The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter

The Periclean Progress E-Newsletter 

  

 Volume 13, Winter 2016-2017

      

 

The Periclean Progress is a publication of Project Pericles, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential element of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.
 
National Office News:

Project Pericles Releases New White Paper

We have just released our white paper, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement: Five Approaches to Institutionalizing Civic Engagement by Garret S. Batten, Project Pericles; Adrienne Falcón, Carleton College; and Jan R. Liss, Project Pericles. The white paper documents the accomplishments of 26 participating colleges and universities as part of a three-year initiative to promote an intentional approach to civic engagement that prioritizes coherent program design and the incorporation of civic engagement throughout the undergraduate experience.

As part of the initiative, teams on each campus inventoried and mapped all curricular and co-curricular civic and community engagement on their campuses, shared insights with their colleagues from other campuses, developed actions plans for strengthening their approaches to civic engagement, and implemented a wide range of initiatives.

Campuses developed new thematic pathways for linking courses and co-curricular activities around specific substantive issues such as education, health, and sustainable energy; restructured their approaches to civic engagement; developed civic engagement certificate programs; revised their civic engagement/social justice requirement; held numerous faculty and course development workshops; designed enhanced assessment and tracking tools for documenting student participation; strengthened advising around civic engagement; and incorporated student reflection through courses and workshops.

The white paper discusses five basic approaches to organizing curricular and co-curricular programming for civic engagement: Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility Requirements, Civic Scholars Programs, Pathway Approaches, Certificates, and Entrepreneurial/Open Choice Models. The white paper highlights mapping of civic engagement as a catalyst for change on campus and shares many takeaways from this ambitious project.

The white paper is available on our web site.
 
The white paper and the Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement Initiative were supported by the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation. The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund hosted our 2014 convening.

Project Pericles Launches Second Round of Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL)™ Program

Through support from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Project Pericles is pleased to offer 12 Periclean Faculty Leader awards. The award carries with it $2,000 for each participating campus. The Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ is a faculty leadership and course development program dedicated to incorporating civil discourse, civic engagement, and social responsibility across the undergraduate curriculum.

Periclean Faculty Leaders (PFLs) will champion civil discourse and social responsibility in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community. As with the initial round of the program, Project Pericles will look to include faculty members from across the disciplines, especially those that have not traditionally incorporated social responsibility. Competitively selected PFLs will develop, teach, and evaluate new or substantially revised academic courses that incorporate civil discourse and social responsibility as critical elements of the educational experience. PFLs will promote civil dialogue locally through lectures, town hall meetings, and public events; and advance public scholarship nationally and internationally through publications and conference presentations.

In order to promote collaboration, PFLs from different campuses will be paired for peer mentorship. Additionally, PFLs from the first round of the program will provide support to this second cohort.

The new Periclean Faculty Leaders will be announced in April.

Our white paper The Periclean Diamond: Linking College, Campuses, Communities, and Colleagues via Social and Civic High Engagement Learning by Ben Berger, Swarthmore College and Jan R. Liss, Project Pericles documents best practices from the initial PFL Program.

Debating for Democracy (D4D )™ workshop D4D on the Road™ Rocks at Carleton

On January 21, Carleton College and Macalester College co-hosted a Debating for Democracy D4D on the Road workshop at Carleton. Despite falling on the same day as the Women's March, the workshop drew over 50 students and community members from the two Periclean campuses, as well as student from neighboring St. Olaf College.

One of the students commented,
 "This [workshop] really challenged my understanding of advocacy."

Another noted,
"...Any advocate or activist needs to be able to frame (communicate) his or her issue, which is exactly what this workshop aimed to teach us."

Participants expressed interest in a wide range of topics including climate change, education reform, healthcare reform, immigration, LGBTQ rights, prison reform, racial justice, student debt, and women's rights. They valued the chance to work with like-minded peers from nearby colleges.

With six workshops so far this year, Project Pericles has trained students from 17 different campuses as well as community members and students from middle and high schools that have partnerships with Periclean campuses.

These one-day workshops empower student leaders and community members. Attendees gain the knowledge, skills, and techniques needed to construct persuasive messages about their issues and effectively communicate with elected officials and the general public.
This year Project Pericles is pleased to partner with FrameWorks Institute, which is facilitating the workshops. Frameworks teaches a strategic approach to framing that helps communicators build support by changing the conversation about social issues. Participants learn how to use explanatory language in new ways, how to apply the tools of social science to understand what they are up against when communicating with the public, and how to present solutions to the important social concerns of students in a persuasive way to make change.

The D4D on the Road workshops are made possible through the support of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and the Spencer Foundation.

Let us know if you would like to attend a workshop in February or March. See the last page for the complete schedule of workshops.

Update on Student Teams from the 2016 D4D Letters to an Elected Official Competition

Teams from Allegheny College, Berea College, Carleton College, Hendrix College, and Pitzer College were selected as the winners of the Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ Letters to an Elected Official competition. The competition engages students around public policy issues, the political process, and with their elected officials.

Please consider making a donation to support the work of our student activists and leaders. Our democracy needs active and engaged citizens.  A donation of $500 supports a campus based team working on critical public policy issues. A donation of $1,000 sends a student leader to the  Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference in New York City.

Below are highlights from two of the teams. We will provide updates on the other teams in future newsletters.
 
Carleton College-Students Start Agricultural Program: Heart of the Heartland
Five students at Carleton College are launching an agricultural-based educational program called Heart of the Heartland. Their initiative grew out of their support of the 2014 Farm Bill. Two of the team members, Sarah Goldman '17 and Jenni Rogan '19, wrote a letter to Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in support of subsidizing crop insurance to allow for more diversified crops of fruits and vegetables and away from an overreliance on corn and soy. In turn, they argued, this would help secure healthy and nutritious food grown within the United States.
 
The Carleton students started organizing Heart of the Heartland by building connections with farmers and nonprofits in the Northfield area, and by raising additional funds. The Carleton team is initially developing a summer program with plans to expand beyond this. During a "five-week intensive agricultural program" students will be placed with farmer mentors and also take "topical seminars in agricultural biology and policy (from   http://heartoftheheartland.com/young-farmer-summer-seminar/ )." Working with Carleton's Center for Community and Civic Engagement, the students are coordinating logistics for summer 2017. In order to raise awareness about the program, they have started holding informational workshops at area colleges including Macalester College and St. Olaf College. The website they created is now live: heartoftheheartland.com .
 
Hendrix College-Standing Up for the Rights of Juvenile Defendants
Currently in Arkansas, news media can publicize the names of juveniles charged as adults for crimes. Katie Dobbins '17, Emma Gaither '18, Casey Hawkins '18, and Tejas Soman '18 wrote to State Senator Joyce Elliott (D-AR) about restricting local media sources from publishing the names of juveniles.

This fall, the Hendrix team coordinated a local awareness concert with a letter writing campaign. The concert opened with remarks from a Little Rock attorney who shares their concern. During the show as two local bands played, the team passed out postcards for people to sign to show their support and concern. Their next move is to further engage the community and students by hosting an open discussion event with people working on the issue: a local juvenile defense attorney, representatives from local NGOs, and a student advocate.   
 
Project Pericles Receives First Installment of $3 Million Endowment from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation

In 2016, Project Pericles received the first half of a $3 million endowment from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation. The Lang Foundation has made a $4.325 million commitment to Project Pericles, including the endowment and annual contributions through 2021. The foundation's support of Project Pericles' work ensures that we will continue to thrive for years to come. This substantial gift is an important investment in Eugene M. Lang's vision and in Project Pericles' mission of championing civic engagement in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.

We thank the Eugene M. Lang Foundation for this generous gift and for many years of on-going support.

Conference & Meetings

Debating for Democracy (D4D)™ National Conference
Plans for the D4D National Conference on March 30 and 31 at The New School are coming together. The Honorable Martha Kanter, Executive Director of the College Promise Campaign and former Under Secretary of Education; The Honorable Ruth Messinger, President and CEO of American Jewish World Service and former Borough President of Manhattan; and The Honorable Constance Berry Newman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; will serve as judges for the Letters to an Elected Official Legislative Hearing.

Christopher Kush, Author of The One Hour Activist, and Kevin Schultze, both of Soapbox Consulting and former facilitators for D4D on the Road™, will run a workshop focused on how to effectively communicate with elected officials and the general public. This session will help the student attendees with the next steps to take their letters to an elected official and issues and move them forward.

The D4D National Conference is supported by the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

"If the Wind Doesn't Blow - Row: Empowering All Students through Integrated Civic Engagement Curricula Panel"-Project Pericles at AAC&U

On January 26 as part of AAC&U's 2017 National Meeting in San Francisco, Project Pericles and four Periclean Colleges presented a panel on how campuses are working to provide coherent and integrated programs to more effectively empower students. Panelists discussed how their campuses represented one or more of the five models presented in our recently released white paper, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement: Five Approaches to Institutionalizing Civic Engagement, as well as other insights from the Creating Cohesive Paths initiative.

The session was well attended with a standing room only audience of more than 100 attendees. The Q and A was particularly exciting. Over half of the attendees signed up for more information about our work and how it could help them advance civic engagement on their campuses.

The handoutfrom the presentation is available on the Project Pericles website.  

Presenting were Adrienne Falcón, Carleton College; Amy Koritz, Drew University; Jan Liss, Project Pericles; John McLain, The Evergreen State College; and Tessa Hicks Peterson, Pitzer College.

Project Pericles Board Member Levine Receives Award from CIC
Rich Ekman, President of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and Project Pericles Vice Chair, presented Arthur Levine with the Allen P. Splete Award for Outstanding Service. Levine is the President of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and also serves on the Project Pericles board. Splete is a member of the Project Pericles National Board of Advisors.

We congratulate Arthur Levine on this award and thank him for his longstanding contributions to Higher Education and Project Pericles.

The Project Pericles breakfast at CIC's Presidents Institute was once again hosted by Jan Liss, Executive Director of Project Pericles and Lyle Roelofs President of Berea College and Project Pericles Presidents' Council Executive Committee member.

Project Pericles Program Directors' Conference at Drew
We had an excellent Program Directors' Conference at Drew University on October 27 and 28. President MaryAnn Baenninger hosted a dinner for the group, and we had substantive discussions about the organization of civic engagement programs on our campuses and how to advance our work. Other topics included engaging with diverse communities, reflection, institutionalizing civic engagement, assessing impact, and curricular coherence. We also heard from students in Drew's Civic Scholars program and community partners.

We were pleased to have representatives from our newest campuses - The Evergreen State College, Reed College, Skidmore College, and Whitman College - attend the conference.
 
Pericleans in the News:

Bates, Goucher, and Occidental Continue Groundbreaking Work with Prisoners
 
Several of our Periclean campuses have developed groundbreaking educational programs for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. Below we highlight work at Bates College, Goucher College, and Occidental College.

Goucher College to Award B.A.s Through Goucher Prison Education Partnership
By Amy Roza

This fall, Goucher College received the state and regional permissions necessary to confer a Goucher College Bachelor of Arts degree to students in prisons. While this has been the vision since the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP) was founded, to date students have taken Goucher courses and earned college credit, while staff pursued the approvals necessary to confer a degree. Now GPEP college students can officially be recognized as Goucher College bachelor's degree candidates. Students will major in American Studies, an existing interdisciplinary Goucher major, allowing them to take courses in sociology, history, political science, religion, English, media studies, and other fields within a single dynamic degree.
 
Goucher Prison Education Partnership students are currently the only men and women in Maryland who can complete a bachelor's degree onsite in prison. GPEP staff and faculty, along with students, continue to forge a path regionally and nationally. GPEP students greeted the news of the bachelor's degree with cheers.
 
Prison in Higher Education: Expanding Opportunities in California
By Cynthia Magallanes-Gonzalez (Occidental '17) and Anna Palmer (Occidental '19)
 
In the Fall of 2016, the Office of Community Engagement (OCE) at Occidental College and the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program partnered to host a gathering of instructors who were previously trained in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program methodology, which equips instructors to teach inside prisons. This gathering was generously funded by the Kalliopeia Foundation. Oxy student coordinators Cynthia Magallanes-Gonzalez and Anna Palmer helped facilitate the gathering.
 
The Inside-Out program's mission is to increase opportunities for people - inside and outside of prisons - to take courses inside prisons and create dialogue on topics such as crime, justice, and other social issues. Instructors from various institutions including Pitzer College, Scripps College, and Imperial Valley College attended the gathering. During the day-long event, Magallanes-Gonzalez present a mapping project that shows the location of college instructors trained to teach courses inside prisons, as well as prisons, juvenile halls, and jails near affiliated higher-level educational institutions. The goal of the project is to allow faculty who teach inside prisons to network with one another and see what resources are available in their area. Instructors and members of nonprofit organizations praised the map and thought it could be a useful way to expand the courses offered at different prison facilities.
 
Following the gathering, the Education Justice Consortium (EJC) held a meeting. EJC works across institutions to make education more attainable to incarcerated and previously incarcerated people. Attendees included colleagues from California State University Long Beach, California State University Fullerton, California State University Los Angeles, and Pomona College. Participants strategized about how to bring a bachelor of arts college program into California prisons. The meeting highlighted the flourishing relationships between academics and nonprofits in efforts to build resources for people inside of prisons.
 
This Spring the OCE plans to follow-up with another gathering focused on bringing a B.A. college program into California prisons. The OCE plans to hold Incarceration Awareness Month in March and is working to connect the work of Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and the mapping project with the Occidental community.
 
The Meaning and Depiction of Suffering: Mass Incarceration in the Spotlight at Bates
 
Winter 2016-2017 marked the fourth time Bates College Professor Cynthia Baker included community-engaged projects as a central component of her Religious Studies course, "Human Suffering." Students were once again emphatic about the meaningful impact this work had on their learning. Complementing their close readings and discussion of the meaning and depiction of suffering in the biblical books of Job, Revelation, and Genesis, class members collaborated with partner organizations working to end mass incarceration and improve the lives of prisoners and those who are re-entering society.
 
Working in small groups, students supported the work of their partner organizations through both action and research-based projects. One group offered detailed feedback on essays written by prisoners participating in the College Guild's correspondence education program. Based in Brunswick, Maine, the College Guild offers courses on a wide variety of subjects for prisoners from around the country, operating on the motto that "Respect Reduces Recidivism." Bates students spoke highly of the written work submitted by students in the program, while acknowledging the complicated struggle between hopefulness, resilience, and anguish that came through in their poems and creative essays. In order to institutionalize the relationship between Bates and the College Guild, the students plan to establish a campus club in the coming year, which will become a platform for an ongoing partnership.

Other projects for the course laid the groundwork for sustained collaborations as well. Responding to concerns within Lewiston's new American community about increasing rates of juvenile arrest and detention, three students researched culturally aware programs to educate immigrant youth and prevent them from entering the juvenile correctional system. Their findings are supporting the programming efforts of Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services. Another student in the class mentored students in the Police Activities League Center in Auburn, which aims to foster positive relationships between youth and law enforcement in a local neighborhood with a high rate of juvenile crime. Still another student made a comprehensive list of addiction recovery services in Androscoggin County and is working to bring the information together into a mobile app that will provide a resource for law enforcement and justice department personnel seeking to offer alternatives to incarceration. And a group of students developed social media accounts and strategies to support efforts by the Center for Wisdom's Women to establish a house for women re-entering society after incarceration.

For their final projects, each student group developed poster presentations that brought together their analysis of biblical texts and their work in the community. They shared their results at the public symposium, "Chaos or Community: Conversations on Criminal Justice Reform in Maine," organized by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and several affiliated faculty members. Speakers included formerly incarcerated individuals, two U.S. Attorneys, and law enforcement, corrections, and justice officials from around Androscoggin County. One of the highlights of the day was a short film by a group of "Human Suffering" students, which featured four people in treatment at Grace Street Recovery Services responding to Maine Governor Paul LePage's call for vigilante violence against drug traffickers. The film and the personal narratives served as a powerful testament to the role that collaborations between community members and Bates students have for transforming perceptions of issues of social injustice.

Pace University Students Ramp Up Campaign to End the Use of Wild Animals in Circuses
 
What do Austria, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Paraguay, Peru, and Singapore all have in common that the United States does not (yet) share? They have enacted a nationwide ban on the use of wild animals in circuses. The Environmental Policy clinic, one of Pace University's Civic Engagement and Public Value courses, are advocating for a new state bill to ban elephants from performing as entertainment in New York.
 
Pace students first went up to Albany and discussed the legislation with State Senator Terrence Murphy and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin who told them to come up with a bill. Pace students had done research on elephant abuse and found that elephants used for entertainment purposes suffer physical and psychological harm due to harsh living conditions and training techniques. They drafted a bill and got 1,100 signatures on a petition in support.
 
In June 2016, the Elephant Protection Act passed the NY Senate 62-0, but their work isn't over. This year, students will need support to get the bill re-introduced and passed in the Assembly and are working on building coalitions all over New York State to get it done. Pace Senior Nicole Virgona, one of the students behind the bill, said times had changed and people no longer support animals being kept in captivity. "Elephants kept in captivity live half as long, suffer from foot disease, and social isolation," Virgona said. "They are forced to put themselves in unnatural positions. It's up to us to voice our opinion and make a difference."
 
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey ®, one of the nations oldest circuses announced that it would close in 2017 in part due to issues raised by animal rights activists.
 
Hendrix Community Discusses On-Campus Voting
This fall, Hendrix College Politics professor, Director of Civic Engagement Projects, and Project Pericles Program Director Jay Barth and Peter Butler '17, an interdisciplinary politics, philosophy, and economics major and Student Senate President from Naperville, Illinois, discussed the importance of on-campus voting centers at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.

In 2015, Hendrix successfully lobbied to keep their on-campus voting site in the face of plans by the Republican controlled election commission to eliminate the site. Making on-campus voting sites available to Arkansas college students was an active topic across the state in the lead-up to the 2016 elections. Barth and Butler shared their experiences in working for expanded access to student voting sites on their campus and reflected on the centers' importance for making democracy come to life for our newest voters. Watch the video here.
 
2016-2017 D4D on the Road Workshop Schedule
Please let us know if you will be able to join us at a workshop.

Saturday, October 8--Pitzer College in Claremont, California (Claremont McKenna       College, Harvey Mudd College, Occidental College, Pomona College, and Scripps College visited)

Friday, November 4--Pace University in Pleasantville, New York (The New School visited)

Saturday, November 5--Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Friday, December 2--Wagner College in Staten Island, New York (Drew University and The New School visited)

Saturday, December 3--Bates College in Lewiston, Maine (Hampshire College and New England College visited)

Saturday, January 21--Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota (Macalester College and St. Olaf College visited)

Saturday, February 11--Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania (Swarthmore College and Widener  University visiting)

Saturday, February 25--The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington (Reed College visiting)

Friday, March --Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland
 
  Project Pericles Needs Your Support!
Please consider making a generous donation today to Project Pericles so that we can continue our work preparing tomorrow's engaged citizens. Donations can now be made directly through our website www.projectpericles.org by clicking donate in the upper right corner. 
The Periclean Progress is also available on the Project Pericles website
 
To subscribe or to submit t o submit Periclean-related information for publication,
 
Periclean Colleges & Universities
Allegheny College * Bates College * Berea College    
Bethune-Cookman University * Carleton College * Chatham University
Dillard University * Drew University * Elon University * 
The Evergreen State College * Goucher College * Hampshire College
Hendrix College * Macalester College * Morehouse College
New England College * The New School * Occidental College * Pace University
Pitzer College * Reed College * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * Rhodes College   
St. Mary's College of Maryland * Skidmore College * Spelman College
Swarthmore College * Ursinus College * Wagner College
Whitman College * Widener University * The College of Wooster

National Office
 Executive Director: Jan R. Liss,  jan.liss@projectpericles.org

Board of Directors
Chair Emeritus: Eugene M. Lang
Chair: Neil R. Grabois
Vice-Chair: Richard Ekman
Treasurer: David A. Caputo  

Presidents' Council
Chair: Richard Guarasci, Wagner College
Vice-Chair: Steven G. Poskanzer, Carleton College

National Board of Advisors
 Co-Chairs: Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker & Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke

The title "Project Pericles®" and its embodiment in the Logo are registered service marks of Project Pericles, Inc.  All rights are reserved.