Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement

National Dialogue Project:
Journey Towards Democracy: Power, Voice, and the Public Good

In the Spring 2003, the Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement released a call for proposals for a national dialogue project, Journey Towards Democracy: Power, Voice, and the Public Good. It invited colleges and universities to sponsor robust and candid dialogues about how to put student learning about democracy and the public good at the center of academic inquiry. Out of a highly competitive field, seven institutions were selected to host dialogues on their campuses during the 2003-2004 academic year.

The Journey Towards Democracy dialogues offer a means through which campuses can gain deeper institutional understanding about how to educate students for democracy, how liberal education can foster civic engagement, what stands in the way of these efforts, and what new directions institutions might take in making civic learning a core component of every graduate's education. A key component of the dialogues is to engage multiple stakeholders in the discussion: students, faculty, student affairs and academic affairs administrators, community partners, alumni, and others.

Participating Institutions:

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
St. Lawrence University
University of Massachusetts Boston
University of Michigan
University of South Dakota
Virginia Wesleyan College
Wagner College