The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter

Volume 2, Issue 3 -- October 2005

Project Pericles ® Announcements

Project Pericles Events and Meetings: Thanks to all who participated in the Program Directors' Conference at Widener University on October 17th. We're working on follow-up to this very substantive event -- stay tuned. And special thanks go to our gracious hosts -- Widener President James T. Harris III, Provost Jo Allen, and Program Director Marcine Pickron-Davis.

Pace University President David A. Caputo, Chair of the Presidents' Council, will conduct a teleconference of the PC on November 8th. The group will convene in person on December 1st at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

We hope to see you at the AAC&U Conference -- "Civic Engagement Imperative: Student Learning and the Public Good" -- to be held in Providence, RI on November 10-12. Executive Director Karen E. Holt, joined by Program Directors Mary Ann Murphy of Pace University and Marcine Pickron-Davis of Widener University, will discuss "Project Pericles: Institutionalizing Civic Engagement Imperatives" from 10:30-noon on Friday, November 11th. There will also be an informal breakfast get together for Periclean attendees on Saturday, November 12th.

For Your Calendar: Action Without Borders (known through its website Idealist.org) has announced that registration is open for its 2006 C.O.O.L. Idealist National Conference at Vanderbilt University, March 3-5, 2006. Conference website.

The Partnership for Public Service will be holding its third National Career Services Conference in May 2006 in the Washington, DC area. This free event provides an opportunity for career services professionals from colleges and universities to get the latest information on federal jobs and internships. More.

Fellowship Opportunities: The Spencer Foundation awards approximately 30 $20,000 Fellowships each year to support doctoral candidates whose dissertations will contribute fresh perspectives to the history, theory, or practice of education. Graduate study may be in any academic discipline, and the deadline for applying is November 1, 2005. More.

Echoing Green is offering a Fellowship to support emerging leaders with innovative ideas for tackling seemingly unsolvable social challenges. Fellows receive two years of financial support and strategic counsel to help develop and test their ideas. The application deadline is December 1st. More.

Call for Nominations: Graduate students committed to developing academic and civic responsibility can be nominated for a K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award, which will provide financial support to attend AAC&U's 2006 Annual Meeting, and a one-year AAC&U affiliation. The deadline for nominations is November 4th. Contact Suzanne Hyers.

Nominations are invited for the Civic Change Award, given annually by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change to an individual, organization, or community that has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to improving civic life. The award includes a cash prize to a nonprofit organization of the awardee's choice, a crystal memento, and attendance at an award event. The deadline is December 31st. More.

Essay Contest: The Youth Movement for Democracy, a global community of youth and allies working for fair elections, free speech, and human rights, is seeking essays from persons under 30 in response to the question "What do you see as the biggest challenge to democracy in your world, and what can the youth movement do about it?" There's no prize money, but the best essays will be published on the YMD site and given other visibility. More.

Periclean People

Come on By: Project Pericles President Eugene M. Lang welcomes visits from educational leaders and luminaries who are interested in "talking" Project Pericles. In recent weeks, his distinguished visitors have included Periclean presidents Al Bloom of Swarthmore College, Ralph J. Hexter of Hampshire College, Bob Kerrey of New School University, and Brian C. Rosenberg of Macalester College, as well as Chair Bob Krinsky and President Steven W. Lawry of Antioch College, President Elaine Hansen of Bates College, and President Judson Shaver of Marymount Manhattan College. Mr. Lang says it was "absolutely the greatest" to meet with and discuss the enthusiastic involvements of two students in the inaugural Periclean Scholars Program at Elon University-- seniors Jennifer Bartley and David Higham.

Advocates in Action

Students at Swarthmore College organized several events in September to raise awareness of and respond to a bill that may open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. In conjunction with the environmentalist group PennEnvironment, students sought to gain the attention of Pennsylvania representatives and their constituents through a rally, a student phone-bank, and other activities. To learn more, contact Jen Wilson at jen@pennenvironment.org.

The Elon University Periclean Scholars Class of 2006, along with student leaders from the University of Namibia and the Polytechnic of Namibia, is planning "The Future Leaders Summit on HIV/AIDS" in Namibia, Africa on January 22-24, 2006. In preparation for the Summit, students are developing strategies for working with the media and writing news releases, as well as preparing position papers. In related news, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, a leading academic publisher, has purchased the academic rights to the four documentaries produced by the 2006 Periclean Scholars. The company plans to publish a DVD and provide it as a free resource for instructors who use the company's textbooks. Periclean Scholar Rachel Copeland hopes that through this agreement, "other university students will learn about HIV/AIDS and become passionate about it the way we have here at Elon." Funds from the purchase agreement will be directed to project related activities of NGOs in Namibia. Two of the documentaries, "A Measure of Our Humanity" and "You Wake Me Up," also have been purchased by the Peace Corps for training volunteers. To learn more or purchase copies of these documentaries, see Maturisa Ehinga: We Are Fighting AIDS. The 2006 Periclean Scholars are advised by Elon sociology professor and Periclean Program Director Dr. Tom Arcaro.

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: Remember the Student Choices, Student Voices initiative that helped encourage student interest and advocacy on our campuses last fall during the presidential campaign? We salute Periclean efforts to continue that interest and enthusiasm. At Wagner College, the Project Pericles committee and others observed federally-mandated Constitution Day with a public reading, followed by a spirited debate by students and faculty on the Constitution's origins and perceived flaws. Foreign and domestic policy and religion in government will be topics of an upcoming campus debate at Elon University. Participants will be selected through an application process open to students, faculty, and staff.

Rhodes College's Periclean commitment to social responsibility is evident in their building practices. During construction of the Paul Barret, Jr. Library, Rhodes selected environmentally sensitive building materials and procedures that promote efficiency in energy, use, and maintenance. For a list of Rhodes' conservation initiatives, click here, and see Rhodes' Fall 2005 Magazine for more information on the new Barret Library.

The Environmental Council Intern program at Elon University will provide $5,000 annually for selected students to develop projects that raise environmental and conservation awareness. Through Elon's Awareness Campaign, students, faculty, and staff have worked over the last year to educate the community on protecting the environment and promoting related lifestyles. During the 2004-05 school year, Elon reduced energy consumption by 12%, increased the amount of cardboard and paper collected for recycling by 26%, and increased plastics, glass, and other recyclable materials by 92%.

Democracy-in-Action weeks will be observed at Pace University from October 17-22 on the New York Campus and from October 22-28 on the Pleasantville Campus. In a variety of events coordinated by Student Leaders for Democracy in Action and Project Pericles, Pace students are examining real issues head on--in panel discussions about the impact of Hurricane Katrina, through a mock "fashion show" that addresses sweatshops and labor exploitation, in a forum on genocide and war in Africa--and examining how students have changed local politics and can affect national and global issues. In the words of the Student Leaders--"It's time to speak up, it's time to take a stand, it's Democracy-in-Action!!!" More.

Classroom: Hampshire College Professor Rebecca Miller found a novel way to incorporate civic engagement into her course "Applied Ethnomusicology." Students read scholarly and popular articles on issues relating to immigrant and refugee communities, and then undertook semester-long field projects to document musical expressions of an immigrant, refugee, or other local subculture. Working with Somali and Russian communities in Springfield, Puerto Rican and Mexican communities in Holyoke, and the Cambodian community in Leverett, student projects included interviews, audio and video footage of concerts/events, a short radio piece, photography, and writing. As an essential part of the final project, each student "gave back" to the community by creating websites for musical ensembles, radio documentaries that aired on a local radio station, a concert featuring community participants, and audio and video demo tapes for musicians.

A joint course between the English and Nursing departments at Pace University shows that professional courses can incorporate issues of civic and social significance. The CEC Grant-funded courses "Writing in the Disciplines" and "A Holistic Approach to Systems Assessment: A Field Study", taught by Linda Anstendig and Donna Hallas, respectively, actively involved nursing students with at-risk families, community health promotion, and maternal child health care through work at Neonatal Intensive Care Units, the March of Dimes office, and neonatal and Planned Parenthood clinics, as well as other community sites. In the companion English course taught during the same semester, the nursing students reflected on and wrote about the issues they observed. The students gave presentations on site at clinics and other community centers.

Additional information about these and other CEC Grant-funded courses is available on the Project Pericles website.

Hampshire College first-year students enrolled in Elizabeth Conlisk's Public Health course "Agriculture, Food and Human Health," harvested fresh organic produce on the college farm, then boxed and delivered the produce to a nearby town for distribution to WIC participants. WIC, a federal program that provides nutritious food for women, infants, and young children, generally is not able to provide fresh fruits and vegetables. Nancy Hanson, manager of the Community Supported Agriculture program of the Hampshire College Farm Center (featured in April's Periclean Progress), assisted the students.

"The Philadelphia Story," a course being taught this fall at Ursinus College by History professor Dallett Hemphill, focuses on the draw of cities and the civic history of Philadelphia. An integral part of the class is a research project with a civic organization where students learn how historic, political, service and environmental groups provide various community services. To study cities, Hemphill notes, "it is best to consider our roles as citizens," adding that she hopes students leave the course with a strong sense of their ability to shape communities.

The Broader Academic Community: Imagining America, a national consortium of colleges and universities committed to public scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design, has undertaken a Tenure Team Initiative (TTI) to examine critical aspects of promotion and tenure policy. TTI's goal is to create a resource for deans and chairs to help them assess and reward public scholarship -- scholarship that joins serious intellectual endeavor with a commitment to public practice and public consequence. As explained in the TTI prospectus, "The current tenure and promotion system extracts a high price. It is costly to communities, because they aren't getting access to educational partners. It is costly to students, because opportunities for significant public work often are not available through the curriculum. And it is costly to faculty artists and scholars, who have difficulty claiming public and community-based intellectual and artistic work in a way that counts at tenure time." Tenure Team members include Devorah Lieberman, Provost of Wagner College, as well as National Board of Advisors members Judith Ramaley and David Scobey. Imagining America's membership includes Hampshire College and Pace University.

Community: As part of its emerging focus on "urban engagement," Macalester College has undertaken a multifaceted partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society and community partners to create public history projects on the Lake Street corridor. Over the next three semesters, classes from many departments--including history, theatre and dance, political science, and anthropology--will collaborate with community partners to develop projects that will document and tell the Lake Street community's history. Lake Street was chosen as a particularly rich focus for this project because it has become a "global borderland"--a meeting place of diverse cultures, ethnicities, classes, and religions. Projects will take many forms, including creating historic displays, photography, documentaries, maps, dance performances, art pieces, and essays written for a broad public. Methodologies will match the academic disciplines, course learning goals, and community needs, and may include oral interviews, ethnographic research, architectural and musical interpretation, GIS mapping, and archival research. By researching the history of one important corridor in the Twin Cities, it is hoped that students will develop a deeper understanding of the urban environment, and engage such themes as urban development, migration and immigration, and community life.

Innovative Initiatives

As part of a new general education curriculum, Chatham College has created the all-sophomore seminar "Citizenship and Civic Engagement" to explore the connection of responsible and engaged citizenship through scholarship and experiential activity. Taught by senior faculty from multiple disciplines, each section of the course is different, with coursework matched to a Periclean Series of workshops, panels, and experts who bring current and experiential material to complement the curricular work. The seminar also incorporates exercises relating to three skills considered essential for Chatham students as "world ready women"--critical reading, information literacy, and oral communication.

In launching the celebration of its Centennial, Pace University reaffirmed its commitment to providing a wide range of opportunities to its students -- not only to better and enrich their lives, but also so that they can go into the world in whatever setting they choose and make a difference there. President David A. Caputo announced two initiatives that underscore this institutional commitment: a Civic Fellowship program, to start in January, for students, staff, and faculty, that will provide an extended paid leave in order to provide expertise and assistance to qualified nonprofit organizations; and second, paid leave time -- likely a half-day -- for employees wishing to participate in the "100 Opportunities for Service and Civic Engagement" program. Visit Pace's 100 Opportunities website for more information, including community partners and a schedule of events.

Resources

How does working affect the political engagement of college students? A new survey finds that working college students, while busier than their non-working peers, are less likely to be dissuaded by potential barriers to political participation. They also report higher levels of newspaper reading, talking politics with friends, engaging or practicing civic skills, and airing their opinions. It's difficult to reach any definite conclusion about causation, but one theory advanced by the researchers is that students who also work are exposed to multiple avenues for political mobilization. The study makes clear that an examination of the role of education in promoting political activity must take into account a mixture of other factors, including employment. And whether students also work or not, the study affirmed the belief that education plays a crucial role in engagement -- in general, students are more politically engaged than their non-student peers. To learn more, click here.

When "being engaged" has more than one meaning-- The "I Do Foundation", created in 2000 by a group including Swarthmore College grad Peter Murray, links engaged couples with a host of charitable giving options from honeymoons to invitations to wedding gifts to wedding favors. The foundation is one of 12 finalists in the BBC World Challenge, a competition among grassroots enterprises and innovations for $20,000. You can trace the I Do Foundation's success and be a part of their vision to transform the culture of weddings and other life events through charitable participation by visiting their website.






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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