From dmeadows@idirect.com Sun Apr 20 04:22:15 2003 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.04/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h3KBME1M020888 for ; Sun, 20 Apr 2003 04:22:14 -0700 Received: from photon.look.ca (photon.look.ca [207.136.80.123]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.04/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h3KBMCYT004692 for ; Sun, 20 Apr 2003 04:22:12 -0700 Received: from on-ham-a53-02-146.look.ca ([216.154.52.82] helo=raoul) by photon.look.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.05) id 197Cte-0002XJ-00 for classics@u.washington.edu; Sun, 20 Apr 2003 11:22:10 +0000 To: "classics@u.washington.edu" From: David Meadows Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 07:21:22 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: not in the latest Explorator: Project Pericles Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.2 required=6.5 tests=ONLY_COST,USER_AGENT version=2.53 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.53 (1.174.2.15-2003-03-30-exp) X-Uwash-Spam: Gauge=XXI, Probability=21%, Report="ONLY_COST, RCVD_IN_OSIRUSOFT_COM, SIGNATURE_SHORT_DENSE, SPAM_PHRASE_00_01, TO_ADDRESS_EQ_REAL, USER_AGENT, X_OSIRU_DUL, X_OSIRU_DUL_FH, __EVITE_CTYPE" I seem to have missed putting this one in Explorator and since it's passed its best before date, I reproduce the text which is copyright 2003 New York Times: April 7, 2003 Benefactor Wants Colleges to Deliver a Stronger Civics Lesson By KAREN W. ARENSON wenty-two years ago, at an elementary school in Harlem, Eugene Lang, a self-made millionaire who had been drafted to deliver the school's graduation address, impulsively pledged to pay for college for every one of the graduates. In subsequent years, he nurtured and supported the students ‹ 61 in all ‹ trying to groom them for college the way middle-class children are groomed, in houses filled with books and high expectations. His program, named "I Have a Dream," inspired by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, proved magical in both its simplicity and its impact. Most of the children not only made it to college, but graduated, an exceptionally high rate for inner-city children. And many other wealthy Americans, inspired by Mr. Lang's example, adopted their own classrooms. Now he is trying again. Having created one powerful social program, he feels driven to create another, and on an even grander scale. His quest this time is to find a way to build political and civic engagement among young people in America, about 70 percent of whom, he pointed out, did not vote in the last presidential election. He is convinced that the solution lies in the transformation of higher education. "College," he said, is the most logical place to grab the minds of young people. Last week in Manhattan, he convened representatives from 10 colleges and universities ‹ students, professors, presidents and other officials, nearly 150 in all ‹ to plot strategy. They are the pioneers in his latest venture, which he has christened "Project Pericles," after the military leader and statesman who advanced Athenian democracy in the fifth century B.C. The colleges are a varied mix that includes Swarthmore in Pennsylvania, Pitzer in California, Pace University in New York City and Bethune-Cookman in Florida. For two days, the conference participants debated issues like how to meld community service and classroom teaching, whether colleges are ready to award tenure for civic engagement, whether community members should have more of a voice in the university and whether college officials would be pleased if students became politically active about issues like higher wages for maintenance workers. While Mr. Lang and many educators are concerned about the lack of participation in American politics, some of the students argued that politics is not the only measure ‹ or the best measure ‹ of civic engagement. "People are disillusioned by politics," said Kai Xu, a senior at Swarthmore. "We should encourage them to be socially responsible. Some people can go out and do hands-on work." Anne Shoup, a political science major from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, agreed: "One thing we have to do is expand people our age's idea of participation," she said. Mr. Lang has spent three years laying the groundwork for his new project, which he dreamed up in 1999 when invited to write an article about liberal arts education for the journal Daedalus. A longtime trustee and board chairman of Swarthmore College, his alma mater, Mr. Lang is passionate about liberal arts education. And his work with "I Have a Dream," Swarthmore and other educational institutions has given him strong convictions about the importance of social responsibility ‹ and its absence in American society. He argues that if students are to absorb civic values in a way that will affect their lives, they must be transmitted throughout the college experience, starting with the classes themselves. His model is the early American colleges whose mission, he wrote in Daedalus, was to develop personal character and groom leaders. "Today," he wrote, "unlike their forebears, liberal arts colleges do not as a general rule feel impelled to exercise a proactive role in preparing students for service in their communities." That is what he hopes to change. The colleges he has lined up are mostly small liberal arts colleges. All are private, and some have loose affiliations with religious groups. Mr. Lang hopes that being a "Periclean college" will be like having the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Joining the program does not bring a lot of money. Except for Swarthmore, each college is receiving only $50,000, contributed by Mr. Lang and the Carnegie Corporation. Each campus must match that amount. Over the years, Swarthmore has received millions of dollars from Mr. Lang, who built a business around squeezing extra value out of underused patents. Although each college is expected to develop its own blueprint, they all must follow certain ground rules. One is that all constituencies of a college must be involved: trustees, administrators, faculty members, students, and alumni. For a college to qualify as a Periclean, the trustees have to pass a resolution making civic education an explicit part of its mission. And the board chairman has to attend a meeting with Mr. Lang to discuss the project. Mr. Lang also believes that community experience must be an integral part of a student's education, so the local community has a role to play, too. But last week, students complained that community groups had not been invited to the conference in Manhattan. "We have to break down barriers," said Cassie Compton, a student from Hampshire College in Massachusetts. "We have to bring community people in to see what they need. The programs I see pushing the envelope do that." One of the most serious challenges, conference participants said, will be winning faculty support. Mr. Lang wants each class, whether mathematics, history or French, to offer a glimpse of its social relevance. Some conference participants, however, said that not all professors will be equally interested. Even those who might be interested may hold back, they said, for fear that a focus on social and civic work could eat up time for traditional research needed for career advancement. "Junior faculty especially have to worry about promotion and tenure," said Thomas E. Arcaro, a sociology professor at Elon University in North Carolina. But Elon is one of the colleges that have begun to create special incentives for professors to mix civic lessons with more traditional coursework. The university is also offering $1,000 course enhancement grants and one-month sabbaticals for staff members to work on community service projects. "Would I go so far as to say that this will transform higher education?" Nancy Midgette, Elon's associate provost, said. "I'm an optimist." "The heart of Project Pericles is to educate an informed citizenry," she added. "A lot of students say they need a college education to get a job and to be successful. We would like them to say I need a liberal education, period. "I don't know that we will ever awake it in everybody. Maybe it is a dream that we can awaken this in some folk. But if we can move them from where they were, we can feel a certain measure of success. I think Project Pericles can make an enormous difference." -- dm Libertas inaestimabilis res est. .