recognize its importance to Bates students, faculty, staff, and community partners. Widener Sociology Students Stand by Airport Workers in Support of Fair Wages Excerpted from What's Up @ Widener By 4:30 a.m. on a November morning, five Widener University students were driving up I-95 to the Philadelphia International Airport. They had no plans to board a plane. Instead, they were on a mission to support employees of aviation contractor Prime Flight who were protesting low wages and working conditions. By the next morning, the students found themselves on the local news, as well as in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Four of the students-Ashleigh Bothwell, Cory Barker, Nicolette Epifani, and Joseph McManamon-Simon-had learned about the Prime Flight workers' plight through in their sociology course, "Civic Engagement and Social Activism," taught by Dr. Stuart Eimer, Service-Learning Coordinator. The fifth student, Robert Miller, was inspired by Bothwell to attend the protest. The day prior to the protest, Eimer had taken his students to a Philadelphia City Council hearing, which addressed legislation mandating that airlines contract with companies that have "labor-peace agreements." Many Prime Flight employees attended in support of this legislation and to further draw attention to the fact that they had yet to see pay increases despite an executive order signed by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in May raising the minimum wage for employees hired by airport subcontractors. "The trip to the Philadelphia City Council hearing was meant to provide exposure to the way social activism intersects with the political process," said Eimer. "Afterward, the class met with four airport workers who told them about their personal lives, their jobs, the way their incomes kept them mired in poverty, and the reasons that they had decided to take action. Students told me it was as if the readings from a broad array of their classes had suddenly come to life. It was experiential learning at its best." "After marching with the workers," Bothwell said, "I want to get the message across that, at the end of the day, these are people working hard to support families, but often can't make ends meet after a back-breaking, 40-hour work week." "I take Widener's mission to educate engaged citizens seriously," Eimer said. "Given the current lack of civic engagement in America, all forms of citizenship need to be cultivated and I applaud the way students took the initiative to support the airport workers." Swarthmore Project Pericles Co-Program Director Publishes Article Rejecting the Dichotomy between Civic Engagement and Research Ben Berger, Associate Professor of Political Science, Project Pericles Co-Program Director, and Periclean Faculty Leader at Swarthmore College, published "Experience and (Civic) Education" in the January edition of PS: Political Science and Politics as part of a symposium on the "false divide" between research and undergraduate teaching. Berger describes how insights gained from observing his students in the local community of Chester as part of his course, "Democratic Theory and Practice," led him to critically examine the overly broad use of the term "civic engagement" resulting in an article and part of a book. Offering other examples, Berger discusses research generated out of classes designed as part of the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL)™ Program. Berger and Jan Liss are currently working on an edited volume documenting more of the research generated by the PFL Program as well as its other accomplishments. In 2010, with multi-year grants from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation, Project Pericles launched the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program. During the inaugural term of the program, 26 competitively selected Periclean Faculty Leaders created new Civic Engagement Courses (CECs) in 21 different disciplines; promoted civic engagement locally through lectures, town hall meetings, and public events; and advanced public scholarship nationally and internationally through publications and conference presentations. Project Pericles Needs Your Support! Please consider making a generous donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue our work preparing tomorrow's engaged citizens. Donations can now be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. To subscribe or to submit to submit Periclean-related information for publication, email [email protected]. Periclean Colleges & Universities Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University * Goucher College Hampshire College * Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University Pitzer College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * Rhodes College St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College * Spelman College Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College Widener University * The College of Wooster National Office Executive Director: Jan R. Liss, [email protected] Board of Directors Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang Chair: Neil R. Grabois Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman Treasurer: Alison R. Bernstein Presidents' Council Chair: Richard Guarasci, Wagner College Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College National Board of Advisors Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc. All rights are reserved. |
Archives
October 2024
Categories
All
|
|
551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1910, New York, NY 10176-0899
[email protected]
[email protected]