Bill Gibson, Ph.D., leads a break-out session during the
democracy dialogue series.
To enlighten the campus community at Wesleyan, students worked with faculty to plan and present “Is Democracy a Dinosaur?,” a unique dialogue series held Feb. 10 – March 2, that brought students, faculty and staff together with members of the community to discuss some tough issues.
To help spur discussion, attendees were posed a number of questions: Does democracy matter? When is democracy inconvenient, irrelevant, inappropriate? Is our democracy different from democracy in the Middle East or elsewhere? What is expected of U.S. citizens? Why should we bother to vote?
Initiated by the Office of the Academic Dean, the series was funded by a grant awarded by the Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement, a project of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and Campus Compact.
Wesleyan was one of only seven colleges and universities across the country, out of 137 applicants, to land the grant designed to promote civic learning as a focus of academic inquiry.
Attendance at each of four dialogues averaged 150 participants who met as a large group and then separated into small groups for active discussion co-facilitated by faculty and student leaders.
A significant aspect of the program was the level of student participation in the planning stages. The four student facilitators received facilitation training to ensure that each of discussions would give equal voice to all participants and would encourage mutual respect and understanding.
Discussion between students and community members was lively. Many students said they valued input from the community and appreciated that they have a different viewpoint because they’ve had different life experiences.