How Civic Engagement Can Save Higher Education
Wagner College President Richard Guarasci Writes on the Future of Higher Ed and Civic Engagement; the first of a three-part series for The Huffington Post.
Seizing the Chance to Teach Change
Project Pericles Board Member and President of The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), Richard Ekman, discusses the challenges of educating for social responsibility.
"Initiatives such as Project Pericles target what are often the weakest links in campus efforts to encourage civic engagement by students. The project insists, first, that college trustees embrace greater involvement in civic institutions as an explicit value of the college and, second, that the college's program of civic engagement include formal coursework in many disciplines."
Weaving Colleges Into Communities
"Universities need to find ways to foster critical introspection and intellectual growth in the midst of a rapidly changing world. But hasn't that always been the case? Universities are not stagnant institutions. Rather they are organic, breathing in society problems and all. Evidence from Imagining America, Campus Compact, and Project Pericles, among others, suggests that knowledge in motion, or civically engaged learning, creates intensive pathways that reinforce knowledge, creating enhanced learning outcomes. In short, it provides better and deeper educational opportunities for students. Part of a college education must require education that is rooted in society -- even the messiness of it -- not apart from it."
Conservative Students Thrive on Liberal Arts Campuses
In a study conducted by Amy J. Binder, associate professor of sociology at the University of California at San Diego, and graduate student Kate Woods, conservative students at liberal arts colleges recognized that they were a minority on campus, but deeply admired their liberal professors and were proud of their institutions. They were taught to examine and to defend their beliefs, which gained them a broader worldview and the tools to become future leaders. Sarah S. Willie-LeBreton, associate professor of sociology at Swarthmore College, responded to the study, emphasizing the importance of smaller classes and close interaction between faculty and students, defining traits of a liberal arts education.
Youths' Civic Engagement Seen to Rise
Education Week reports that civic engagement among US youth is on the rise.
Report Released on Millennials and How They Will Reshape America
The report,The Millennial Pendulum: A New Generation of Voters and the Prospects for a Political Realignment, was funded by the New American Foundation. The report finds that the Millennials (born after 1982) are starting their adult lives much more progressive on economic issues than any generation from the early 1960s to today.
Political Engagement Among College Freshmen Hits 40-year High
College freshman are more politically engaged today than at any point during the last 40 years, with 89.5 percent reporting that they frequently or occasionally discussed politics in the last year, according to UCLA's annual survey of the nation's entering students at four-year institutions. The annual CIRP Freshman Survey, part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP),is administered nationally by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
Study Evaluates Impact of AmeriCorps on Service Lives of Alumni
AmeriCorps alumni outpace controleld comparison group in public service careers, civic engagement, community activism, and life fulfillment reports a new study from the Corporation for National and Community Service. The study, Still Serving: Measuring the Eight-Year Impact of AmeriCorps on Alumni, finds that AmeriCorps causes long-term positive impacts on the civic attitudes and behaviors of the program's alumni. AmeriCorps alums are significantly more civically engaged and more likely to pursue public service careers in the government and nonprofit sector than their counterparts in the scientifically crafted comparison group, which has also been tracked for eight years. They are also significantly more likely to be happy and satisfied with their lives.
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