The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 5 -- April 2005

Project Pericles ® Announcements

Student Opportunity: Better hurry! May 2nd is the deadline to apply for Building Democracy, the Fall 2005 academic internship program specifically designed for students at Periclean institutions. Combining the benefits of a Washington, D.C. internship with the chance to network with students from other Periclean institutions, the program includes a full-time internship, an academic course, and a coordinating seminar. For more information, contact Mary Ryan, the Executive Director of the Washington Internship Institute, at mary@wiidc.org, or see www.ielnet.org/building-about.shtml.

Check It Out: Looking for resources for responsible study, teaching, and learning about some of the most sensitive issues facing our civil society? "Difficult Dialogues: Promoting Pluralism and Academic Freedom on Campus" is a Ford Foundation initiative to support rigorous academic programs that will engage undergraduate students in constructive dialogue about political, religious, racial, and cultural issues. Preliminary proposals are due by May 16, 2005, with Ford expecting to award approximately 25 grants of up to $100,000. For more information, see www.fordfound.org/news/more/dialogues/index.cfm.

Interested in publishing your writing on civic engagement? The University Press of New England, in conjunction with Tufts University Press, is offering $1500 for the best manuscript submitted for its interdisciplinary book series, Civil Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. The editors seek manuscripts of original scholarship; of particular interest are studies on the definition, theory, and philosophy of civil society and the role of nonprofit and voluntary organizations. For more information, contact Ellen Wicklum, Editor, University Press of New England, at M.Ellen.Wicklum@dartmouth.edu. The deadline for submission is March 31, 2006. Good luck!

Pitzer College has a new facility in Costa Rica for faculty research and student engagement in an intercultural context. The Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology, a farm and bamboo plantation donated by international ecologist Diane Firestone, will house programs in Pitzer's science, language, and international studies curricula. The Center, once an overgrazed cattle ranch, will feature local collaborative resource management with a focus on human and tropical ecology, and will also provide for the study of reforestation and sustainable agriculture/permaculture practices and community- based education, including intensive language and cultural studies. Pitzer will manage the bamboo plantation to preserve its health, beauty, and the financial investment that it represents. For more information, see www.pitzer.edu/offices/firestone_center/index.html.

Congratulations! Rhodes College is one of only 13 higher education institutions in the U.S. to receive a Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant program, designed for colleges and universities that are trying to make a difference in their communities, will provide Rhodes with nearly $400,000 to establish a partnership with nearby neighborhoods in Memphis to address issues of housing development, crime prevention, health education, and improving student success. Information about HUD'S Office of University Partnerships is available at www.oup.org.

Periclean People

Governance: Dr. Richard Ekman, President of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and member of the National Board of Advisors of Project Pericles, has been named to the Executive Planning Board of Project Pericles. Dr. Allen P. Splete, Senior Advisor of CIC, has joined the National Board of Advisors of Project Pericles. National Board of Advisors member Dr. David M. Scobey has been named the director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and the Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Professor of Community Partnerships at Bates College. Dr. Scobey previously directed the Arts of Citizenship program at the University of Michigan.

Presidents: The Hampshire College Board of Trustees has named Dr. Ralph J. Hexter the fifth president of Hampshire College, effective August 1. Dr. Hexter comes to Hampshire from the University of California at Berkeley, where he is Executive Dean of Letters and Science. Retiring President Gregory S. Prince, Jr. plans to return full-time to Vermont where he will pursue projects that facilitate access for underserved students to higher education.

Chatham College President Dr. Esther L. Barazzone recently participated in a leadership delegation to Egypt conducted by the World Affairs Councils of America. As part of a group hosted by Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, Dr. Barazzone met with government ministers and other leaders, and participated in the first international Middle East initiative to advance the active participation of women in decision- and peace-making processes.

Administration: Chief Academic Officers Named. Macalester College has appointed Dr. Diane P. Michelfelder as the college's next Provost and Dean of Faculty. Presently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana State University, Dr. Michelfelder will begin her new duties on July 1. She succeeds Dr. Daniel Hornbach, who will go on sabbatical leave and then return to the Biology Department after six years of service as Provost. New England College has named Dr. Edward M. Cooper to the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Cooper comes to NEC from the faculty of Regis University in Denver, Colorado, where he has served in a variety of administrative positions. His responsibilities at NEC will begin on July 1.

Students: Kudos to first-year Ursinus College student Megan Helzner, who has been named a Kemper Scholar. In addition to receiving support to prepare them for leadership and service, Kemper Scholars participate in non-profit summer internships and receive funds for self-designed community projects that provide leadership opportunities. Ursinus and Pitzer College are among fifteen Kemper Scholar institutions nationwide. For more information, visit www.jskemper.org/kemper_scholar_program.htm.

Collaborations: National Board of Advisors Member Dr. David M. Scobey led a panel at the American Association of Higher Education conference in Atlanta in March. "How Does/Can/Should a Commitment To Civic Engagement Transform Institutions of Learning?" featured Dr. Richard Guarasci, President of Wagner College, and Elon University's Project Pericles Program Director Dr. Tom Arcaro and student Jonathan Chuk.

Advocates in Action

Continuing and honoring Berea College's legacy of civil rights advocacy, forty-five members of the Berea community -- students, faculty, staff, and alumni -- traveled to Alabama in March to participate in the 40th anniversary reenactment of the march from Selma to Montgomery. In 1964, Berea supported the efforts of students, faculty, and staff to lobby the Kentucky state legislature to pass civil rights legislation by canceling classes and providing demonstrators transportation to the state capitol. A year later, fifty-eight Berea College students and faculty members joined the final leg of a four-day march organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Four of the original marchers, all Berea students in 1965, were among those who took part in this year's reenactment. For more information, visit www.berea.edu/bcnow/story.asp?ArticleID=353.

In partnership with the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), Macalester College students established "Mac Fair Trade" to promote the awareness and sale of fair trade products. Fair trade principles encourage producers to pay a living wage and use environmentally-sound production practices. A fair trade bazaar hosted by Mac Fair Trade last December brought local vendors to Macalester. In March, Mac Fair Trade held a forum featuring immigrant, local, and business viewpoints, as well as Economics professor Raymond Robertson. Mac Fair Trade has conducted a phone bank encouraging Macalester students to voice opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and is planning a day to lobby for fair trade at the state capitol in St. Paul.

Update: On April 6th -- the 11th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide -- 400 middle school, high school, and college students from across America traveled to Washington, D.C. to mark the start of the Genocide Intervention Fund's 100 Days of Action Campaign to combat the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Created by Swarthmore College students Mark Hanis and Andrew Sniderman, the GIF hopes the Campaign will raise $1,000,000 for the African Union and facilitate the writing of 100,000 letters to government officials urging them to take action. Senators Sam Brownback and Jon Corzine and Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Barbara Lee, and Donald Payne spoke at the press conference for the launch of the Campaign, which was followed by CongressRUSH -- scheduled meetings between students and over 140 Congressional staff on Darfur legislation. Press coverage of the event is available on GIF's website.

Do you have examples of Periclean-initiated actions that address issues of local, national, or international concern? Email us at
projectpericles@projectpericles.org.

Notable Program Activities: Campus, Classroom, and Community

Campus: Pitzer College held a GenderYOUTH Activist Training Workshop on April 6 to help students gain organizing skills and devise strategies to end gender stereotypes and gender-based discrimination, violence, harassment, and bullying. See www.gpac.org/youth for more information about the workshop organizer, the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition.

Elon University's Voices of Discovery science series brought ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin to campus for two days of meetings with students in classes and informal settings. Plotkin, drawing upon 20 years of work with the shamans of Central and South America, also presented a public lecture on medicinal resources in nature on April 7th, detailing differences between western and traditional medical practice and advocating for rainforest preservation. For more information, see www.elon.edu/e-net/Note.aspx?id=18798.

Wagner College will showcase its successful partnerships with community organizations in a student panel, "Civic Engagement Projects: Representative Business Models" on April 26th. The panel will highlight the work of nine business students who teamed with Local Development Corporations as part of a commercial revitalization program for Staten Island organized by professor Mary Lo Re and city council member Michael McMahon.

Classroom: This month we are pleased to feature three courses developed under Project Pericles Civic Engagement Course grants, administered by the respective institutions. Following classroom instruction and evaluation, syllabi will be made available on the Project Pericles website.

Students at Hampshire College got a first-hand look at issues surrounding US and Mexican border relations in professor Flavio Risech-Ozeguera's course, "Border Crossings and Fluid Border: Mexico and the US." The fall course featured classroom examination of many controversial border area issues, as well as immigration, cultural, and environmental concerns. During the January term, the class toured Border Patrol facilities in the border cities of San Diego and Tijuana, and met with human rights, arts, environmental, and labor organizations.

Professor Ellen Ross of Swarthmore College used her religion course "Christian Visions of Self and Nature" to provide a thematic introduction to Christianity and explore its real-life manifestations. Classroom readings of writings by Christian scientists and naturalists explore the links between science and religion, and the multiplicity of views on Christian understandings of the relationship between the human and non-human world. The community-based component of the course challenged students to teach a course on "Nature and Chester" to acquaint fourth- and fifth-graders with their local environments, using the natural curiosity and energy to cultivate their powers of observation, and increase their knowledge of their surroundings.

Ursinus College Biology professor Kathryn Goddard-Doms used her CEC grant to develop "Watershed Research and Action." Taught in part at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia -- a stopover for thousands of migrating birds and the remnant of a great marsh -- the course combines historical study of the Darby Creek with laboratory research and community action. Students will develop a protocol to assess PCB levels in a fish species, and will work with elementary school students to survey a macroinvertebrate species that is a pollution-indicator. Students will enter their data on the course's website, which also contains information for and about the class ... and a link to www.projectpericles.org.

If you teach a relevant course and would like to share information about it, we encourage you to contact us and to post details on the Project Pericles Forum at Project Pericles Forum Index --> Course Syllabi--Faculty Postings.

Community: K-12 students from Western Pennsylvania and New York will have a chance to share their experiences studying natural science and water quality during Allegheny College's annual Creek Connections symposia on April 8th and 22nd. The symposia mark the culmination of Allegheny's year-long partnership with regional schools to provide hands-on field and laboratory work. For more information, visit http://creekconnections.allegheny.edu.

As part of the Campus Kitchens Project Dillard University, eight students traveled to St. Louis and Evanston, Illinois during their spring break to take part in a service and leadership exchange at Campus Kitchens at St. Louis and Northwestern Universities. Campus Kitchens prepares meals on Dillard's campus using shared kitchen space and donated food. Students, faculty, and community members assist in food preparation and delivery of the meals, along with services such as tutoring, counseling, and case management. Participating student volunteers learn such diverse skills as specialized menu planning and database design, while reflecting upon long-term solutions to the problem of hunger.

Did you know that Hampshire College operates its own farm? In addition to being a working farm, the Farm Center is a research, education, and outreach facility dedicated to sustainable agriculture. Created in the late seventies as an experimental project of the Natural Science faculty, the Farm Center continues today as a place where students and faculty integrate science and alternative technology for testing sustainable methods of farming. Community members participate in workshops and, by purchasing a share of the harvest, are able to obtain fresh vegetables, flowers, and herbs. For more information, visit http://csa.hampshire.edu.

Widener University hosted a community summit on April 2nd for Chester Eastside residents, service providers, and education leaders. The Summit addressed neighborhood safety, improving the area schools, and unemployment in Chester's Eastside.

Innovative Initiatives

Berea College has combined learning, living, and sustainability in its new Ecovillage, a residential and learning complex for married students and single students with children. In addition to providing daycare and a child development center, the Ecovillage models sustainable living, incorporating "green design" elements such as passive solar heating, photovoltaic panels, and wind-powered electrical generators. On-site treatment of waste is accomplished by using composting toilets and a machine that converts sewage to swimmable quality water. Rooftop capture of rainwater contributes to irrigation and production of fruits and vegetables in local gardens and greenhouses. A demonstration house that is part of the Ecovillage complex was designed by students in Berea's Sustainability and Environmental Studies (SENS) program. Stringent performance goals have been set for the Ecovillage and its residents, including reducing energy use by 75%; generating 10% of the Ecovillage's electricity on-site from renewable sources; reducing per capita water use by 75%; and recycling, reusing, or composting at least 50% of waste. Six SENS students will be responsible, with faculty supervision, for monitoring performance and providing some maintenance for the entire complex. For more information about the Ecovillage, see www.berea.edu/sens/ecovillage/default.asp.

Resources and Research

Did you notice the many ideas and items pertaining to the environment in this issue? Want to learn more about being green? Check out Allegheny College's Center for Economic and Environmental Development at http://ceed.allegheny.edu/ and these other resources for action: www.envirocitizen.org (The Center for Environmental Citizenship); http://passport.panda.org (P@ssport: Work for a living planet.); www.seac.org (Student Environmental Action Coalition); and www.secondnature.org (Second Nature: Education for Sustainability).





The Periclean Progress is issued each month during the academic year and is posted on the Project Pericles Forum.

"CLAIMING THE LEGACY OF PERICLES"®

Allegheny College * Berea College * Bethune-Cookman College * Chatham College * Dillard University * Elon University * Hampshire College * Macalester College * New England College * New School University * Occidental College * Pace University * Pitzer College * Rhodes College * St. Mary's College of Maryland * Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College * Widener University

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