|
 |
 |
| E-Newsletter September
2003 |
|
Participating Institutions The interest in the project continues to grow. We now have 164 institutions involved, representing more than 1.5 million students. The complete list of institutions is on the AASCU website at www.aascu.org/programs/adp Materials We have sent out materials from the Snowbird meeting to all who were unable to participate, and sent out additional materials to participants. We have now created a new CD with all of the original CD materials from Snowbird plus the materials sent out afterwards (such as the speeches by Tom Ehrlich and Deno Curris, etc.). If you would like a revised, expanded CD, please contact us. Consultants/Speakers On the AASCU website, we have added a section on Consultants/Speakers. The people we identify with special expertise that may be of use to you on your campus will be listed on this site with photo, a brief description of their experience and background, and contact information. Please feel free to review that list if you need a speaker or consultant. I also welcome suggestions of additional people to add to that list. Campus Audit We have produced a draft version of the Campus Audit, a tool designed to help you identify where civic engagement activities are already taking place on your campus, where there are opportunities for building connections and synergy among existing efforts, and where there are opportunities for civic engagement activities to be initiated. I have attached the draft Campus Audit to this newsletter. I left this tool in draft to encourage you to contribute to its final form. I welcome your comments and thoughts about the audit tool and the audit process. Web The Times (http://www.nytimes.com/ college/collegespecial2/) and the AASCU web sites (http://www.aascu.org/programs/ adp/default.htm) are up and running, and we are adding content to the sites almost daily. I welcome your reactions to the sites. |
Regional Meetings
One of the best ways to reach more people on campus is to host regional meetings. As I turn my attention to fund-raising again, I will be seeking external funding for some regional meetings. So far, we have a regional meeting scheduled for Wisconsin on November 7th; Indiana is scheduling a system-wide meeting with Anne Colby on November 12-13; and we're tentatively scheduling a spring meeting in Minnesota. Kentucky is talking about a statewide meeting at the end of the year, and Texas and Oklahoma are discussing a bi-state meeting. We talked at Snowbird about the possibility of having campus teams at the winter meeting. Unfortunately, that weekend in Tampa is going to be very crowded (some local festival), and we don't have enough rooms in our hotel contract to provide space for campus teams. So I'm not planning on teams for the winter meeting, but you are welcome to invite a colleague to join you in Tampa. Winter Academic Affairs Meeting: Tampa 2004 At Tampa, we have scheduled the morning of Sunday, February 8th, exclusively for American Democracy Project programming. Brian Murphy (San Francisco State University, and a speaker at Snowbird) and Liz Hollander (head of Campus Compact) will be featured speakers. We have also scheduled time that morning for small group discussions of exemplary practices, etc. Felice Nudelman will invite a speaker from The New York Times to open our program on Sunday evening. ADP programming will extend to Monday and Tuesday, including a workshop on service learning by Edward Zlotkowski on Monday afternoon. Al Gore on Media and Race Al Gore will be teaching a course at Middle Tennessee State University this fall. Two sessions of that course will be placed on satellite and made available at no charge to all participating ADP institutions. The format will be about 45 minutes of lecture, followed by Q & A. Other campuses will be able to call in as well.
Putnam: Bowling Alone Middle Tennessee State University also has a tape of a previous Gore class that features Robert Putnam. In about 40 minutes, Putnam gives a lively description of the research in Bowling Alone. I'll soon have details on how you can obtain a copy of the tape from Middle Tennessee State University. I also recently wrote a book review of Bowling Alone for AASCU's monthly newsletter to presidents, which I'll include. Responses to the New York Times Ads I'm working through the responses to The Times ads. One interesting proposal from Cliff Rothman, a writer in LA, is to create a national competition for short video promotions encouraging young folks to vote, to get involved in their communities, etc....with the winning shorts being aired on MTV or in some other similar venue. He would also like to produce a national concert that promotes idealism and service. Cliff has assembled an impressive group of entertainment industry executives to assist him in developing this project, and work is proceeding rapidly. That's simply one of many ideas being generated by The Times ads. Research Grants CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) promotes research on the civic and political engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25. A new round of grant opportunities has been announced, and two of the three grant categories (Political Participation and Other Research) involve research on 18-25 year olds. The deadline for submitting letters of inquiry for CIRCLE grants is quickly approaching. CIRCLE currently has THREE Requests for Proposals (RFPs):
Other funding possibilities: The Corporation for National and Community Service has announced the availability of $500,000 in grant funds to help mobilize more Americans to observe the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday on January 19, 2004 as a day of service in communities and to bring people together around the common focus of service to others. The deadline for eGrants applications is 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 2, 2003. For details on the grant competition and application guidelines, please click on: http://www.nationalservice.org/whatshot/notices.html. For a link to access the eGrants system through the Corporation's website, please click on: http://www.nationalservice.org/egrants Declaration of Independence Road Trip Felice Nudelman met with Norman Lear and his staff in New York recently to talk about possible areas of collaboration between the American Democracy Project and the Declaration of Independence Road Trip project. I also have a phone meeting scheduled with Aviva Rosenthal, one of the two staff members who came to Snowbird, about further collaboration as well. |
| George
L. Mehaffy Project Director AASCU 1307 New York Ave., NW Washington, DC 20003 202/478-4672 fax: 202/296-5819 mehaffyg@aascu.org |
Mary-Kathryn
McKenna Project Coordinator AASCU 1307 New York Ave., NW Washington, DC 20003 202/478-7833 fax: 202/296-5819 mckennam@aascu.org |