The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter

Volume 2, Issue 1 -- August 2005

Project Pericles ® Announcements

Welcome Back! We hope you had a great summer, and are ready for a busy and productive 2005-2006. For your reading pleasure, we commend to you the Summer 2005 issue of the National Civic Review, edited by the new Chair of our Presidents' Council, Pace University President David A. Caputo. The issue features an essay by Project Pericles Founder and Chair, Eugene M. Lang, entitled "Project Pericles: A Daring Work-in-Progress" that tells the story of Project Pericles from its conception to date, and projects its mission into the future. The issue also has articles by Dr. Caputo ("A Campus View: Civic Engagement and the Higher Education Community"); Board member Harris Wofford ("Cracking the Atom of Civic Power" and "Quo Vadis: What Can Students Do for American Cities?"); and Widener University Dean Stephen C. Wilhite and Associate Dean Paula T. Silver ("A False Dichotomy for Higher Education: Educating Citizens vs. Educating Technicians"). The articles will be available online at www.ncl.org/publications/ncr/.

For Your Calendar: Our first-ever Program Directors' Conference will be hosted by Widener University on October 17th, 2005. This will be a special opportunity to come together to share information about Program development and activities, meet and network with each other, and discuss our next plenary conference and other collaborations. Invitations will be sent shortly. We look forward to seeing you there!

A Reminder: Project Pericles is hosting a session on "Civic Engagement Imperative: Student Learning and the Public Good" at the Academic Renewal Conference of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) to be held in Providence, R.I. on November 10-12. Project Pericles, as a co-sponsor of the Conference, invites attendance and participation of Pericleans and is arranging time for Pericleans to get together. For more information, see www.aacu.org/meetings/civic_engagement/index.cfm.

Call for Applications: AAC&U, with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, is establishing a network of sixteen colleges and universities to use global issues as an organizing framework for creating general education programs to prepare students for citizenship in a world of global change and interdependence. To learn more about how to apply to be a part of this initiative, entitled Shared Futures: General Education for Global Learning, see www.aacu.org/SharedFutures/gened_global_learning/index.cfm. Applications can be submitted online through September 7, 2005.

Call for Proposals: The National Youth Leadership Council is requesting workshop proposals for the March 22-25, 2006 17th Annual National Service-Learning Conference "We The People" in Philadelphia, PA. This conference is the largest gathering of young people and practitioners from the service-learning field, including educators in K-12 and higher education, youth leaders, trainers, policy-makers, grantees, researchers, and funders. For further information and to download a proposal form (due September 26th), visit www.nylc.org/conference or call the Conference Hotline at (800) 366-6952.

Call for Submissions: The Institute for Global Education and Service-Learning is planning to highlight the best service-learning projects from rural and urban K-12 and higher education institutions in the Atlantic States in its 2006 National Service-Learning Conference. Guidelines and application forms are available at www.nylc.org. Applications must be postmarked by October 21, 2005, and should be sent to atlantic_exchange@comcast.net or faxed to (215) 945-1818.

Congratulations! Allegheny College, Berea College, Elon University, Hampshire College, Macalester College, Pitzer College, and Swarthmore College are included among the 81 institutions recognized in Princeton Review's book, Colleges with a Conscience, as schools that put their civic missions into practice. For more information, see www.princetonreview.com/college/research/conscience/default.asp.

Check It Out: Elon University is one of only 13 institutions nationwide working to develop and pilot a set of indicators and a framework for a new, voluntary civic engagement classification proposed by the Carnegie Foundation. For more information, see www.carnegiefoundation.org/Classification/future.htm.

Periclean People

Presidents: Project Pericles welcomes three new Periclean presidents: Marvalene Hughes, who became president of Dillard University on July 1st; Ralph J. Hexter, who took office as president of Hampshire College on August 1st; and Kenyon Chan, the current Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Occidental College, who will assume the duties as interim president on September 1st. Best wishes to departing presidents Gregory S. Prince, Jr. of Hampshire, and Theodore R. Mitchell of Occidental. Our compliments also to Bettye Parker Smith, who returns to her position as Dillard's Provost following her service as Interim President.

Two Periclean Presidents, William E. Troutt of Rhodes College and Marvalene Hughes of Dillard University, are part of a select group of University presidents "innovative in their responses to challenges" who have written essays for the New York Times on critical issues in higher education. To view these articles, visit http://nytimes.com/ref/college/faculty/coll_pres.html.

In an essay reprinted on the website of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Macalester College President Brian C. Rosenberg cited Macalester's Social Responsibility Committee as an example of how governing boards can advise institutions when to take a stand on local, national, and global issues. In "Understanding the 'Liberal' in Liberal Arts," originally written for Macalester's alumni magazine, Dr. Rosenberg cautions institutions to distinguish appropriate action from that which could chill discussion and dissent: "Thoughtful advocates and energetic leaders are best produced by a college that resists the sometimes powerful temptation to engage in advocacy itself, a college that openly promotes civility of discourse and the frank exchange of ideas. To me, this is the deepest meaning of the 'liberal' arts: education as preparation for the challenges and responsibilities of personal, political and intellectual freedom." To read the article in its entirety, see www.naicu.edu/news/Rosenberg.shtm.

Students: In addition to the students previously reported as recipients of Fulbright Fellowships, we would like to add the following students from Pitzer College: Oceana Lamberto Egan, Lisa Okamoto, and Susannah Welch. They join: Allegheny College -- Adam Auerbach; Berea College -- Jeffrey Hurt; Macalester College -- Breanne Goodell, Emily Griswold, Roland Mckay, and Anna Plumb; Occidental College -- Jamie Ko and Alani Price; Pitzer College -- Shoni Blitstein, Nancy Castillo, Annalily Charles, Sebastian Dettman, Jennie Gubner, and Leanne Stein; Rhodes College -- Sarah Sanders and Logan Wheeler. Congratulations!

Advocates in Action

Stephanie Nyombayire, a Rwanda native and rising second-year student at Swarthmore College, had the honor of introducing former President Bill Clinton when he gave the keynote address at Campus Progress' National Student Conference on July 13, 2005. Nyombayire has reported for MTV on stories of Darfur victims and is also the outreach director of the Genocide Intervention Fund (GIF). As previously reported, GIF was organized in early 2004 by Swarthmore students Mark Hanis and Andrew Sniderman. With the active involvement of students from many Periclean and other institutions, GIF has raised support funding and has constructively stimulated the attention of Congress and the United Nation officials toward resolving the dire situation in Darfur. For more information on Campus Progress, see www.campusprogress.org. For more information on GIF, see www.genocideinterventionfund.org.

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, Community

Campus: Periclean Programs are distinguished by having defined objectives with criteria to enable their evaluation. Pitzer College has taken a significant initiative to develop an assessment instrument to track and evaluate changes in student attitudes on social responsibility, diversity, and civic engagement. Pitzer will distribute a detailed survey to first-year students, sophomores, seniors, and alumni. Additionally, beginning this fall, Pitzer will implement a comprehensive data collection strategy on student internships, volunteer work, and service learning. For more information, contact Peter Nardi, Director of Institutional Research, at (909) 607-3824 or pnardi@pitzer.edu.

Berea College's Ecovillage, a residential and learning complex for married students and single students with children that models sustainable living, was featured in a Washington Post article on environmental practices at colleges. The article, "Colleges Compete to Shrink Their Mark On the Environment," may be accessed at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/25/AR2005062501273.html.

Civic engagement and service to the community will play a role in Ursinus College's orientation for incoming students this August 26th-29th. Students will be asked to consider a long term commitment to service during a civic engagement festival, which will showcase volunteer opportunities in the nearby communities. Todd McKinney, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Leadership Development/Student Life, credited Project Pericles as a stimulus for the program. For more information about the civic engagement component of Ursinus' orientation, contact Wendy Greenberg at wgreenberg@exchange.ursinus.edu.

Classroom: To date, 41 courses have been approved for funding under Project Pericles' Civic Engagement Course (CEC) Grant Program. Twenty-six of the CEC Grant courses were offered in the 2004-2005 academic year, with seven scheduled for the Fall 2005 semester and eight for Spring 2006. They relate to a variety of disciplines: American Studies, Art, Asian Studies, Biology, Black Studies, Chemistry, Communications (3), Computer Science and Information Systems, English (4), Environmental Studies (2), General Studies (3), History (3), Human Services, International Intercultural Studies, Law, Literature and Gender Studies, Management (2), Media Studies (2), Music, Nursing, Physics, Political Science (3), Psychology, Religion (3), Sociology (4), and World Literature. Following evaluation, selected syllabi from the Civic Engagement Courses will be posted to the Project Pericles Forum.

Ursinus College faculty member Philip Zwerling's Civic Engagement Course, Creative Non-Fiction, was featured in the June 17th issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Noting that the course "brings together college students and senior citizens," reporter Eric Walls examined how Zwerling's course enabled Ursinus students to write for an audience other than professors, while giving senior citizens at a local community center the opportunity to share stories and life lessons. The article may be accessed by Chronicle subscribers at http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i41/41a00601.htm.

Widener University professor Robert J. Bonk details how he developed experiential learning components for five different courses in "Professional Writing and Service Learning: Community Partnerships at Widener University," featured in the 2005 issue of the Creative College Teaching Journal (unavailable online). The article proposes possible follow-up research to ensure that courses meet student learning and community service objectives. For more information, contact Dr. Bonk at rjbonk@mail.widener.edu.

Community: The Institute for Urban Education (IUE) at New School University is a new interdisciplinary center for university engagement related to youth development and public education. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, IUE leverages university resources to prepare young people for college, trains college students as citizen leaders through experiential learning grounded in college curricula, and supports ongoing development and exchange among educators and youth workers. IUE offers community-based and public programs, and will sponsor research fellowships focusing on key issues in urban education. One of IUE's main programs, Student 2 Student (S2S), helps urban high school students prepare for higher education through skills development and college exploration. For more information, visit www.lang.edu/iue or email iue@newschool.edu.

In June, more than 50 educators from across the nation came to St. Mary's College of Maryland to learn about Maryland's role in early American democracy. The program, operated by SMCM's Center for the Study of Democracy, was part of a series of the "Landmarks of American History Workshops" funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Zach P. Messitte, Project Pericles Program Director and Director of the Center, said that he hopes the program is useful in helping teachers integrate larger themes of religious tolerance, representative or citizen government, nascent globalization, the lives of Native Americans, and the role of Maryland and other border states in the Civil War. For more information on the program, visit www.smcm.edu/democracy/offerings/landmarks.htm.

Innovative Initiatives

Service Sabbaticals at Elon University allow employees--either full-time faculty or staff--to be relieved of their university duties for up to one month to focus on a Periclean activity and contribute to the community in a significant way. This summer, Marion Aitcheson, office manager for Elon Television, spent her four-week Project Pericles service sabbatical in her hometown of Eisenach, Germany, where she conducted interviews and filmed footage at the children's home in which she was raised. Aitcheson was supported by a colleague, television producer Bryan Baker, who traveled with her for two weeks to assist with interviews. Aitcheson plans to complete a video documentary about the children's home, and the challenges and rewards for persons who choose careers as teachers or social workers. Elon faculty members will work with her to share the video and her experiences with students in a variety of disciplines. For more information on this inspirational example of global community engagement, visit www.elon.edu/e-net/Note.aspx?id=21174.

An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education praised St. Mary's College of Maryland for fulfilling the promise of college scholarships for high school students when a foundation that had originally made the promise went bankrupt. During a 2000 visit to Cardozo High School in D.C., St. Mary's president Jane Margaret "Maggie" O'Brien announced that any senior who met the St. Mary's admissions requirements would not have to pay out of pocket for tuition, room, and board. Five students who enrolled at St. Mary's the following fall graduated this spring. Using this experience as a model, St. Mary's has built similar relationships with other high schools in Maryland and has enrolled 21 students from Baltimore high schools since 2002. The full article, "An Unlikely Relationship: A broken promise helped unite a rural liberal-arts college and an urban high school," is available at http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i38/38a03501.htm and our Forum.

Resources

Research continues on trends from the last election -- data that can provide new ways of thinking about how to engage young people. Here are some recently-released factoids from CIRCLE about voters ages 18-24:

  • The 47% turnout, an increase of more than 11% since 2000, was the greatest increase of any age group. The turnout rate of 64% for eligible voters of all ages is a four point increase from 2000.
  • The 6% gap in turnout rates between men (44%) and women (50%) is the largest margin since 18- year-olds began voting in 1972, when there was virtually no difference between the genders.
  • Being married reduces the likelihood that a young person voted. Here's the breakdown by marital status:
    51% of single women voted (an increase from 39% in 2000)
    45% of single men voted (34% in 2000)
    44% of married women voted (38% in 2000)
    38% of married men (34% in 2000)
    This was the first time since 1992 that single men voted at a higher rate than did married women.
  • 59% of young adults with some college education voted (up from 48% in 2000), compared to only 34% of persons who never attended college (up from 25% in 2000).

For more information, go to www.civicyouth.org.





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 * Hendrix 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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