1. Civic Engagement at US Universities
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Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, Ph.D.
Fulbright Scholar

2. Civic Engagement
Civic Health measured by looking at five key areas:
Service
Participating in a Group
Connecting to Information and Current Events
Social Connectedness
Political action
http://civic.serve.gov/
3. Corporation for National and Community ServiceData on Civic Life in America
http://civic.serve.gov/national
Trends and Highlights on Civic Engagement across the United States
There are many ways that individuals engage civically across the nation. For example, 62 million Americans volunteered with an organization (26.6% of adults). 20.8 million Americans worked with neighbors to fix a community problem (7.2% of adults).
Almost half of adults (49.4%) donated money, assets, or property with a combined value of more than $25 to charitable or religious organizations.
58.2% of residents voted in the 2008 Presidential election (64.9% were registered to vote in 2008).
4. Volunteer Service
5. Voting
6. Political Action
7. Participating in a Group
8. Social Connectedness
9. One of the new questions on the citizenship test:
What are 2 ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?
Acceptable answers include
VOTE
Join a political party
Help with a campaign
Join a civic group
Join a community group
Give an elected official your opinion on an issue
Call senators or representatives
Publicly support or oppose an issue or policy
Run for office
Write to a newspaper
10. Other ways for citizens to participate?
Becoming informed about govt officials and activities; becoming informed about public problems
Participating in political discussions
Sign a petition
Contribute money to political party or candidate
Lobbying for laws that are of special interest to you
Taking part in marches, boycotts, sit-ins, or other forms of protest
Serve the country through military service
Litigation
11. In what other ways can students become engaged?
Assess political interests read the newspaper, watch the news, stay abreast of current events
Watch C-Span to watch Congress or its committees
Discuss political issues with family, friends, classmates
Call in to a radio talk show
Articulate your views on the issue blogging(see www.stpt.usf.edu/whitehouse)
virtual community Facebook, MySpace
Visit local office of state or federal legislator (find out what the office does, how much staff it maintains, and how the legislator spends her time)
Have government officials, campaign staff, and/or party officials visit classroom
Visit a courtroom, spend at least an hour observing the activities
Attend school board meeting, county commission meeting, city council meeting
(what issues were discussed, how many people attended, was the public allowed to speak, how did the public officials treat the public, what was your opinion of the public officials after the visit)
Visit/contact local party HQ, campaign HQ, re becoming involved
Collect examples of campaign literature; what is the appeal? Are they asking for $$, do the samples address issues? Promote personalities? How effective do you think they will be in persuading voters?
Internet research campaigns, government agencies, legislation
Buycotting
12. Civic Education
Reasonably well-informed, capable, engaged, and public-spirited citizens are essential if a democracy is to flourish
For active, engaged participation, need KNOWLEDGE
Knowledgeable citizens are better able to act on their political interests
Knowledge of Government
Must understand the rules of the game
Knowledge of Politics
Must understand what is at stake in the political world
Knowledge of Democratic Principles
liberty, equality, democracy
13. USFSP
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The Center for Civic Engagement is designed to make USF St. Petersburg distinctive in its commitment to civic and community engagement through the development of the Citizen Scholar model.
The objective of the citizen scholar model is to combine academic instruction with implementation of concepts learned in the classroom into the local community.
14. www.stpt.usf.edu/community
Programs and Initiatives to expand civic engagement across the curriculum
Civic Engagement Fair
Faculty Course Development Grant Program
Faculty Development Workshops
Community Partner and Service Learning Placement Directory
Citizen Scholar Course Catalog
15. The Road to the White House
www.stpt.usf.edu/whitehouse
Course Objective: To study the history and politics of U.S. presidential campaigns, including an intensive 10-day internship in New Hampshire leading up to the first-in-the-nation primary.
19 Undergraduate and Graduate Students
11 Campaigns
3 Cities
16. Learning Citizenship by DoingEvaluating the Effects of a Required Political Campaign Internship in American Government
See
http://www.servicelearning.org/library/resource/8814
for the full text of the article
About the Course
Logistics
The Results
17. Pre-Test/Post Test Surveys
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Can you make a difference by getting involved in a campaign?
18. Pre-Test/Post-Test Surveys
Do elections make government pay attention to what people think?