Crocker Center for Civic Engagement  Roundtable Discussion

The Crocker Center for Civic Engagement hosted a roundtable discussion for faculty and administrators with Dr. John Reiff, Director of Civic Learning and Engagement for the state Department of Higher Education. 

The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education adopted a state policy on civic learning for public colleges and universities in 2014, and committed to work with the Commonwealth’s community colleges, state universities and University of Massachusetts campuses to incorporate civic learning as an "expected outcome" for undergraduate students.

The policy defined civic learning as the acquisition of the knowledge, the intellectual skills, and the applied competencies or practical skills that citizens need for informed and effective participation in civic and democratic life. It also means acquiring an understanding of the social values that underlie democratic structures and practices.

The Board stated that the development of detailed outcomes within each of the four components contained in this definition (and the academic coursework, co-curricular activities and off-campus civic engagement to achieve them) should be left to the individual campuses.

“The practice of that discipline influences the lives of people and the status of those communities in all kinds of ways,” Reiff said. “If you care about that field, you may care about how does that impact the larger world, and how could you make that impact as positive as possible?”

Civic learning prepares students with skills that employers want, Reiff said. “The same skills that people need to collaborate with others, to build solutions to the problems that face us in our communities and as a larger society, are skills that employers need in their workforces. One of those skills is engaging with people who are not like us.”

Participants in the roundtable discussed efforts to incorporate civic learning into their own courses, including Professor Jonathan Harvey’s work integrating the university’s choral ensembles with local orchestras, scholastic and church groups.

“I think the arts are a really powerful and easy way to address that existential need,” Harvey said. “There is no way that everybody in the room thinks the same way about everything, yet we are all pointed in the same direction with a goal that is larger than ourselves.”

Participants in the discussion included Soumitra Basu (Engineering Technology); DeMisty Bellinger-Delfeld (English Studies); Karen DeAngelis (Education); Melissa Dunn (Nursing); Jonathan Harvey (Humanities); Renee Scapparone (Business Administration); Collin Syfert (English Studies); David Weiss (Behavioral Sciences); with Provost and Executive Vice President Patricia Marshall; Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Franca Barricelli; and Dean of Health and Natural Sciences Jannette McMenamy.