LINKS
Newsletter
From
the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contribute to Scholarships
Students choose HECUA programs because they care about the issues, they want to be actively engaged in learning, and they seek skills and perspectives that will equip them for effective involvement in society.
You can help make these learning experiences possible for students through a donation to the HECUA Scholarship Fund. The Fund was established in 1996, on the occasion of HECUA’s 25th anniversary. Recipients are chosen based on their commitment to addressing social issues.
Through a contribution to the HECUA Scholarship Fund, you can impact a student’s life, not only for a semester but for a lifetime.
Please make checks payable to HECUA and mail directly to the HECUA office. All contributions are tax deductible. A receipt will be sent for your records.
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Winter
2000
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by Ruth Mason
Connections with vital projects working for social change are a central part of HECUA’s Twin Cities programs. Part of the vision for HECUA’s future is to broaden and deepen the relationship with "partners" like Jane Addams School for Democracy. In the next phase of our growth we hope to explore with our various community resource people the potential for cooperating and collaborating not only for internship placements and field seminars, but also in other facets of our shared goals. The seeds of such partnership are clearly present in the rich learning exchange that takes place when HECUA students join the work described here.
When Alyssa Patzoldt joined HECUA’s Metro Urban Studies Term, she wanted an internship with significant interaction with people in the community. In the Children’s Circle on Monday nights at the Jane Addams School for Democracy, she’s got it and has learned first hand about building trust, about patience and about guiding volunteers.
"In the Learning Circles you really get to know new immigrants and understand they have so much to give to the community."
Alyssa is one of a growing number of MUST students who have interned with the Jane Addams project, a place where students realize the power of building relationships in creating social change.
Learning Circles
The Jane Addams School for Democracy, begun in 1996 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is an initiative in democratic education created by residents of St. Paul’s West Side neighborhood, staff of the Neighborhood House and students and faculty from the College of St. Catherine and the University of Minnesota. The School has become a robust place where Hmong and Latinos come together in circles focused on the needs, wants and wishes of the communities themselves.
People decided to form the Hmong Circle where college students, volunteers and Hmong residents come together to teach and learn Hmong and English languages. An important focus for this circle is studying to pass the citizenship test. The Spanish Circle allows for language learning and cultural exchanges as well as discussion of issues important to the community. And in the Children’s Circle, lively young people do homework, make crafts, prepare snacks, play checkers and have fun. For many it’s a safe spot to be while their parents are in one of the circles.
"In the circles you really get to know new immigrants and understand they have so much to give to the community. It’s close work. It doesn’t have the structures I grew up with. I’m learning to live with open-ended activities," says Alyssa, a Hamline University student majoring in sociology and psychology. Conversations probe questions like, "What do citizens do?" and "Are some self-interests also public interests?"
Leadership for Social Action
Work with the learning circles is just part of the HECUA students’ experience. Alyssa and the three other Fall ‘99 MUST students at Jane Addams also take part in reflection sessions with others involved in the project and attend the regular MUST seminars. These opportunities for reflection and critical analysis give "form" to the internship, according to the students.
As an extension of their work with the Jane Addams School, the MUST interns also serve as "coaches" in the Public Achievement program at Humboldt High School, where many youth from Neighborhood House attend. Public Achievement is an experience-based civic education program guided by college students and other adults who act as coaches for groups of youth. Together groups identify issues important in their lives and design public work action projects in response.
MUST students learn first hand the challenge of taking what they’ve read about social issues and using it in real situations. The "bigger learning" is significant, according to Sherri Lundgren (College of St. Benedict). "You have to use organizational skills in different settings. It’s creative intellectual work."
The students in the Public Achieve-ment group coached by Kari Denissen (University of Minnesota) are planning to visit the Superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools, because they are concerned that her twenty-five-books-a-year reading challenge is a little steep for some of their classmates. "Not everyone in our school speaks English first," they note. Kari guides the conversation, listening a lot but also using reflective moments to reinforce concepts such as power and accountability.
Intellectual Rigor and Useful Skills
Leah Robshaw (Earlham College) winds up her one-to-one session at Hmong Circle with a Hmong friend who is studying to pass the citizenship test. It is nine o’clock on a typical Monday night at Neighborhood House, as Leah reflects on the "rigor" of the total MUST experience. "Oh, yes, it’s rigorous. Not just papers. There are those. And the reading is long and challenging. But rigor is in grasping the connections. That’s where the seminar sessions on site are great because there is enough time to really delve into issues, bounce ideas, make connections."
Kay Yannish of Neighborhood House facilitates the reflection seminars at the site. She is most impressed with where the MUST students are intellectually. She adds, "They are eager, earnest, refreshing and dependable. They bring good energy and have grown, it seems, to love the people they are working with."
All the MUST interns agree that they are learning how to work within a system where there is lots to do but no assigned tasks and no taskmasters. Those involved learn to be self-starters.
Is this good experience for someone who wants to go into the non-profit sector? Definitely, say the students. They have struggled with some of the ambiguities, but they say they’ve learned tact, persistence, and to be accountable. Self-motivation is the key to it all. "With this internship, you can learn to facilitate groups, for example," says Leah. "You can figure it out for yourself, from the philosophy part to actually doing it"
Group Internship
And what about there being four MUST students at one site? (Such group internships are fairly new in MUST.) The students are adamant that having others to talk with has been one of the real strengths of the placement. The student who says she is the introvert of the group is most positive. "If I had been here alone, I wouldn’t have learned so much, because I would have sat back and not spoken up. But with the on-site seminars and having the other interns to talk to, I’ve learned much, much more. I’ve done more."
"Plus, it’s more like Jane Addams would have wanted it," explains Alyssa. "We are all part of a community where people contribute from their own talents to improve life for everyone. We MUST students work on problems and ideas together, like the other learning circles!" The experience engages students at all levels, emotional, intellectual, and personal. And in turn they contribute to the learning of others.
See www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/dcd/jas/index1.htm for further information about the Jane Addams School for Democracy.
See www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/cdc/free.htm for information on We Are the Freeedom People: Sharing Our Stories, Creating a Vibrant America, a new publication that has grown out of the work at the Jane Addams School.
The HECUA Model: Our Pedagogic Approach
Over the past year, HECUA has been working to articulate more clearly the core of its pedagogical philosophy and practice. Key questions guide this work. For instance, what does experiential, integrated, and interdisciplinary education mean in our practice? How does HECUA teach students to recognize the multiple sources and politics of knowledge? What educational approach does HECUA believe is required to develop engaged citizens who can think critically and act ethically?
Work on the model has proceeded this year, sparked with lively conversation in response to Mauricio Barreto’s paper, "The HECUA Model: A Pedagogic Approach." Mauricio has been a program director in HECUA’s Latin America programs for more than 20 years. The articulation of the model is a "work in progress" with continuing conversation among board members, program directors and others in the network.
Once clarified, the model will provide a valuable framework for new program development; it will enhance evaluation of existing programs; and it will enrich communication with outside audiences, including potential students. A task group has formed to direct the next phase of the work. The group will help synthesize the themes raised in discussion and create a plan for dissemination and integration of the model into various aspects of HECUA’s work. For more information, please contact Nan Kari at HECUA.
Dear Friends,
How do we prepare students to be responsible citizens and effective problem-solvers in the world? This question is being asked across the country – by legislators, the media, advocacy groups and leaders in higher education, among others. HECUA has been equipping students with skills for active citizenship through its programs for over 30 years. This emerging national agenda connects with HECUA’s core mission and is leading us into new realms of work and partnerships.
This fall I have had a series of conversations with faculty and administrators on member campuses to discuss HECUA’s work and its vision to contribute even more fully to the liberal arts and civic mission of higher education. Academic leaders have raised many concerns: limited resources, the push for ever-greater efficiency, fierce competition for students. I have also heard a deep interest in rekindling a broad sense of the public purpose of higher education.
I believe HECUA, in collaboration with its partners, is especially well-positioned to take leadership in these areas of civic engagement and democratic renewal. Together we can be a catalyst not only for new forms of publicly engaged pedagogy and scholarship, but also for raising the large intellectual questions about the future of higher education. HECUA plans to work with colleagues in our various program sites to deepen the learning for students, to expand faculty development opportunities, and to address public issues through strengthening partnerships with community organizations in new and mutually beneficial ways.
This issue of HECUA Links highlights concrete ways that HECUA, our students, our member institutions and our community partners are addressing real public concerns and engaging students in meaningful education and action for change.
- These stories defy the image painted in a newspaper editorial of the "blank stares" of college students. We have students who choose to learn!
- Our faculty colleagues are not isolated from reality and the concerns of the public domain. I have talked to many faculty on the campuses who are eager to "connect the dots" of often fragmented student learning and take an integrated approach to advising about on-campus and off-campus study in students’ overall academic experience.
- In our program sites, we continue to hear from community partners about the value they derive from working with our students in the field. They learn much from reflective conversations with students and are often professionally "refreshed" by the encounters.
- On behalf of all of us at HECUA, I wish you a year that refreshes you with the joy and possibilities of learning and the power that comes in deliberate choice as makers of history. I hope that this newsletter does its part and that you choose to continue the journey with us. As all our work is a "work in progress," we invite your comments to these pages.
Program News
Important Changes!
Martha Moscoso, CILA program director (center), and resource people meet during a field trip to indigenous communities outside Quito.
CILA Moving to Fall Semester
The Community Internships in Latin America (CILA) program, based in Quito, Ecuador, will be offered Fall Semester (instead of Spring), starting in Fall 2000. A fall offering will allow first-semester seniors to participate, will better fit the academic calendar of some member schools, and will allow adequate time over the summer for pre-program internship placement planning.
New Semester Program: EEECLA
Beginning in Spring 2001, a new semester program will be offered in Guatemala. Entitled Environment, Economy & Community in Latin America, it will serve students in environmental studies and the social sciences, and those interested in how communities work together for genuine, sustainable development.
Director Alberto Rivera states, "The area around Lake Atitlán, where we’ll spend much of our time, presents tremendous opportunities for activities that demand serious work and critical reflection. The unique physical surroundings with rural Mayan communities and the presence of global markets offer exceptional conditions to test the conceptual tools developed in class. Collaboration with various agencies will add an incredible hands-on component to the learning."
This is an expansion of the January-term program first piloted in 1999. (It will replace the Culture & Society in Latin America program, which will be discontinued after Spring 2000.)
MUST Offered Both Fall and Spring Semesters
Student interest in the Metro Urban Studies Term (MUST) Twin Cities program is on the rise and has led to the decision to offer two sections of MUST, one in the Fall and one in the Spring. The Spring program will have the added feature of coinciding with the state legislative session, which expands internship options for students interested in the political process. (CITY ARTS, the other Twin Cities program, will continue to run Spring semester.)
Scholarship Recipients Gain Tools for Life
by Nora Riemenschneider
HECUA awarded its first scholarships to two Fall ‘99 students. Scholarships will be awarded each term to select students who have done committed work towards social change and whose goals will be furthered by the HECUA program.
Leah Robshaw
Leah Robshaw, an Earlham College MUST ’99 student, was one of the recipients of the scholarship. "MUST has solidified my desire to be involved in community work and organizing," Leah said at the end of the semester. Leah’s internship at the Jane Addams School for Democracy has taught her how to work with people coming from different places in society and with a diversity of experiences. She has built relationships within community in her work with immigrant Hmong women, helping them prepare for the U.S. citizenship test.
Leah has also grown as a leader by "coaching" a diverse group of high school students who are organizing to get an on-site daycare in their school. She leads in a way that she says "gives them a voice." Her MUST group study project examined different organizing theories, then "put different theories to the fire to see which ones survive" in the activities of real-life internship experience. Leah says she has gained an understanding of power and how to actually make social change, "really important tools for my toolbox."
Chelsea Magadance
The other scholarship recipient was Chelsea Magadance, a University of Minnesota student in SAUS ’99. "SAUS is an extension of the interests and abilities I have developed through my first years of college," said Chelsea, an International Development major/Latin American Studies minor who has tutored Mexican immigrants in English as a second language and has spent time in Nicaragua. "The program in Guatemala allowed me to develop my Spanish skills, become immersed in a different culture and explore issues that had been touched on in previous classes," Chelsea reflected. She particularly enjoyed the family stays in Guatemala City and in an indigenous community near Lake Atitlán.
Chelsea also valued the group field projects to learn about the functioning of the region, which increased her independence, confidence and language skills. Also a highlight was the trip to Ecuador, because it allowed her to gain a broader perspective of Latin American cities. Chelsea plans to use her new skills in her volunteer work in the U.S. and become more involved with international organizations.
Network in Action
We are eager to recognize the many people in HECUA's network--board representatives, fellows, staff-- who are engaged in valuable endeavors on the home campus, within HECUA, and in the wider arena of higher education. We hope this news helps faculty and staff make connections around common interests and projects.
The Fellows program once again allowed member faculty and staff to visit programs in action during the Fall term. Cris Toffolo (Political Science, University of Saint Thomas) and Suzanne Wilson (Anthropology, Gustavus Adolphus College) visited SAUS in Guatemala. Wilson states "The students’ presentations reflected their rich field experiences, research skills, and insightful tie-ins to theory that they learned in the classroom. The fact that the students went off by themselves for a week to conduct their group field projects and the quality of their work was impressive."
SUST Fellows were Karen Vogel (Political Science, Hamline University) and Reynold Nesiba (Economics, Augustana College). The professional development value of the program is expressed by Nesiba: "The visit widened my imagination of what is possible in terms of urban planning and brought more clearly into focus the interdependencies among culture, religion, history and political economy. Reading yet another book on these subjects would not have yielded the same sort of intellectual development."
The MUST Fellows program involved faculty and staff from four member schools: Lois Olson (Center for Service, Work and Learning, Augsburg College), Richard Lietch (Political Science, Gustavus Adolphus College), Drue Fergison (Interdisciplinary Studies, Saint Mary’s University) and Ron Pagnucco (Peace Studies, College of Saint Benedict).
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Nan Kari participated in the Pew Advanced Institute on the Engaged Campus, sponsored by the national Campus Compact in October 1999. Campus Compact states: "…the civic mission of colleges and universities has two parts: educating the next generation of active citizens and acting as a citizen in its own community." With this purpose, Campus Compact convened a planning strategy team to identify best practices, lessons, challenges, and strategies to strengthen the civic dimension of campus cultures, with a particular focus on faculty engagement.
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"Civic Engagement For What? Voluntarist Marginalization or Civic Muscle for Democratic Renewal?" is the title of a session presented by Dr. Phil Sandro, MUST/City Arts program director, at the October 1999 annual conference of the National Society for Experiential Education.
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Amy Sunderland, Executive Director, attended the national conference of the Association of Consortium Leadership in early October. The Washington, D.C. gathering focused on "Best Practices in Consortia: Managing Collaboration." Amy also attended the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits annual meeting in October, entitled "The Non-Profit Place in the World: Repositioning the Non-Profit Role in Local and Global Society."
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HECUA member faculty, program faculty and alumni co-presented a session at the November conference on "How Learning Happens," sponsored by the Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching & Learning in Bloomington, Minnesota. The session, entitled "Providing a ‘context of meaning’ for student field experience," was presented by Karen Vogel (Political Science, Hamline), Carl Brandt (Philosophy/OSLO, University of Minnesota), Siri Eggebraten (SUST alum, Macalester College) and Phil Sandro (MUST/City Arts program director).
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Elizabeth Andress co-presented a session at the October regional conference of NAFSA: Association of International Educators in Fargo in October. Entitled "In Search of Roots: Exceeding Expectations," the session was shared with colleagues from the Oslo International Summer School, the Oslo Year Program, Augustana College, and an alum of the SUST program.
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HECUA presented a workshop entitled "Developing Higher Education’s Capacity for Civic Learning" at the January 1999 American Association of Colleges & Universities national conference. Presenters included Carl Brandt (University of Minnesota) and Cris Toffolo (University of Saint Thomas), with Amy Sunderland and Nan Kari (HECUA). The workshop focused on ways interdisciplinary learning helps students grapple with critical urban issues, and how the HECUA approach brings together students, faculty, community leaders and practitioners in these efforts.
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A workshop entitled "Transforming Campus Culture: Toward Greater Civic Engagement" will be co-presented by HECUA’s Nan Kari and Augsburg College faculty Frankie Shackelford and Tom Morgan. The workshop is part of the February 17-18 conference in Minneapolis on Sustaining Innovation, sponsored by the Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning. The workshop will present a framework for thinking about the campus culture itself as a backdrop for teaching and learning democratic habits and values.
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HECUA participated in the fourth annual Headwaters Fund Walk for Justice on September 12, 1999. HECUA walkers raised nearly $700 for the Scholarship Fund.
In-kind contributions from the Hampden Park Co-op, Breadsmith, Lund’s, Penumbra Theater, Science Museum of Minnesota and Walker Art Center provided a festive gathering of good food for all and prizes for the highest fundraisers. The Walk also created broader visibility for the organization, as walkers wore HECUA t-shirts and HECUA appeared in the published list of participating organizations.
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Nora Riemenschneider joined the HECUA staff in November as campus relations and student services assistant. Nora is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, with an individually designed major in Community Involvement for Social Change in Women’s Issues. She participated in the MUST ‘98 program, interned in transitional housing at Harriet Tubman Center, and worked at the U of M Office for Special Learning Opportunities. We are also grateful for the efforts of part-time student workers and interns that help make the accomplishments at HECUA possible.
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Creating the Commonwealth is a new publication co-authored by Nan Kari. (Boyte, H., Kari, N., Lewis, J., Skelton, N. Creating the Commonwealth. Dayton: Kettering Foundation, 1999.)
Faculty Development Workshop
HECUA provided a two-day faculty development workshop for Augustana College in November. Principles and practice of effective service learning was the focus, led by Dr. Phil Sandro,
HECUA Twin Cities program director, with assistance from Nan Kari.
The workshop combined presentations, discussions, meetings with community partners and hands-on curriculum development. Twelve faculty participated, including recipients of mini-grants for development of service-learning components in courses. The workshop is part of a three-year Teagle grant project to increase service-learning in the curriculum.
Comments from participants:
• "The discussion on redefining our notion of service was key. This is a major concern for me and a crucial issue for the institution."
• "The dialogue with colleagues on issues of substance was very valuable."
• "The work with community partners will have real impact because we arrived at some specific changes to make to improve our current partnership."
• "Wonderful combination of theory and practice, process and substance."
What do you feel passionate about in your work?
I love the "craft" of public ideas. I have explored ideas about the meaning of democracy and citizenship over the past decade. I’m also fascinated by the politics of ideas. Dominant framing theories are assiduously guarded and often resistant to open discussion. For instance, the deeper questions of the tie between higher education and democracy have been off the table until recently. There has been a strong tendency to define narrowly education’s public purpose in terms of economic expansion and preparing students for productive careers.
What is this current discussion in higher education about?
In 1999, the national conversation about the civic role of higher education began to crystallize. Two documents illustrate it — the Wingspread Declaration on Renewing the Civic Mission of the American Research University and the Presidents’ Fourth of July Declaration for Civic Responsibility in Higher Education. Both are now widely circulated and available on the internet*. They are innovative documents, because they assert that to renew higher education’s role as "agents of democracy," colleges and universities must address more directly the public aspects of the work of the institution as a whole – teaching, research and scholarship, and initiatives undertaken in partnership with communities.
This will require a critical look at mission, systems of evaluation and reward, approaches to teaching and outcomes of learning. It can also open new opportunities to refocus fragmented work cultures and help people who feel cramped and boxed in to think about their work in much larger terms. Appealing though the rhetoric may be, it is no small task to transform academic cultures. Many strategies will be needed. As HECUA develops a vision for 2010, we could imagine the organization as a kind of "civic catalyst" for such change.
How can HECUA respond to these issues?
HECUA is well positioned to experiment with and promote alternative approaches to traditional education. As I learn about the HECUA programs — domestic and international – I am coming to see that what we offer is a way to understand teaching as public craft. This, though not a new idea, is a radical reconception of the work of academics.
HECUA offers a medium to think outside the box and help create a more public culture around these topics. In this capacity, it can convene discussion and raise critical questions: What would it mean to think of scholarship as public contribution, whose impact is subject to scrutiny by a public? What are innovative approaches to civic education that help young people learn they can be co-creators of a shared world? These questions are examples of those raised in the Wingspread Declaration. And I think people are eager to have the discussion.
Recently, Phil Sandro [Twin Cities program director] and I did a workshop with a group of faculty trying to integrate service learning with their courses. I was struck by how much people wanted to think beyond traditional notions of service learning. Some in the group were eager to find ways to link their public passions with their work as teachers.
Can you say more about what HECUA uniquely brings to the work of civic education?
The international nature of HECUA brings to the table a mix of cultural, political, and theoretical perspectives that help us view our society through new lenses. The international perspective also invites a global view of social change. Since coming to HECUA, I have been more attentive to very inspiring citizen-led movements around the world. For instance, a recent report in The New York Times described a growing movement of girls and their women teachers in Afghanistan, who literally risk their lives in defiance of the Taliban to educate themselves in underground home schools.
In this time of widespread cynicism about the political process and worry that we as a nation do not have the collective will or ability to address our common (and complex) social problems, higher education needs to step up to the plate. HECUA can be a resource. We offer programs that call for rigorous intellectual work and the development of skills for social change. In the process, we can help to generate hope that people can create a better world.
See www.publicwork.org/edu/index.htm for the President's Fourth of July Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education and the Wingspread Delcaration on Renewing the Civic Mission of the American Research University.
CITY LINKS Roundtable on Citizenship
What is the meaning of citizenship? How do we understand democracy in 2000? What are cross-cultural perspectives? These are the themes of an upcoming City Links roundtable discussion co-sponsored by HECUA, the Jane Addams School for Democracy and the Humphrey Fellows. The event is planned for April 4th. This is a special event for invited participants representing faculty, alumni and community practitioners associated with HECUA. If you are interested in participating or would like to suggest someone to be invited, please contact Nan Kari at HECUA.
