Public Engagement

Most of my blog postings have dealt with public engagement activities on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. The UM also has four coordinate campuses, in Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester. Each has its own profile of engagement activities. Casey LaCore, Director of the Civic Engagement office at University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) sent this report.

UMD Office of Civic Engagement activities have been focused in six areas:

1) Currently there are two Civic Engagement Reading Groups which meet monthly. The purpose of these groups is to discuss the theory and practice of civic engagement as well as how to encourage civic engagement activities at UMD. Participants read materials about civic engagement and meet for group discussions. Reading group participants included representatives of all five of the collegiate units at UMD (CLA, CEHSP, SFA, LSBE, and CSE), and Student Life.

2) The Office of Civic Engagement awarded $20,000 in mini grants during the past year. Grants were awarded to faculty from the following departments for incorporating civic engagement activities in to their curriculum; Composition, Chemical Engineering, Outdoor Education, Elementary Education, Theatre, Psychology, Sociology/Anthropology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Early Childhood Education, Social Work and the School of Medicine.

3) The New York Times pilot project distributes approximately 200 papers a day to students and faculty. Currently seven faculty members have incorporated the New York Times into their course curriculum.

4) At this time, fall semester 2006 the Office of Civic Engagement has placed over 900 UMD students in the community. 800 of these students are placed as a part of a civic engagement component in a course. The other students are America Reads work study students and general volunteers.

5) The Office of Civic Engagement was asked by the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation and Harvard University to participate in the most in-depth survey on the civic engagement of Americans ever conducted. More than a dozen University of Minnesota Duluth faculty members have agreed to provide analysis of the local data. In addition, two graduate students from the Master in Advocacy and Political Leadership program are serving as interns to the project

6) Lastly, the office of Civic Engagement is involved with several Community Projects including; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Methamphetamine Abuse, and Issues related to Homeless.