Listening to Communities

The American Council on Education’s Listening to Communities:
In June 1998, approximately 100 educators, community builders, foundation heads, and others gathered at Florida State University to discuss the perceived decline in public life in the United States. Americans seem to be disengaged from political systems and processes, from social organizations and volunteer opportunities, and from each other. They are polarized along group- political, religious, racial, ethnic, economic, gender, and geographic – lines. If, as Alexis de Tocqueville observed of the United States 150 years ago, American democracy is strong because of its vigorous voluntary associations and emphasis on community, then their decline bodes reservations about the strength of American society.

Where is higher education in its historic role as educator of citizens in a democracy? Are colleges and universities serving as valuable institutional members of their communities? Participants in the Tallahassee conference agreed that higher education can take its civic mission more seriously.

The American Council on Education (ACE) developed Listening to Communities as a way to explore with community leaders their views on how colleges and universities can best fulfil their roles as educators of American citizens and as partners in collectively addressing community concerns. Through a series of pilot regional forums, Listening to Communities invited a range of civic, business, philanthropic, religious, government, and education leaders to share with representatives of local colleges and universities their views on higher education’s role in a democracy. This pilot initiative involved eight forums, completed in May 2000.

Simultaneously, the Office of University Partnerships (OUP) of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development supplemented it support of community-university partnerships by exploring and funding innovative curricular initiatives in community building. In connection with a series of workshops and two 2000 conferences, OUP commissioned three papers. Workshop and conference proceedings can be found under a section entitled Teaching and Learning for Community Building, www.oup.org/about/teachandlearn.html. The report on Listening to Communities is one of the three commissioned papers, which may be found at www.oup.org/about/confpapconfpap.doc or click here to read
Listening to Communities.

Nancy Thomas has presented NEXT STEPS: Institutional Responses to Listening to Communities at various conferences (Fall 2000). Click here to read NEXT STEPS.


Listening to Communities
For more information about the project, contact: democracyproject@aol.com	The American Council on Education’s Listening to Communities: In June 1998, approximately 100 educators, community builders, foundation heads, and others gathered at Florida State University to discuss the perceived decline in public life in the United States. Americans seem to be disengaged from political systems and processes, from social organizations and volunteer opportunities, and from each other. They are polarized along group- political, religious, racial, ethnic, economic, gender, and geographic – lines. If, as Alexis de Tocqueville observed of the United States 150 years ago, American democracy is strong because of its vigorous voluntary associations and emphasis on community, then their decline bodes reservations about the strength of American society. Where is higher education in its historic role as educator of citizens in a democracy? Are colleges and universities serving as valuable institutional members of their communities? Participants in the Tallahassee conference agreed that higher education can take its civic mission more seriously. The American Council on Education (ACE) developed Listening to Communities as a way to explore with community leaders their views on how colleges and universities can best fulfil their roles as educators of American citizens and as partners in collectively addressing community concerns. Through a series of pilot regional forums, Listening to Communities invited a range of civic, business, philanthropic, religious, government, and education leaders to share with representatives of local colleges and universities their views on higher education’s role in a democracy. This pilot initiative involved eight forums, completed in May 2000. Simultaneously, the Office of University Partnerships (OUP) of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development supplemented it support of community-university partnerships by exploring and funding innovative curricular initiatives in community building. In connection with a series of workshops and two 2000 conferences, OUP commissioned three papers. Workshop and conference proceedings can be found under a section entitled Teaching and Learning for Community Building, www.oup.org/about/teachandlearn.html. The report on Listening to Communities is one of the three commissioned papers, which may be found at www.oup.org/about/confpapconfpap.doc or click here to read Listening to Communities. Nancy Thomas has presented NEXT STEPS: Institutional Responses to Listening to Communities at various conferences (Fall 2000). Click here to read NEXT STEPS.