American Democracy Project
What is American Democracy Project?
SHSU is a participating institution in the American Democracy Project (ADP), a national initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The goal of the ADP Committee is to produce graduates who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences they need to be informed, engaged members of their communities. A variety of activities are sponsored by ADP including Deliberative Dialogues, Walk to the Polls, and Constitution Day.
The American Democracy Project (ADP) is a project jointly sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the New York Times.
First, the ADP nationally is a response to a fundamental concern: declining participation in civic life by younger Americans. This decline is symbolized by a decline in voting in presidential elections and is widely documented, e. g., by Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone.
Two keys individuals, Tom Ehrlich, former President of Indiana University, now with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and George Mahaffey, Vice-President, Academic Leadership and Change for AASCU, met at a conference and formulated the outline of a project to turn around this trend, and to move Americans, especially college and university students, toward civic "re-engagement."
Thus was born the American Democracy Project, and now there are nearly 200 AASCU universities participating in the project. In the words of the AASCU ADP website: "The goal of the project is to produce graduates who understand and are committed to engaging in meaningful actions as citizens in a democracy."
Contact Steven Koether, ADP Director, at adp@shsu.edu
What are Deliberative Dialogues?
Deliberative Dialogues provides participants with a chance to come together across differences to tackle wicked problems. Wicked problems are ones that have many stakeholders, involves many nuanced variables, and has no easy solution. Deliberative dialogues are the opposite of debate and come well before.
The purpose of deliberation is to seek an understanding of a problem, search for common ground and shared values, find blind spots, challenge assumptions, critically think, share lived experiences, and work toward a plan of action.
Dialogues are led by trained faculty, staff, and student moderators. Dialogues are then framed by classroom curriculum and/or an issue guide. Participants work through the issue by considering various forms of information (e.g. empirical data, and lived experiences). Participants typically examine the benefits, costs, consequences, and tradeoffs proposed.
Critical Thinking through Deliberative Dialogues Scholarship Event
Moderation
Moderators are integral to the deliberative dialogue process. Moderators facilitate small groups in using an issue discussion guide that frames the issue by presenting the overall problem and then three (or more) broad approaches to address it. Moderators remain neutral, keep the deliberation on track, remind the group about the rules of engagement, and encourage participants to identify shared values and find common ground.
Training
Moderator training for classrooms, organizations, and campus committees/groups upon request (Contact adp@shsu.edu for information)
On occasion, various SHSU entities host Deliberative Dialogue Moderator Training (i.e. DEEDS)
Deliberative Dialogue Institute - semester-long training with AASCU American Democracy Project (Contact adp@shsu.edu for information)
Political Learning & Engagement Report
In 2018, SHSU joined the Assessing and Improving Political Learning and Engagement on Campus (AIPLEC) nationwide initiative between AASCU’s American Democracy Project (ADP) and the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University. SHSU was one of twelve ADP campuses conducting the political climate study through a process of nationally calibrated self-assessment. The AIPLEC project sought to answer the following research question: What structures, norms, human characteristics, and political forces promote campus climates for political learning and engagement in democracy? The results from this study were then reported out to the campus community and incorporated in strategic planning for various entities across campus. Due to the comprehensive, productive, and healthy nature of the project, the SHSU American Democracy Project intends to reassess campus on a 5 year basis.