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Political Science 390 2/17/12

Chuck Green Civic Engagement Fellowship

Communities, Organizations, and Political Change (Facilitator’s Draft, Pre-Negotiation)

GDD 306, Spring 2012 Tuesdays: 9:40-11:10 am Thursdays: 8:15-9 am (breakfast), 9-11 am (seminar) Field trip Thursdays: 7 am-12 pm (including breakfast) 2012 Chuck Green Fellows: Josie Ahrens, Zack Avre, Jocelyne Cardona, Anja Crowder, Matt Hyde, Nora Kassner, Asma Mohammed, Maya Pisel, Dinesh

Rathakrishnan, Sean Ryan, Jeanne Stuart, and Emma WestRasmus. Facilitator: Paul Dosh / dosh@macalester.edu / cell 651-641-0416 / office Carnegie 203H Seminar Description In his 40-year career at Macalester, Professor Chuck Green functioned as a one-man ‘leadership academy,’ inspiring and guiding students to make the transition from detached observers to engaged citizens. Through his teaching, mentoring, and example, Professor Green instilled in students a sense of confidence and optimism about their ability to engage proactively in the world. The Chuck Green Civic Engagement Fellowship honors this legacy. In this seminar, Chuck Green Fellows will study democratic engagement in social and organizational change, identify a client organization working for the public good with whom the student can analyze and address a problem, and then work with that client on a mutually agreed-upon solution. The Fellowship culminates in the early fall with an event in which Fellows, faculty, and clients have an opportunity to reflect on the fellowship experience. The Fellowship fulfills both the practicum and advanced course requirements of the political science major. The seminar employs problem-based learning and is cohort-based, meaning that all students will work together to help navigate troubles and pitfalls as they arise, provide support and advice to one another, and share their knowledge and expertise along the way. We will rely heavily on student participation and leadership to steer the course throughout the semester. As such, each Fellow is expected to actively participate in all sessions. Our success depends not only on your active engagement of seminar materials and each other, but also your willingness to contribute ideas and perspectives to guide the class, to suggest pathways for the class to follow, and to show an ability to get things done. The success of the Fellowship will ultimately hinge on the quality of student contributions and engagement! This seminar emphasizes peer-based collaborative learning. A number of our class sessions will be devoted to workshop-style sessions in which fellows bring client-based problems and questions to class and work through them as a group. In addition, the second half of the syllabus is not yet structured, and will be negotiated and collaboratively designed by the Fellows.

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Course Objectives This seminar seeks to help you: 1) Develop and practice the skills necessary for an independent consultancy-like project with an

outside organization;

2) Prepare you for a life of independent activism (in the broad meaning of the word), focusing your energies toward positive organizational and social change;

3) Explore the possibilities within a current of discussion, thought, and possibilities for the role of government in the life of society; and,

4) Challenge yourself in ways different by type and degree from other challenges you may have received to date.

Readings Most readings will be available via Moodle, but there is also one amazing book that is at the bookstore and on reserve at the library:

•Kidder, Tracy. 2003. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World. New York: Random House.

Assignment Summary Preparation for client acquisition Due Date 1. Resume Jan 31 2. Interview a fellow Feb 2 3. Reflection on initial project proposal Feb 7 5. Contact materials Feb 14 4. Map the possibilities Feb 16 6. Interview results with potential clients Feb 28 7. Negotiated Syllabus Pitch Mar 4 Project 1. Project proposal Apr 3 2. Communications with Client ongoing 3. Draft action plan Apr 24 Final action plan May 1 4. Final presentations to cohort, clients, larger audience TBD Reflection 1. Blog about experiences, thoughts, perspectives Beginning Jan 27 2. Two Analytical Essays Mar 1 and Apr 10 3. Final reflective essay Jul 31

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Assignment Descriptions Preparation for Client Acquisition

1) Assignment: Prepare a Resume. You have a resume already, but as your audience changes you should reconsider its aim and features. Think about your target audience and prepare a polished draft to workshop in class. 2) Assignment: Interview a Fellow. Identify an alum of the Chuck Green Fellowship, interview him or her (in person) and write a short commentary on the interview. In your write-up, you may wish to focus on tangible advice or tips for this year’s cohort, reflections on the place of the fellowship in one’s personal and professional development, and what involvement in the fellowship (one with a growing set of alumni) means to you. Fellows should feel free to interview an alum from the immediate past cohort, or draw more broadly from the population of all former Chuck Green Fellows. 3) Assignment: Reflection on Initial Project Proposal. You applied with a project in mind. You may or may not still have the same project in mind. Write a reflective essay about your proposal and how your thinking has evolved since you applied to be a Chuck Green Fellow. 4) Assignment: Contact Materials. Prepare a cover letter or email for the resume and initial contact you will make with potential partner organizations, and a script or set of questions for an informational interview. In your cover letter, be sure to “sell yourself” by identifying your skills and the positive contributions you can bring to their organization. Be prepared to practice “selling yourself” to the other Fellows in class. 5) Assignment: Mapping the Possibilities. From your project area, identify at least three organizations in the Twin Cities that present potential partnerships. Collect as much information as you can about each and sketch what a partnership with each organization might entail. In particular, describe the dimensions on which these organizations differ from one another and discuss how these differences might influence your ultimate decision regarding with whom to partner. What can you take away from each organization? How well does it fit with your overall goals? What might it mean to work with each of these organizations? Where can you envision potential challenges and opportunities? How will your choice of an organizational partner shape your project and ultimate experience as a Chuck Green Fellow? Fellows are encouraged to visit these organizations in person to get a sense of the physical space, their public events, and other salient factors that may be missed via phone or email. 6) Assignment: Interview Two Possibilities. From your list of three organizations, conduct informational interviews with at least two of them. Write up the results of those meetings, paying particular attention to the costs and benefits of partnership with them. 7) Negotiated Syllabus Pitch. Chuck Green discovered the unsurpassed capacity of college students to direct their own learning. In anticipation of a post-Spring Break student-created and student-directed classes, each student will craft a lesson plan “pitch” and post it online by March 4; everyone will then review all the pitches by March 8. On March 8, we will spend time on: 1) presentations of each pitch that are brief because everyone has already read them all; 2) selecting

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which pitches to implement; and 3) dividing up responsibility for fully designing and implementing the selected pitches. Project

1) Client acquisition / communications with Client. To ensure that your project is indeed collaborative, you need to maintain regular communications (written and oral) with your client. Keep track of these communications. 2) Project Proposal. This is a short document that sketches out the likely project you will pursue in collaboration with your client partner. In particular, it should briefly address three things: what you will do, why you think it’s worth doing, and how you will go about achieving this goal. Client sign-off is essential. 3) Assignment: Action Plan. Due the last week of Spring semester, this paper is the major planning document for your summer civic engagement project. Review the Action Plans of past Fellows to get a sense of the variety of elements that may be appropriate to include for your particular project. 4) Presentation of Projects and Client Partners to the Larger Community. In the past this has sometimes been done through a reception toward the end of Spring semester, but we can approach this important objective through either a reception or some creative alternative. 5) Product/Summary of Project Outcomes. Each cohort will decide on a unified format for how each Fellow will summarize and publicly share the outcomes of their projects. Typically this should be aimed at a general audience that is not familiar with either the Fellowship or the client organization. Other Written Work Reflections

1) Ongoing Assignment: Reflective Writing and Responses. Throughout the spring and summer, fellows are expected to contribute their thoughts and reflections to a Moodle forum established for the seminar. These entries may focus on, among other things, reactions to the opening experience, questions and reactions to seminar readings and the client acquisition process, and inquiries and thoughts about the project proposal and action plan. 2) Assignment: Analytical Essays (x2). Five-page argumentative papers that engage seminar readings in relation to your civic engagement project. 3) Assignment: Final Reflective Essay. In 500 words, describe and reflect upon your time as a Chuck Green Fellow. Going back as far as your initial application, share the journey you took to arrive at this point. What lessons have you learned along the way? What challenges and obstacles did you overcome along the way? How well prepared do you feel to embark upon your summer project? What advice might you give aspiring Chuck Green Fellows? These should be published electronically through the Macalester Library’s Digital Commons by July 31.

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SYLLABUS (pre-negotiation)

—Tuesday, January 24— Welcome! What it Means to be a Chuck Green Fellow Planning for Opening Retreat

—Thursday, January 26— Informal Presentations about Potential Clients

•Come prepared to talk for 5 minutes about your ideas for finding a client organization in the Twin Cities. Generate a list of three or more potential organizations. Learn about each one. Think ahead to what questions you want to ask the other Fellows in order to solicit input.

Final Retreat Preparation Opening Reading: Mountains Beyond Mountains

•Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains (Parts I-II).

—Friday, January 27 to Saturday, January 28— *DUE: First post on CGF Moodle forum (this will be an ongoing expectation)* Opening Retreat (depart 5 pm Friday; return 5 pm Saturday, Jan. 28) Finish remaining Informal Presentations about Potential Clients

—Tuesday, January 31— *DUE: Resume* Visit by Chuck Green (tentative) Opening Reading (continued): Mountains Beyond Mountains

•Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains (Parts III-V).

—Thursday, February 2— *DUE: Fellow Interview* Resume Workshop (facilitated by Career Development Center) Civic Engagement and Social Capital

•Kurth-Schai and Green, Prelude and Chapter 1 •Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” •Berry, “The Advocacy Explosion”

Negotiating the Syllabus, including Assessment/Grading (Round 1)

—Tuesday, February 7— *DUE: Reflection on Initial Project Proposal * Visit by Michael Porter, Internship Director, “Face-to-Face with a Prospective Client” Social Entrepreneurship

•Dees, “Taking Social Entrepreneurship Seriously” •Drayton, “Everyone a Changemaker”

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—Tuesday, February 7, 7:00 pm, Olin-Rice 250— Lecture by Ben Dangl, “Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America” (optional)

—Thursday, February 9, 7:30 am-12:00 pm— Field Trip: Project for Pride in Living

•PPL website (www.ppl-inc.org) •Selections from Klobuchar and Selvaggio, “Microgrants” •Selections from Selvaggio and Stowell, “In the Streets… In the Suites”

—Tuesday, February 14— *DUE: Draft of Contact Materials* Organizational Innovation

•Selections from Light, “Sustaining Innovation: Creating Nonprofit and Government Organizations that Innovate Naturally”

Mock Client Interviews

—Thursday, February 16— *DUE: Mapping the Possibilities* Imagining and Working Towards Social Change

•Shaw, Introduction and Chapter 1 •Alinsky, “Prologue” and “In the Beginning”

—Tuesday, February 21— Radical Egalitarianism and Public Education

•Freire, “On The Right and the Duty to Change the World” •Kurth-Schai and Green, Chapter 6

—Thursday, February 23, 7:00 am-12:00 pm— Field Trip: Bright Water and Great River Montessori Schools

—Tuesday, February 28— *DUE: Interviewing Two Possibilities* Imagining and Working Towards Social Change (continued)

•Stout, “Blessed are the Organized”, Chs. 1-3

—Thursday, March 1— *DUE Analytical Essay #1* Doing Activism

•Stall and Stoecker, “Community Organizing or Organizing Community?” •McAdam, “The Biographical Consequences of Activism” •McAdam and Brandt, “Assessing the Effects of Voluntary Youth Service: The Case of

Teach for America”

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—Sunday, March 4— *DUE: Negotiated Syllabus Pitch (posted by midnight)*

—Tuesday, March 6— Nonprofit Advocacy

•Saidel, “Nonprofit Orgs, Political Engagement, and Public Policy”

—Thursday, March 8— *DUE: Client should be on board* Negotiating the Syllabus (Round 2)

SPRING BREAK

—Tuesday, March 20—

—Thursday, March 22, 7:00 am-12:00 pm— Field Trip (negotiated and planned by Fellows)

—Thursday, March 22, 4:45 pm, Chapel— Mitau Lecture by Lani Guinier, "Rethinking Race and Class" •Biography and Description of Mitau Lecture. •“Student Participation in Campus Government” Lecture at St. Cloud State College, 1969.

—Tuesday, March 27—

—Thursday, March 29—

—Tuesday, April 3— *DUE: Project Proposal*

—Thursday, April 5, 7:00 am-12:00 pm —

Field Trip (negotiated and planned by Fellows)

—Tuesday, April 10— *DUE: Analytical Essay #2*

—Thursday, April 12—

—Tuesday, April 17—

—Thursday, April 19, 7:00 am-12:00 pm —

Field Trip (negotiated and planned by Fellows)

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—Tuesday, April 24— *DUE: Draft Action Plan*

—Thursday, April 26—

—Tuesday, May 1—

*DUE: Final Action Plan* Last day of seminar Course Evaluations

Post-Spring Break: Possible Readings What’s the Deal with Minnesota?

•Gray and Spano, “The Irresistible Force Meets the Immovable Object: Minnesota’s Moralistic Political Culture Confronts Jesse Ventura”

Agenda-Setting

•Kingdon, “Agenda Setting” Direct Lobbying

•Avner, Chapter 3-4 •Raffa, “Advocacy and Lobbying without Fear”

Strategy and Advocacy

•Bobo, Chapters 4-5, 7 Media Relations

•Gamson, “Framing Social Policy”, Shaw, Chapter 5 Coalition Building

•Shaw, Chapter 3 •Brinton and Milward, “Manager’s Guide to Choosing and Using Collaborative Networks”

Public Policy Perspectives

•Truman, “Group Politics and Representative Democracy” Organizational Concepts

•Shaw, Chapter 8 •Lindblom, “The Science of Muddling Through”

Implementation

•Mazmanian and Sabatier, “A Conceptual Framework for the Implementation Process”