Examples of Good Practice from St. Lawrence University

Community Based Learning and Civic Engagement Initiatives

St. Lawrence University’s Center for Civic Engagement and Leadership (CCEL) comprises the St. Lawrence Leadership Academy, David Garner Center for Collegiate Volunteerism and the Community-Based Learning Program. Together they offer workshops, guest speakers, credit-bearing programs, counseling, volunteer coordination and other resources to help students develop leadership skills and service experiences. The CCEL was chosen by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) as a “demonstration site” for the Bringing Theory to Practice Initiative, through which SLU has developed new strategies to link engaged learning, student health, and civic engagement.

Beginning in August of 2005, the CCEL received grant funding from AACU:BTP to support research that will provide evidence for the need of such strategies. One initiative undertaken as part of this project was the creation of a new First Year Program course designed around public service and civic engagement, entitled “Making a Difference: Active Citizenship in a Multicultural Democracy.” The course instructors describe it in this way:

“In this course, participants will explore what it means to be an active citizen in a multicultural democracy, by examining if and how citizens come together to reach collective goals in ways that are fair and just for all. This concern has been with us since our founding fathers attempted to craft a system of government that would ensure that no one faction could champion its interests over the public good. In our conversations, we will look at concerns raised today about potential threats to active citizenship in our democracy such as increases in the wealth gap, racial tensions, declines in civic engagement and a faltering sense of community. Although the course considers the obstacles we face to multicultural democratic action, most of our attention will be on understanding and using the tools of active citizenship in a diverse society. To enhance that understanding and employing the tools of citizenship, all of us will be volunteering in the local community throughout the fall semester. As part of this work, we will explore the role of liberal arts education as a place for positive transformation, both personal and social. Many of our discussions and assignments will center on the role of active citizenship and social justice through history and today with examples coming from the Civil Rights Movement and Hurricane Katrina.”

The Weave

The Weave is a web site with the stated goal of providing “Mediocracy Unspun.” Developed and maintained by St. Lawrence faculty and students, the Weave seeks to foster democratic engagement by providing a forum for the circulation and discussion of global news stories that are not widely covered by the mainstream media. Students in the “Global News Analysis” class taught in the Global Studies Department originally created the Weave in 2006, inspired by the example of War News Radio and by global dialogue platforms such as Dropping Knowledge and TakingITGlobal.

The project quickly evolved into a series of student blogs focusing on underreported stories including the 9/11 Truth Movement, indigenous land rights in North America, the US practice of so-called “extraordinary rendition,” the privatization of the military, and threats to the world’s oceans. The Weave’s homepage describes it as follows:

“The Weave is a public intellectual project that brings together a range of perspectives on local, national and global issues and on mainstream and independent media coverage of those issues. [It] is a small but determined contribution to the citizen journalism movement that has arisen as a response to media consolidation and the failures of mainstream media to provide the depth of information and the breadth of perspectives that are crucial to a healthy democratic culture. Now more than ever, there is a need for citizens to create new spaces for dialogue and the sharing of new ideas. Citizen journalism is built on the belief that if the mainstream media are falling down on the job, we should go elsewhere for our information-and we should actively get involved in the process of disseminating the information we find. The Weave is also rooted in the conviction that we cannot develop ethical, effective strategies for creating positive social change unless we learn to seek out and take seriously a wide range of perspectives on pressing social issues. The Weave is a place for listening, learning, and empowerment.”

Semester in the Francophone World

St. Lawrence has had an off-campus program in France since the 1960s, but in the last decade we have built on this foundation to create a unique semester program in the “Francophone World.” In this semester, students experience francophone culture in three different societies which share a common language and connected histories, but which provide very different cultural experiences through the distinct social, economic, and political realities which prevail in each. Students are able to engage with the complex similarities and differences between these societies in a way that is not possible in a traditional semester program in one site. This semester is also unusual in that students are eligible to participate in the spring of their first year of college. The program focuses on comparative Francophone cultures and includes:

• 2-week residence in Quebec City. Home stays, intensive French at Laval University, and introduction to Quebecois culture.
• Study in Rouen, France. Home stays, 2 units of intensive French language and conversation, and 2 courses taught in English.
• Field trips to various places in France
• Week-long excursion to Senegal, West Africa.

In recent years, St. Lawrence faculty have further expanded on this program by offering an additional summer-term course in which students travel to Senegal to engage in a service-learning experience, living and working in Senegalese villages. This course has proven very popular with students, many of whom are eager to return to Senegal after having spent time there on the Francophone semester program.

This page is part of a series of Examples of Good Practice.