Strategic Approaches to Civic Responsibility

Abstract

Do cocurricular events on your campus reach their potential for developing students’ sense of civic responsibility? The authors make four recommendations for making student learning the focus of these activities.

ALONE GIRL stands in front of a nearly empty classroom and checks her watch every so often, shrugging to herself. Nick, a senior English major, and his girlfriend are among the handful of students who have gathered to watch Walkout, an HBO film that dramatizes the Chicano protests of East Los Angeles high school students in the late 1960s. When the film is over, the girl from the front of the room says, “Thanks for coming. Make sure you come back tomorrow to hear Carlos Montes.” Carlos Mon-tes, who was depicted in the movie, visits campus the next evening to share his experiences and insights from decades of battling racism and inequality on behalf of Mexican Americans. Nick and his girlfriend return the next night for Carlos's talk, and the crowd has doubled to ten. Sensing no structured mechanism for interacting with the speaker, the students simply leave at the end of the talk. “How pathetic,” thinks Nick. “Here is a revolutionary Chicano, an instrumental member of the radical Brown Berets, a hero of the walkout movements in the 1960s, and an active member of several highly politicized organizations of the present day. And we can only muster ten quiet students?”

A New Approach

COCURRICULAR EVENTS are capable of pro-viding rich learning opportunities for students. However, as the film and speaker sequence just described demonstrates, all too often they fail to reach their potential. In order to teach lessons and enhance skills related to civic responsibility, these events must be designed with a purposeful strategy of student learning as the primary, not a secondary (or absent) consideration. This article draws on examples of several cocurricular events held at a large public university and suggests a more purposeful approach to the use of cocurricular programming in developing students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes to help them become responsible citizens.

Caryn McTighe Musil, in her 2003 Peer Review article “Educating for Citizenship,” describes observing a “happenstance” approach to civic engagement at many institutions (p. 4). She attributes this situation in part to the fact that most civic engagement efforts in higher education are not tied to curricular activities such as coursework or faculty scholarship and research but rather are planned for and executed outside the curriculum. Musil laments this disconnect and suggests that the reader ask, “How might the organized co-curricular experiences reinforce, expand, and complement civic learning in the curriculum?” (p. 5). Recent faculty surveys, such as those released by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute in early 2009 that Robin Wilson discusses on the Chronicle of Higher Education's Web site, indicate that faculty today may be more ready than ever to engage students in becoming agents of social change. These survey results suggest that the time is right to pose strategic questions at the campus level that could lead to more closely aligned curricular and cocurricular efforts to develop responsible citizenship. These strategic questions might include the following: For what purpose (or purposes) are campus events related to civic responsibility planned? Who is currently doing the planning? Are the major outcomes of these events known, and if so, are they the desired outcomes? What might a coordinated civic learning strategy look like? Who should be involved in determining and executing such a strategy? What might the roles of faculty, student affairs educators, and students be in the strategy? Where are the logical intersections of the curriculum and the cocur-riculum at which civic responsibility could be shaped? How might intracampus communications be improved with the express purpose of enhancing civic learning opportunities? A group of students at one university observed several cocurricular events related to student civic responsibility, and their observations provide an informative starting point for considering these and other strategic questions.

Defining and Observing Civic Responsibility

THE OPENING ACCOUNT was given by one of I the eighteen undergraduates who participated in an American studies course, “Higher Education and the Formation of Citizens,” taught in spring 2008 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The course encouraged students to think critically about the historical, philosophical, and sociological dimensions of higher education's role in developing students as responsible and active citizens. During the course, civic responsibility was defined as having five dimensions, as Courtney Thornton and Audrey Jaeger outline in a 2007 About Campus article about institutional symbols and citizenship. The first dimension is knowledge and support of democratic values, systems, and processes. This dimension includes aspects such as voting, understanding the laws that govern our country, and standing up for fundamental rights of all people. The second dimension is the desire to act beneficially in one's community and for its members. Community can be broadly defined, encompassing a residence hall, campus, city, state, nation, or planet. This dimension of civic responsibility is often demonstrated through community service. The third dimension of responsible citizenship is appreciation for and interest in others unlike oneself. To address this dimension, we often create venues that bring together students of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs. The use of knowledge and skills for societal benefit is the fourth dimension, which specifically addresses the ability to apply academic knowledge to societal issues and problems in need of solutions. This dimension differs from community service, which does not necessarily rely on an individual's disciplinary knowledge or talents. The fifth and final dimension of civic responsibility is personal accountability. This dimension focuses on how individuals consider the consequences of their actions on the lives of others and is broad in scope—from academic integrity to alcohol use, for example. The underlying assumption is that higher education should and does foster growth in each of these dimensions.

The eighteen student participants in the American studies course spent the early part of the semester examining definitions of citizenship and civic responsibility, noting the ways that responsible citizenship in college has been regarded and enacted throughout the history of higher education. The students examined current cases that highlight the complexities and mixed messages pertaining to responsible student citizenship. One such case allowed students to debate how responsible citizenship was or was not expressed in Columbia University's controversial decision to invite President Ahmadinejad of Iran to speak on campus. Students ended the semester with a focus on larger institutional and societal trends that will affect the development of student citizenship in the future, such as the changing nature of social capital, characteristics of the current generation of students (known as millenials), and the open inquiry movement, which is the idea that the ideal environment to discuss social issues is one free of ideological bias.

One major assignment asked students to enact responsible citizenship by participating in their campus community and engaging their critical thinking skills to benefit that community. Students were asked to observe and record their reflections at three campus events with a connection to student civic responsibility. The semester provided an ample variety of activities to choose from, including notable speakers, volunteer opportunities, and election year demonstrations. Each brief reflection paper described an event, including the setting, attendees, event sponsors, and activities. Students were asked to note how event participants enacted responsible citizenship during the event as well as their perception of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the event in helping students learn skills of responsible citizenship. Students were asked to consider the event holistically by identifying assumptions about responsible citizenship in the event's design and activities. They also provided suggestions for improving or augmenting the events in order to enhance student learning and increase opportunities for practicing citizenship. Students were also required to offer personal reflections on the experience, including whether and how the event changed, challenged, or reinforced their personal beliefs, values, or practices.

Missed Opportunities

During class discussions, students reported their belief that the events could achieve much more than they were currently achieving. The students considered quantity versus quality in regard to on-campus programs for improving civic responsibility and decided that fewer events that were more strategic would be more effective than more events planned with less consideration of outcomes. Patterns that emerged through discussions and students’ reflections offer a useful critique of planning for cocurricular events that are intended to teach civic responsibility. The class members’ observations are offered in this section, followed by recommendations for strategically aligning curricular and cocurricular efforts to develop civic responsibility among college students.

Many Events, Few Attendees

As illustrated in the opening example, the most common theme from the reflection papers was that events pertaining to civic responsibility were perceived to be poorly attended. Carlos Montes, leader of the Chicano rights movement, drew an audience of ten. Another speaker on the campus that semester had written a book on Septima Poinsette Clark, legendary civil rights leader. That lecture drew a larger audience, but the audience consisted primarily of professors and mature community members. The student observer at the Clark event noted that she was one of only a few undergraduate students in the audience. One student described a “New Age of Voting” program that drew five attendees; four of them were the planners, and the other attendee was the student observer.

Students also were surprised that events often did not draw more diverse audience members who would have either enriched the experience or potentially gained from it. One such example was a residence hall event entitled “Eye of the Beholder” that offered students and community members an opportunity to discuss the concept of beauty. Observers noted that the approximately twenty-five attendees were largely the other residence hall advisors and their personal friends, who attended in order to support the planners. Whereas most attendees at that event were female, the student observers felt that male participation would have enriched and diversified the discussion. One event aimed to make a connection between abortion and racism and caused significant controversy on the campus before it occurred. Yet the student observer was surprised that the audience included only four black women. In general, events sponsored by more than one organization or by larger organizations like the Campus Y or Union Activities Board were better attended.

Student observers posited that these events suffered in attendance for two reasons: non-collaborative planning and poor communication. They suggested that many of these events would have benefited from alliances between student groups, academic departments, and other cocurricular programs. Student observers also theorized that student organizations are too often in competition to host events and to secure big-name speakers, yet these events often go unnoticed because of few resources for planning, staffing, or advertising a high-quality event. Indeed, students often noted in their written reflections that if they had not been required to seek out events to fulfill the course assignment, they would not have heard about the events and that even with the assignment, it took diligence to find the events. Students sometimes recommended that faculty require students to attend certain events; however, faculty cannot require attendance at events of which they are unaware.

Learning as Secondary

Students often noted in their reflections that they left events feeling disappointed at the missed opportunity for learning and engagement. Many of the observed events were lectures by renowned speakers who had much to offer from their personal experiences and expertise, but the wrap-up of an event was often perceived as poorly planned or an afterthought, if there was a concluding portion at all. Poorly managed question-and-answer periods were often described. When Nick, the student in the opening scenario, attended Carlos Montes's talk, he noted, “At the end of Carlos’ talk, the student representative failed to engage the audience in discussion. He said, Anyone have questions?’ then quickly scanned the room and clapped his hands. Alright then, I think we should all thank Carlos for coming.’ After a quick round of applause everyone filed out of the room.”

Students also observed few fruitful discussions after film viewings. Student observers who attended viewings of I Have a Dream and Class Divided said they were given the passive opportunity at the end of the film viewing to write comments on a poster on their way out of the room. As one student noted, “[Events] in this format [rely] on the assumption that attendees will reflect on the event themselves. This was the greatest assumption about responsible citizenship.”

Enriched Civic Learning

THESE AND OTHER STUDENT OBSERVAtions suggest that campuses could better plan cocurricular opportunities to enhance student citizenship development. The students did observe positive and effective aspects of these events. Handouts and other supplemental materials were appreciated, and observers registered disappointment when none were available. Observers also noted a difference between the enthusiastic participation of voluntary attendees and the lackluster participation of students who were required to attend who were not personally invested in the topic. This observation suggests that required student attendance should be preceded in classrooms or cocurricular settings with opportunities for students to become engaged in the issue to be addressed at the event. Several student observers commented on the extent to which they learned from fellow students and other attendees who were given the opportunity to share personal experiences or observations at these events. One student observer said he was deeply moved at an event that portrayed civil rights, tolerance, and diversity through student spoken-word poetry and song. He said he was grateful for the opportunity to consider the nature of cultural and religious tolerance through the lived experiences and artistic expressions of his classmates. Several students suggested that responsibility for planning and executing an event has a more powerful impact than simply attending. One student participating in a blood drive sponsored by a sorority noted that “asking students to give blood is not an effective way to teach service to the community. … I think a more effective way to teach service would be for students to actually organize a blood drive as the sorority did…. These students and alumni donated more than a bodily fluid.”

In light of these and other student observations, we offer the following recommendations for improving the impact and reach of cocurricular opportunities related to responsible citizenship. While these recommendations are based on observations from students enrolled at a single large, highly decentralized campus with a focus on both liberal arts and research excellence, we believe the ideas to be applicable across a range of institutional types and campus cultures.

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Have a plan for developing student civic responsibility. Campus entities are better able to act strategically when they have an articulated set of goals or objectives related to development of student citizenship. Educators and students who work together to develop these goals send the message that collaboration is necessary in order to achieve them. Community members are also stakeholders in the development of responsible citizens and may be involved. These collaborations may start by bringing groups together to discuss campus beliefs about student citizenship development, perhaps using the five dimensions listed earlier. Collaborators may also conduct an inventory of existing courses and cocurricular opportunities that contribute to citizenship development across these dimensions. This initial exercise should clarify ways to enhance current efforts and suggest possibilities for creating new ones.

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Encourage pooling of financial and human resources whenever possible. While most educators desire efficient use of funding and time, existing infrastructures and practices do not always encourage or enable the kind of collaboration that encourages efficiency. Starting with the collaboration described in the preceding item, educators, students, and other stakeholders can examine current processes and practices with efficiency through collaboration in mind. Additional councils, meetings, technologies, or other means may be needed to better connect leaders of student organizations and campus units with each other and with other collaborators.

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Help student leaders and other event organizers enhance the educational aspects of their programming. At Carlos Montes's lecture, the student observer noted that the most positive aspect of the event was Montes's communication style, which encouraged the students to participate by asking and answering questions. A student who attended a rally with Chelsea Clinton noted that Clinton chose to engage in an hour-long question-and-answer session instead of giving a stump speech. While a speaker's style and preferences are not under the control of organizers, any event can be planned to encourage participation and to foster learning. A campus could engage faculty members who have been recognized for outstanding teaching to provide training or mentoring for student leaders and their organizations on how to facilitate learning through their programs.

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Aim to make events multidimensional. For the students who attended the Chelsea Clinton rally, it would have likely been significant enough simply to have the opportunity to hear her speak. In addition to the rally, however, several politically active campus groups turned out with signs, leaflets, and clipboards ready, in order to register students to vote. One of those organizations reported registering more than fifty new voters at the event. Student observers also praised events that included community members whose participation encouraged a focus on multiple dimensions of civic responsibility. These examples reinforce the idea that communication and coordination can lead to multiple impacts and benefits.

We believe that the potential benefits of strategically designed opportunities for developing civic responsibility are worth the increased logistical and communication challenges. For example, events tied to an overarching strategy to develop civic responsibility take on a higher level of meaning for potential participants and, as a result, may be better advertised and attended. In that case, linkages between cocurricular events and academic efforts would be more clear and intentional and hence better understood by all. Students would be less likely to be overprogrammed and underwhelmed. Most important, educators would be likely to see evidence of increased civic responsibility among students by performing and encouraging these acts of enhanced learning and greater student involvement and collaboration.

References

Musil

C. M.

(2003). Educating for citizenship. Peer Review, 5(3), 4–8.

Thornton

C. H.

, & Jaeger

A.J.

(2007, March/April). The ceremonies and symbols of citizenship. About Campus, 12(1), 15–20.

Wilson

(2009, March 5). Social change tops classic books in professors’ teaching priorities. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from The Chronicle of Higher Education Web site at http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/03/12955n.htm