Latest News
Three from UWRF to Present at ADP National Meeting - 6.6.08
Three members of the UWRF community will present at the ADP National Meeting to be held in Snowbird, Utah June 12-14. Patricia Berg, Blake Fry, and David Trechter will discuss topics ranging from the presidential primaries to UWRF's role in the Deliberative Polling Project. For information on the ADP National Meeting, CLICK HERE.
UWRF Named to President's Community Service Honor Roll - 5.1.08
For the second year in a row, UWRF has been named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. CLICK HERE to read more about this honor.
About the American Democracy Project
The American Democracy Project, a multi-campus initiative sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the New York Times, seeks to foster informed civic engagement in the United States. UW-River Falls has joined with 195 other Universities, representing over 1.7 million students, to increase the number of undergraduates who are committed to engaging in an informed and meaningful civic life.
The project embraces a definition of civic engagement as articulated by Tom Erlich in Civic Responsibility and Higher Education (Thomas Erlich, ed., Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000.)
Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes (Preface, pg. vi).
To learn more about the development and objectives of this project, read the ADP Project Summary
Activities on Campus
Deliberative Polling Initiative
UWRF is one of 15 campuses nationally that has been selected by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities to participate in the Deliberative Polling Initiative, a project of the American Democracy Project. For more information regarding the Deliberative Polling Initiative CLICK HERE
Coffee withThe Times
In its third year, Coffee with The Times is a series on current topics that uses articles from The New York Times as a starting point for conversation. To view the slate of discussions that took place in Spring 2008 CLICK HERE, to view the Fall 2007 series, CLICK HERE.
The Fall 2008 lineup for Coffee with The Times will be posted to this site in late-August or early-September.
River Falls Votes
In conjunction with AASCU and the Young Voters Strategies Electoral Voices Voter Registration Field Experiment funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, UWRF created River Falls Votes, a nonpartisan voter registration and education committee. Made up of faculty, staff and students, it provides several services to students:
- Information on how to register to vote both for Wisconsin and Minnesota residents
- Nonpartisan information on the campaign issues and election contests
- Works with the City of River Falls for efficient registration and voting processes to shorten the wait as students and local residents cue up at the campus polling place.
For more information on spring 2008 activities of River Falls votes, CLICK HERE
Presidential Primaries Poll/Issues Match Quiz
On December 11, 2007 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., members of the campus community were asked their preference among the major party presidential candidates before and after completing a quiz that showed which three candidates best match their views on the major issues in this year's campaign. The results of the poll and quiz were posted throughout the day. Information on the upcoming Wisconsin Primaries and Minnesota Caucuses was also made available. This event was co-sponsored by the American Democracy Project, Pi Sigma Alpha, and the Division of Student Affairs. CLICK HERE for summary of the poll and issues match results. A complete listing of results is also available.
Constitution Week 2007
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls recognized National Constitution Day, Sept. 17, with a week of planned activities Sept. 17-21. Events were free and open to the public.
The week-long celebration opened with Constitution Jeopardy on Sept. 17, from 1 to 2 p.m., in the Kinnickinnic River Theater, University Center. A team from River Falls High School will competed with a team from UW-River Falls. Each team was composed of four students and one teacher or professor, and the teams answered three rounds of questions related to the Constitution. The team from River Falls High School scored a come from behind victory by wagering more on the final question. To view photos from the event, CLICK HERE.
On Sept. 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., members of the UWRF chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha and History Professor Kurt Leichtle distributed pocket-sized copies of the Constitution to students. Students also attempted to win American Democracy Project water bottles by answering questions about the Constitution.
Four television programs about the Constitution aired at various times throughout the week on River Falls Cable Channel 19 and campus cable channels 19 and 23, including “Key Constitutional Concepts,” “A Conversation on the Constitution: Judicial Independence,” “Our Constitution: a Conversation” and “A More Perfect Union.” The first three programs, produced by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands in Radnor, Penn., were broadcast on channel 19. “A More Perfect Union,” produced by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, were broadcast on campus channel 23.
UWRF’s Constitution Week was co-sponsored by the American Democracy Project, the UWRF chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, and The New York Times.
New York Times Editor at UWRF
Greg Brock, a senior editor at The New York Times, spoke at the University of Wisconsin River Falls on Sept. 25 in the Riverview Ballroom of the University Center on campus.
Brock joined The New York Times in 1995 and has served as the deputy political editor for the 1996 presidential campaign. He was the news editor on the Foreign Desk during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the first Iraq war. Prior to assuming senior editor duties in 2004, Brock was news editor in the newspaper’s Washington Bureau, during which he oversaw the day-to-day news coverage of the White House, Congress and all government agencies.
As senior editor, Brock also is responsible for the standards and ethics of the newspaper and works with editors and reporters throughout the newsroom to address readers' concerns about bias, fairness and accuracy.
A native of Crystal Springs, Miss., Brock graduated in 1975 from the University of Mississippi where he was managing editor of the Daily Mississippian at ‘Ole Miss.’ After graduation, he worked at The Washington Post, the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and the San Francisco Examiner. He received a Neiman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1994.
Brock’s appearance was sponsored by The New York Times and the American Democracy Project. The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact Colleen Callahan, chairperson of the UWRF department of journalism, 715-425-3169 or colleen.a.callahan@uwrf.edu.
2006-07 Academic Year
The UWRF ADP chapter prepared a poster for the 2007 National American Democracy Project Campus Showcase that highlighted the civic engagement programs on the UWRF campus during the 2006-07 academic year. To view the poster, CLICK HERE.
How to Get Involved
A number of UW-River Falls faculty and staff are involved in the Project. Subscribe to the Civic Engagement listserv to join the conversation.
Contact Blake Fry, administrative director of the American Democracy Project at UWRF for more information.
Read more about civic engagement and service learning. Check out one of these books available in the Chalmer Davee Library.
Additional Resources
The American Democracy Project at UWRF maintains an archive of past ADP sponsored lectures. These lectures, highlighting various aspects of civic engagement, are available on DVD and may be checked out free of charge from the Chancellor's Office by calling 715-425-3711. Lectures in the archive include:
- Don Betz, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-River Falls
- Greg Brock, Senior Editor, The New York Times
- Anne Colby, Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
- John Cronin, Director, Pace Academy for the Environment
- George Mehaffy, Vice President, Academic Leadership and Change, American Association of State Colleges and Universities
To learn more about the American Democracy Project, its sponsoring organizations, and organizations that share a common vision to the American Democracy Project, we recommend the following links:
