University Business - June 2012 - (Page 29)

Congratulates the AdvAncing the common good Some colleges are helping to restore faith in the capacity of American political institutions to advance the common good. The American Commonwealth Partnership at Augsburg college (Minn.) and the American Democracy Project of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities both include national and regional meetings, curriculum revision, and programs that encourage greater attention to civic involvement on university and college campuses. Allegheny college (Pa.) recently announced a Prize for Civility in Public Life, awarded to journalists Mark Shields and David Brooks, to honor individuals on opposing sides of the ideological spectrum who show noteworthy civility while arguing passionately for their views. The recent report from the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, “A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future,” inventories a dizzying array of campus-based activities that encourage students to work toward improvement of their communities and, ultimately, the entire nation through college graduates’ deeper involvement in civic institutions. Colleges and universities can do still more. Initiatives such as Project Pericles (a nonprofit coalition of colleges that promotes social responsibility and civic participation on campus) 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. As the college-going population adds more first-generation, minority, and lowincome students, these steps enable inuniversitybusiness.com dependent colleges, with their especially high rates of success for these at-risk students, to demonstrate their natural roles as laboratories for democracy and as engines of social mobility. The challenge is to motivate college students and faculty members to go beyond the laudable community service projects to which most have committed and engage the political system itself. Today, unfortunately, grass-roots, community-based organizations can rarely count on attracting a large percentage of a community’s population. And the leaders of these local initiatives are themselves often wary of larger alliances because local activists, like Occupy protesters, lack confidence that national governmental, NGO, or financial institutions can be truly responsive to the people. A hopeful sign is the efforts by the Kettering Foundation, which has devoted many years to studying this malaise and what works to revitalize civic engagement. Kettering promotes National Issues Forums for community groups to discuss major policy issues in civil and constructive ways that raise the likelihood of consensus ultimately emerging. Colleges should be in the forefront of efforts like these. As a first step, colleges must show students that well-conceived strategies work better than incoherent protests to influence political and social change. As a second step, colleges need to deepen students’ understanding of political institutions that have a distinctive American history. And as a third step, colleges should engage the broader population to help make a real difference in revitalizing democratic participation. We must restore students’—and eventually the broader public’s—belief in the use of durable institutions to work for the common good. Richard Ekman is president of the Council of Independent Colleges, www.cic.org. SEMIFINALISTS • Berkeley College • Southern Methodist University • Queensland University of Technology • University Of Houston-Downtown • Elizabeth City State University • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • California Baptist University • KU Leuven • University of Queensland • University of Washington School of Dentistry • Stanford University School of Medicine • The George Washington University • Temple University • University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine • Liberty University • Oral Roberts University • The Illinois College of Optometry • University of Ottawa • University Of Strathclyde • Wake Forest University Schools of Business • University of Central Oklahoma • University of Colorado Boulder Sponsored by the GLOBAL EDUCATION ALLIANCE PROGRAM June 2012 | 29 http://www.cic.org http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - June 2012

University Business - June 2012
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Marketing
Independent Outlook
Special Section: Thinking Green
4G: Is It Time for an Upgrade?
Unified Security: All Together Now
Collaborative Workflow
Campus Finance News
3 Student Aid Myths
Deepening the Donor Pool
Keeping Tuition Within Reach
Internet Technology
End Note

University Business - June 2012