The Civic Life Steering Committee, launched as part of The Civic Life initiative, seeks to enhance educational opportunities and programs, encourage community involvement, establish ways of assessing the program’s effectiveness and cement the program’s future.
The Civic Life is a new initiative spearheaded by President Jonathan Alger as one of his first agenda items upon beginning his first semester at American University.
As a founder of a similar program at James Madison University, Alger brought the initiative over to AU to “help community members discover and discuss what we disagree about, and also to learn how to identify and develop common ground,” according to the initiative’s mission statement.
The initiative holds unity meals, which serve as events for fellowship and reflection. Most recently, around 300 AU community members came together to break bread on the one year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Following the election, the University held “The Day After Election Day” unity meal to offer a space for support and reflection.
Additionally, Alger spoke with Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, as a part of the Presidential Speaker Series.
The Civic Life Initiative launched its first event on Oct. 21 with Alger and a committee of panelists in a discussion entitled “Dialogue Through Disagreement.”
The Civic Life Initiative is led by the Steering Committee, which consists of 13 University faculty members. School of Public Affairs Associate Professor, Lincoln Scholars Program Director and Faculty Senate Immediate Past Chair Thomas Merrill sits as the committee chair.
“We live in a time in which there's so much polarization in the world that it's hard for people to talk across political, cultural, social, religious boundaries,” Merrill said. “President Alger really wanted to promote the idea that we can have dialogue in a productive way.”
Members of the committee represent a diverse selection of backgrounds and communities, according to Merrill. They consist of departments ranging from the School of International Service, Critical Race and Gender Studies, Psychology and more.
The Civic Life promotes dialogue and expression, according to Elizabeth Deal, assistant vice president, deputy chief communications officer and member of the Steering Committee. While the initiative hosts select events themselves, the goal of The Civic Life is to provide a platform to promote and value the University’s communities in a non-biased way, she stated.
“We're hoping to lower the temperature, but allow people to say things that they feel strongly about in the world,” Merrill said. “And that's hard, right? That's hard because we do disagree with a lot of things.”
Deal said The Civic Life’s aim to include students of all political backgrounds and beliefs sets it apart from other civic engagement departments around the country.
For this reason, writing something like the Vision Statement turned out to be a harder task than originally thought, according to Deal. The Civic Life aims to facilitate civic engagement but not endorse any specific viewpoint or community.
“Which is why something as seemingly simple as that one and a half, two pages is very carefully written,” Deal said.
Bridget Trogden, the dean of Undergraduate Education and Academic Student Services and a member of the committee, hopes this committee will enhance the initiatives created under The Civic Life.
“It’s the group that is helping us to develop the initiatives that we’re creating as part of The Civic Life. It’s like steering a ship — you’re steering the program,” Trogden said.
Trogden said the committee should advance not just its future but that of The Civic Life as a whole.
“What are the things we’re doing already that we want to elevate? What are some things we’re not doing? How do we know that what we’re doing is working? How are we being good stewards of resources, which includes time, space, expertise and money,” Trogden said.
Students can engage in The Civic Life in various ways, according to Trogden. Voter engagement, volunteering and service-learning are key in supporting community growth. On a larger scale, activism, community-based research and project-based internships can help inspire change and strengthen community ties.
“I hope that we'll have a better sense of how we can really think critically and also put into practice some really substantive discussions about what democracy looks like,” said Theresa Runstedtler, committee member and professor of history at the College of Arts and Sciences.
Runstedler joined the committee with a clear mission — to make sure the student body isn’t silenced.
“My hope is that The Civic Life initiative helps us to foster [difficult] discussions rather than silence them,” Runstedler said.
Civic dialogue at the University has become increasingly tense, especially after the recent vandalism incident at Glover Gate in light of the Israel-Hamas war. Merrill emphasized that AU must improve the way students disagree on important issues.
“We are very aware of what's happening on campus, and we're trying to make a healthier conversation,” Merrill said. “We think we can disagree in a healthier way than we are right now.”
The Civic Life emphasizes its value on free expression and providing a space for students to be able to voice their beliefs, even when those beliefs may be difficult for other members of the community. The idea is to not prevent discourse, but encourage students to welcome disagreement and learn to coexist despite differences.
The Civic Life is only just getting started — in the future, it hopes to expand its initiative to guide educational modules and facilitate healthy debate in all classes.
“That’s where my heart is as a teacher, regardless of what major students have or what they go on to do after AU,” Trogden said.
The Civic Life is in the early stages of developing the Civic Fellows Program, a student ambassador program to help facilitate healthy civic dialogue and engagement in the University community.
The program will consist of a zero or one-credit class spanning two weekends in November, where student ambassadors train in how to lead dialogues on controversial topics, as well as leadership training to provide a quality example of inclusive civic engagement. The fellows would be matched with a faculty fellow for a discussion on a list of topics presented by Civic Life.
“The idea is not that we have an answer,” Merrill said. “The idea is by having people talk about their disagreements and work it through — they start building those muscles. It's an ethos. It's not an answer.”
Correction: A previous version of this article stated the course was just a zero-credit class. It has been updated to correctly reflect the course is offered as a zero and one-credit class.
This article was edited by Payton Anderson, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Ariana Kavoossi and Sydney Kornmeyer.
