Office of Academic Affairs-- Medgar Evers College

Hakeem Lucas’ Comments during the Inaugural Meeting of the American Democracy Project

At the first meeting of the American Democratic Project (Project) at Medgar Evers College (MEC) it was stated that the Project seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement in the United States in the 21st Century. Particularly, the Project targets undergraduates enrolled at institutions that are members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) out of a concern for decreasing rates of participation in the civic life of America in voting, advocacy, and volunteerism. Primarily, the Project has as its stated goals to: 1) increase the number of undergraduate students who understand civic engagement, and 2) focus attention on policy makers and opinion leaders on the civic value of the college experience, deciding that its role is to shape the moral and civic lives of students through service learning, internships, volunteerism, link of academic materials to students, active construction of knowledge, and involvement of other pedagogies of engagement.

Understanding this, the following is recommended to aid in the implementation of the Project at MEC:

A clear curricula distinction between Civic Engagement and Civic Protest/Social Justice. (It is important to note that civic engagement is not a defined academic disciplined, rather civic engagement is a service learning strategy, aimed at strengthening extra/co-curricula activities.)
As an extra/co-curricula programmatic thrust the Project should move to identify faculty members that teach (or can teach) courses that have a social justice/civil rights emphasis. In each case, courses are already established in the MEC course catalogue. Such classes by discipline are Hist 220, 221, 222, 223, and 260, Hum 273, 300, 390, and 400, FS 101 and 102, SP/C 003 and 004, Soc 216, 302, 303, 375, 410, and 457, and Pol 101, 200, 420, to name a few. (It is important to note that this list does not exhaust the potential courses that the Project can attach, or mediate its programmatic thrusts.)
The Project should establish through its grant resources various community service projects to sponsor on campus.
The Project should establish through its grant resources an internship opportunity, the American Democratic Project Internship Program. These interns, receiving a stipend, would be assigned to work in various community organizations, and required to document their experience (through a journal) at the completion of their internship. These students could also be responsible for creating and implementing a community service project.
The Project should use the School of Continuing Education to sponsor various six-week and eight-week teaching series for members of the community on civic-engagement, and community activism.

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