How Should Higher Education Help Us Create The Society We Want?

By Laura A. Lake and Kara Lindaman
From the DemocracyU blog

On April 19, 2012, Winona State University hosted the inaugural civic summit on the National Issues Forum and American Commonwealth Project Deliberative Dialogue Initiative on Shaping Our Future:  How Should Higher Education Help Us Create The Society We Want?  The first national conversation using this issue guide was held in honor of WSU’s retiring president, Judith Ramaley, who is a tireless advocate for higher education and its civic mission.  President Ramaley serves as a member of the President’s Council for the American Commonwealth Partnership.

Over 110 participants attended the Civic Summit at Winona State University.  Individuals came as high school and college students, university faculty and staff, community members, higher education experts, media editors and journalists, local law enforcement, and business people.  It was quite the range of participants and they were mixed in groups with WSU students as trained moderators through the Minnesota Campus Compact moderator training series.

When organizing the Civic Summit, we immediately determined the event should be student led, as moderators, participants and organizers. This stems from our rich experience in student organizing and mobilizing efforts.  It also reflects our experience with the Center for Democracy and Citizenship’s training led by Harry Boyte and Dennis Donovan in the “We the People” series held with the Minnesota Campus Compact in Spring 2011.  For many of the fifteen plus students who became moderators, this was a new experience.  Despite its unfamiliarity, the students rose to the challenge, prepared their notes, and were comfortable enough to welcome others to their tables.  Each group of approximately 10-12 guests had two students—one as moderator and one as recorder.   Each group was designed to have a variety of individuals from different backgrounds, however the structure was very minimal to encourage open and honest discussion.  With little formality, students forged ahead, were indeed taken seriously by others, and extolled confidence and credibility to members of their groups. Read the rest at DemocracyU.

How Should Higher Education Help Us Create The Society We Want?.

Minnesota Campuses Receive Presidential Recognition

Augsburg College is one of six colleges and universities receiving Presidential Awards in the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to community service.

The Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually recognizes institutions of higher education for their commitment to and achievement in community service. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

The College of Saint Benedict and Metropolitan State University, were recognized on the Honor Roll With Distinction.

Other Minnesota Honor Roll institutions include:

• Carleton College
• Central Lakes College
• Century College
• Gustavus Adolphus College
• Inver Hills Community College
• Macalester College
• Minnesota School of Business-Rochester
• Normandale Community College
• North Hennepin Community College
• Saint John’s University
• St. Cloud State University
• St. Olaf College
• University of Minnesota, Crookston
• University of St. Thomas
• Winona State University

Congratulations to all of these campuses for their extraordinary commitments to serving their communities.

A Community Celebrates Water

By Maria Ortiz

In 2008, Minnesota Campus Compact put out a call for multi-campus initiatives through the Community Service-Learning & Campus-Community Collaboration Initiative Grant program. In response, Winona State University proposed, Our Drinking Fountain, Our Water, a project centered on the theme of water quality, ownership and stewardship. The project combined a variety of arts, sciences and other academic disciplines around community activism with a goal to inspire a thoughtful reverence for water that is instrumental toward building educated and engaged citizenry and policy makers for the stewardship of water. The process was a unique opportunity for experiential education about some of the water concerns that plague the world.

Collaborators included: the City of Winona, Southeast Minnesota Resources Board, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre of Minneapolis (HOBT), and the three higher-education institutions in Winona: Winona State University (WSU), Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota (SMU), and Minnesota State College Southeast Technical.

Over 6,000 people (approximately 3,000 students and 3,000 community members) were involved in the project, Individual events offered many opportunities for individuals on any level to gain a relevant education related to water issues. Highlights of the collaboration included:

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre Residencies
HOBT artists spent a week at both WSU and SMU, conducting a full residency with students and community members. Highlights included mask and puppet-making workshops with students and community members; creation and performance of Water Dance pieces involving dance students, faculty, students in a general-education dance class, and community members; creation of masks; and the creation of an advertising campaign by students and faculty in Graphics Design class.

Lake Park Drinking Fountain Renovation
A competition was set up to renovate a public drinking fountain in Winona. Regional artists were invited to submit a design, seven full designs were received. A jury of committee members and community artists decided on three finalists. Those finalists were then showcased on the project Web site and a voting system was set up for community members to vote on their favorite design. Over 800 people voted in the competition. MORE

Water Taste Test
At two events- Earth Day in 2008 and the Frozen River Film Festival in 2009- the City of Winona sponsored at “water taste test” where people were able to compare the taste of city water to three commercial bottle water samples. There events served to increase awareness of the hype around bottled water and also served to surprise many people about how good they thought city water actually tasted.

A Drinking Water booth was set up at two events, Earth Day in 2008 and the Frozen River Film Festival in 2009. As part of the booth, participants were able to taste test Winona’s tap water and three bottled waters. The test results indicated that Winona’s tap water rated higher in taste than all three bottled waters.