University of Nebraska at Omaha PREP ARING STUDENTS FOR LIVES OF RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP: A HIGHER EDUCATION CIVIC BLUEPRINT FOR THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY by Andrew P. Frederick 04111/2007 A Senior Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In memory of Charlie Bray '55 and the entire Project 55 family ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The inspiration for this thesis has come from a variety of important people in my life, but none more important than my mom and dad; their unending love and support have given me the strength, courage, and compassion to do good works. I can think of no better exemplar of the ideals put forth in this paper than my dad whose extensive involvement and leadership in the local community have made it a better place in which to live. If the term "citizen-business owner" existed, my dad would embody it. At Princeton, I have encountered no better teacher and no greater person than Professor Stanley N. Katz. In February 2007, a conference was held in honor of his life as "Teacher, Scholar, and Citizen." While there could be no more fitting title to such a conference, I prefer to think of him as teacher, mentor, and friend. After three classes and a thesis under his supervision, his influence upon me has been profound. Ten fellow students and I are forever indebted to him for graciously accepting a double teaching load so that we could have our student-initiated seminar "The Just University?"-a course which has greatly aided my thesis work. The journey that has culminated in this thesis began my freshmen year at Princeton as a member of the Student Task Force on Civic Values, a group of undergraduates organized by Princeton Project 55 and charged with developing recommendations for how Princeton could more effectively prepare its students for lives of responsible citizenship. Through this experience I met Charlie Bray '55, a tireless warrior for a better, more civically attuned Princeton. Charlie took me under his wing and inspired and directed me in my efforts to lead the Task Force. He was Princeton's civic engagement "rock star." Countless conversations over the past four years have shaped my understanding of what responsible citizenship means. In particular, I am grateful to Kiki Jamieson, Elsie Sheidler, and Phil Martin at the Pace Center, Dave Brown at the Student Volunteers Council, and Lindsay Michelotti, Katherine Hande, Stephanie Greenberg, Nora Samuelson and Kim Hendler at Project 55. I am also indebted to my friends and colleagues of the Civic Values Task Force, and to my roommates and other friends for challenging my ideas and sharing theirs during many late night discussions. I thank those individuals, and there are many of them, at Rutgers University, the College of New Jersey, and Raritan Valley Community College who invited me to their campuses and shared their inspiring stories of trying to educate students for citizenship. At Rutgers, these people include: Randi Chmielewski, Maurice Elias, Beth Leech, Elizabeth Matto, Amy Michaels, Yvette Murray, Isabel Nazario, Theresa O'Neill, Michael Shafer, Lea Stewart, and Jon Van Til; at the College of New Jersey: Heather Camp, Pat Donohue, Barbara Gitenstein, Beth Paul, Dave Prensky, and Nino Scarpati; and at Raritan Valley: Jan Buttler, Casey Crabill, Lori Moog, Dana Nelson, Jerry Ryan, and Susan Williams. I would also like to thank Erin McGrath and Christen Foell of the Bonner Foundation for their help as well as Jeanne Oswald of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education. Lastly, my thesis experience would have been incomplete without the music and companionship of Silvio, and most importantly, without the love and support of Maria- my very own California penguin. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1 II. CHAPTER 1: Defining Responsible Citizenship ........................................................................8 III. CHAPTER 2: Role of Higher Education in Preparing Students for Lives of Responsible Citizenship ................................................................ .21 IV. CHAPTER 3: Status of Civic Education at New Jersey Colleges and lJniversities ..................................................................................51 Rutgers University ..............................................................53 The College of New Jersey .....................................................74 Raritan Valley Community College ............................................85 V. CHAPTER 4: The State's Role in Strengthening Civic Education ........................................ 102 What the State ofNew Jersey Can Do ..................................... 110 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHy........................................................................................... 125 ABSTRACT This thesis develops a working civic education blueprint for New Jersey's public colleges and universities and proposes concrete steps the State, particularly the governor and the Commission on Higher Education, can take to support their efforts. Civic education must be strategically integrated into the campus culture, the co-curriculum, and most importantly, the curriculum ifhigher education institutions hope to foster an ethic of service that diffuses across campus and reaches all students. Two overriding objectives should guide higher education in its civic mission: 1) providing students with multiple pathways, both curricular and co-curricular, that support their development as citizens across their collegiate career and 2) identifying and increasing the short- and long-term capacity of community partners. Being a responsible citizen in a democratic society demands acquiring a strong foundational understanding of American history and the political process, staying informed of current events, upholding democratic values, cultivating a habit of civic involvement, and recognizing oneself as a democratic participant and contributor to the public good. In line with this definition, responsible citizenship can be broken down into these six categories: knowledge, values, skills, engagement, identity, and sense of efficacy. Although these are mutually reinforcing elements, any pattern of engagement, formation of civic identity, and feeling of a sense of efficacy must be predicated on civic knowledge, values, and skills. Some schools in New Jersey have made education for citizenship a cornerstone of their overarching institutional mission while others have been more neglectful, or at least less intentional, in readying students for rich civic lives. If the State of New Jersey seriously believes its public colleges and universities should be mandated to prepare students for lives of responsible citizenship, as it claims in its Long-Range Plan for Higher Education, then it must demand that they do more and help them in doing so. Taking into account the presently severe New Jersey budgetary constraints, there are immediate steps that the State can take that require minimal financial investment and then others that must await a healthier state budget. A New Jersey Campus Compact should be established to perform the following functions for higher education statewide: 1) convene conferences, workshops, and meetings on civic education; 2) coordinate and promote civic engagement grant opportunities; 3) enhance the capacity of college civic engagement programs; 4) recognize outstanding public service and leadership; 5) promote public policy that would advance civic engagement efforts. Other actions that should be taken immediately are for Governor Corzine to exert more gubernatorial leadership by calling on public colleges and universities to develop strategic plans that address their civic missions and forming a task force on K-16 civic education; the Commission on Higher Education should organize a state-wide colloquium on education for citizenship. When the monies become available, the State should fund a New Jersey Higher Education Civic Engagement Matching Grant Program and pilot a New Jersey Campus-Community Corps Program that would supplement AmeriCorps volunteers on college campuses. 1 INTRODUCTION "If there is a crisis in education in the United States today, it is less that test scores have declined than it is that we have failed to provide the education for citizenship that is still the most significant responsibility ofthe nation's schools and colleges. " Frank Newman, Higher Education and the American Resurgence (1985) Frank Newman, the former president of the Education Commission of the States and co-founder of Campus Compact, I issued this provocative proclamation in 1985 in the Carnegie Foundation report Higher Education and the American Resurgence (Newman, as cited in Jacoby, 1996, p. 20). The publication of this report along with the establishment of Campus Compact brought renewed attention to colleges and universities' civic missions in the 1980s. An inundation of literature on the subject2 over the past several decades would indicate that some of today's leading scholars and educators still agree with the sentiments espoused by Newman-colleges and universities do not take seriously their responsibility to prepare students for lifelong engagement in public life. Others in the academy would disagree and would go so far as to say that education for citizenship is not even a responsibility of institutions of higher learning; therefore, how can colleges and universities be in a "crisis" or "failing" if they are not even responsible for this part of a young person's development? Most in the academy would not endorse this outright rejection of civic education, but at the same time they 1 Campus Compact is a coalition of over 1,000 campuses across the country which works toward advancing civic engagement in general and service-learning in particular in higher education ("Campus Compact," 2007). 2 A few examples include: Boyte & Kari's (2000) Renewing the Democratic Spirit in American Colleges and Universities, Ehrlich's (2000) Civic Responsibility and Higher Education, and Colby et aL's (2003) Educating Citizens: Preparing America's Undergraduates for Lives ofMoral and Civic Responsibility. t INTRODUCTION 2 would not necessarily agree what role it should play on college campuses. Of these, a few would side with Newman and embrace education for citizenship as the principal, unifying aim of schools in America. A quick scan of the mission statements of public colleges and universities in New Jersey complicates the notion that a single, guiding principle exists to direct the activities of higher education. No one mission, let alone education for citizenship, drives institutions of higher learning; rather they pursue a variety of interconnected yet distinct aims. Universities all in some way address their threefold mission of scholarship, teaching, and service, with the dimension of research being emphasized most heavily. Community and state colleges, on the other hand, maintain a dual mission of teaching and service that recognizes their special relationship with the local community. Perhaps providing a high quality education could be considered the guiding principle of colleges and universities. But the process of trying to determine what a "high quality education" constitutes, or rather which learning aims should be prioritized, quickly demonstrates the futility of this argument. Academic rigor, critical thinking skills, and other cognitive outcomes, such as problem-solving abilities, would undoubtedly be tabbed as essential elements of a high quality education. Still, some educators would deride this education as incomplete or insufficient since it does not address the issue of who students become as people, as beings with emotional, social, moral, and civic needs. Given the diversity of interests balanced by colleges and universities, one idea cannot realistically guide higher education; however, a collection of core principles that are enshrined in the mission statement and embodied in policy seems not only reasonable but also necessary. One of those core principles should unequivocally be education for INTRODUCTION 3 citizenship. Many colleges and universities in New Jersey have ostensibly made an institutional commitment to civic education. Of the nineteen community colleges in New Jersey, ten explicitly include education for citizenship in their mission statements. For instance, both Atlantic Cape and Raritan Valley Community Colleges express their commitment to promoting "responsible citizenship" in students ("Atlantic Cape Community College," 2007; "Raritan Valley Community College," 2007). Brookdale Community College wants its students to "be knowledgeable about the fundamental • values of a democratic society" while Union County College encourages its students to construct "an understanding of their obligations as members of a democratic society" ("Brookdale Community College," 2007; "Union County College," 2007). Hudson County Community College considers the ability to "participate as informed citizens" a chief learning outcome of its general education curriculum ("Hudson County Community College," 2007). Only a handful of state colleges and universities incorporate education for citizenship in their mission statements. The College of New Jersey offers the most extensive acknowledgement of its institutional obligation to instill students with a sense of civic responsibility. Part of its mission statement reads: "Proud of its public service mandate to educate leaders of New Jersey and the nation, The College will be a national exemplar in the education of those who seek to sustain and advance the communities in which they live" ("The College of New Jersey," 2007). Similarly, Montclair State University expects its students "to become informed citizen-participants prepared to assume leadership roles in a democracy" ("Montclair State University," 2007). The William Patterson University of New Jersey aspires to equip students with the education • INTRODUCTION 4 necessary to reach high levels of "productive citizenship in an increasingly global economy and technological world" (,'William Paterson University, It 2007). Mission statements provide an important look at the educational priorities of colleges and universities but their importance should not be overstated. Most likely every college president in New Jersey would claim that her institution has a responsibility to prepare its students for participation in public life and that it is actively working towards doing so. How well colleges and universities actually follow through with these claims varies significantly. Some schools that do not explicitly include education for citizenship in their public missions still devote significant resources to centers and programs charged with fostering civic habits in students. At the same time, others that express a public commitment to instill students with a sense of civic responsibility fail to back up their rhetoric with institutional leadership and action. Regardless of whether each institution of higher learning considers CIVIC education a core component of its overall mission, the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education identifies it as a principal objective of tertiary education in the state. In A Blueprint for Excellence: New Jersey's Long-Range Plan for Higher Education,3 the Commission states: "Colleges and universities should reflect the value of service in their teaching and research and engage students, faculty, and staff in public service on and off campus, reaching out to the community, state, nation, and world and imparting lifelong civic responsibility" (Mertz, Collins, & Oswald, 2005, p. 13). In order to "prepare a 3 A Blueprint for Excellence: New Jersey's Long-Range Plan for Higher Education was originally adopted in 2003 by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education. In 2005, the Commission published an updated version and will be releasing a subsequent update in 2007. The development of the long-range plan involved "over 500 stakeholders, including business leaders, government officials, legislative staff, community leaders, students, parents, trustees, faculty, alumni, college administrators, and others ... " (Downes, Freeman, & Sulton, 2003, p. 1).