By The People: Community College Events

Community College Events

By the People events engage colleges, universities, and the wider community in locations around the country. See what's happening in your area.

American's participation in public life is declining, and much has been written about how young people are particularly disengaged with civic activities. Find out more about "civic engagement" and why it's good for democracy.

By the People offers tools and resources to help citizens join in the conversation on the major issues of the day. Reading our issue backgrounders and teacher resources are a good way to get up to speed on the discussion.

Community College Students Speak Out in Deliberation Week Dialogues
A variety of community colleges from around the country engaged their students and local communities in dialogues during Deliberation Week, October 22-29, 2005, including serving as conveners of Citizen Deliberations. Many of these events were broadcast on college and other local television channels. The roster of community college participants included the following schools:

Broome Community College (Binghamton, NY) hosted a series of forums and panels in September and October, including: "Zen and the Art of Public School Teaching," "Putting No Child Left Behind to the Test: Does it Work?," "New Teacher Cultural Competencies for the Classroom," and "Teaching Challenges: Meeting Diversity Needs in the Classroom." The latter, held during Deliberation Week, included a panel discussion on how young students with learning challenges or students whose first language is not English can best be served in the classroom.

Johnson County Community College (Overland Park, KS) discussed: "Ethics in Education: Raising the Questions" on October 26. The project included a live broadcast of two, hour-long roundtable discussions, modeled after the old PBS "Fred Friendly" series. Elizabeth Alex of NBC Action News and Nick Haines of KCPT served as moderators. These broadcasts were closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired.

Kingwood College (Kingwood, TX) sponsored an open community dialogue on the crisis in healthcare, on October 26. City and local authorities were on hand to discuss the rising costs in healthcare, other health crisis issues and how they affect the community. The forum drew an audience from all five colleges in the district, as well as senior citizens and hospital workers from the community, among others. KWC-TV Channel 42 broadcast the event.

Middlesex Community College (Bedford and Lowell, MA) held two dialogues during Deliberation Week-- one on the Lowell campus on October 25, and one on the Bedford campus on October 26. Campus and community members participated in a conversation about our role as citizens, including response to those in need and recent issues raised by Hurricane Katrina. They explored the question: "What knowledge or skills will students need most to be effective citizens in our world in the future?" The events were taped and edited to air on the Lowell cable channel.

Montgomery College's Paul Peck Institute for American Culture and Civic Engagement in Takoma Park, Maryland, hosted a series of campus and community programs called: "National Deliberation 2005: Jefferson Café™ Grassroots Discussion Forums on Higher Education and civic engagement. The discussions adopted the format of the school's award-winning Jefferson Café™ conversations. The school partnered with the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County to host a number of small group discussions in October, featuring a town meeting during Deliberation Week. These events made up a 30-minute program for broadcast on Montgomery College and Montgomery County cable television.

Gateway Community College (New Haven, CT) and Henry Ford Community College (Detroit, MI) served as convening partners for Citizen Deliberations in their communities.