Current News
YFE 211 granted GS and US/IL Designations
The prescribed course for the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement Minor, YFE 211: Foundations of Civic & Community Engagement, has received senate approval to meet the General Education Social Sciences (GS) requirement and United States Cultures/International Cultures (US/ IL) requirements. The GS and US/IL status is expected to increase enrollment in the Foundations course and attract students to the minor.
The CIVCOM program faculty has reviewed and discussed various versions of the CIVCOM Foundations course, offered under several different course numbers during the experimental stages of the minor’s development. It is the CIVCOM program faculty's considered opinion that all CIVCOM Foundation course variants (YFE 297A, CAS 297, YFE 211, YFE 211H, and YFE 211S) taken by students before the senate’s March 18, 2008 decision are substantively equivalent to the course that is now approved to meet GS, US, and IL requirements. Former students in these courses may request, as needed, a substitution (by petition) of their CIVCOM Foundations course for meeting GS, US, and/or IL requirements.
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Public Scholarship Associate Peter Aeschbacher receives 2008 American Institute for Architects Education Honor Award
Peter Aeschbacher, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Architecture, has been awarded a 2008 American Institute for Architects (AIA) Education Honor Award. Peter was recognized for his “Design and Democracy” project, a first-year studio in which students explored the ways design can contribute to democratic practices. His students completed three design/build installations which fostered democratic engagement on Constitution Day, September 17, 2007, at Penn State University Park.
Coordinated by the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the award celebrates excellence in architecture education as demonstrated in classroom, studio, and/or community work. The jury, which included AIA leadership, architecture professors and professionals from across the United States, recognized Peter for creating courses that encourage first-year students to critically consider the relationship between societal and architectural realms. Peter's "Design and Democracy" studio was commended not only for the excellent design experience for his students, but also for the way in which the work was shared beyond the classroom with the entire campus. The three installations--Writers' Block, The Illicit Literature Lounge, and Perspectives on the Eighth Amendment and the Death Penalty--invited students to explore and express views on contemporary issues related to society and the constitution.
Peter received the award at the AIA National Convention in Boston, May 15-17. The Convention’s theme, “We The People”, was most appropriate for Peter’s poster presentation displaying his students’ Constitution Day installations.
Click here for further information and photos of the installations.
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Recipients of the 2008 Public Scholarship Course Development Grants Embed Constitution Day 2008 into the Curriculum
The Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy has awarded $5,000 in grants to faculty embedding Constitution Day 2008 into the curriculum. The grant recipients proposed course work that will help students to recognize connections between education and the U.S. Constitution’s blueprint for public sovereignty, and that will help to form the basis of Penn State’s 2008 Constitution Day activities. Students at five Penn State campuses will share scholarship and course projects fostering constitutional understanding and democratic capacity with their communites on Constitution Day, September 17, 2008.
The 2008 recipients are:
Dr. Kirstin Ruth Bratt, Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction at Penn State Altoona, for “Defending the First Amendment Rights of Children: Banned Book Defense Essays (LLED 402).”
Dr. Laura Guertin, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at Penn State Brandywine, for “Bringing the Theme of Democracy and Constitution Day into an Environmental Sustainability First Year Seminar (PSU 010).”
Dr. Richard J. Harnish, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Penn State New Kensington, for “The Five Freedoms in the First Amendment and Regional Deliberations to Spur Social and Economic Redevelopment (PSYCH 212 & PSYCH 424).”
Dr. Stephanie Cayot Serriere, Assistant Professor of Social Studies/Language, Culture & Society in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, at Penn State University Park, for “A Constitution Day 2008 Community Forum: Using the Structured Academic Controversy Model to discuss Downloading Creative Material from the Internet (SSED430W) .”
Robert Speel, Associate Professor of Political Science at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, for “A Constitution Day 2008 Forum addressing Constitutional Issues and the 2008 Presidential Campaign.”
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Jeremy Cohen Meets with Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey on Issues of Education's Role in Democracy
Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) hosted an intimate group of Pennsylvania educators, including Dr. Jeremy Cohen, Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Education at Penn State, in a five hour Capitol Hill colloquy September 24. Senator Casey, with his senior staff and colleagues from HUD, the National Museum of American History, Campus Compact, and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, asked participants to explore "The Strategic Role of the University in Preparing Today's Students for Citizenship in an Interdependent World."
The focused conversation began with the recognition that universities play a keystone role in preparing young people for meaningful citizenship. Participants identified purposeful curriculum as a lynchpin in the transmission of democratic understanding and skills and discussed the general lack of democracy education throughout primary, secondary, and higher education.
The colloquy provided an opportunity to let others know about the Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy's focus on the development of democratic capacity through substantive curriculum integrating scholarship and civic engagement rather than through volunteerism alone. Cohen highlighted Public Scholarship's role in fostering citizen participation in which idividuals effectively assume their responsibilities in the Constitution's We the People blueprint for citizen governance.
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