at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Susan Wolff Murphy, Associate Professor of EnglishJoseph Jozwiak, Associate Professor of Political Science Shawn Wahl, Associate Professor of Communication
Engagement in the First-Year Program
The Student Engagement Initiative at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) was established in fall 2004. Goals of this program focus on engaging students in their communities and thereby educating engaged citizens. Faculty, staff, and students across campus have been involved in the American Democracy Project (ADP), Bringing Engagement and Access to Minority Students (BEAMS), and the First-Year Experience Committee (FYEC). This Student Engagement Initiative involves all first- year students and many students as they move beyond the first year ( Jozwiak, Wahl, & Wolff Murphy, 2008) because it is fully integrated into our First-Year Learning Communities Program (FYLCP), which enrolls all students entering TAMU-CC with fewer than 24 college credit hours (approximately 1,350 stu- dents).
Our concentric circles of engagement have allowed us to bring in new faculty and staff to expand the curricular aspects of the program. Collaboration across campus has been key: collabora- tion and cooperation among several different campus divisions, support from campus-wide committees, partnerships with estab- lished community groups, and support from the Provost’s office, which has underwritten the cost of the New York Times readership program.
Engagement in the Curriculum
The FYLCP seeks to move students from egocentric to com- munal identities by modeling engaged citizenship: discourse, activism, engagement, and responsibility (Ehrlich, 2000). The first writing assignment in composition asks students to reflect on their communities and where they have acquired their values and beliefs. While this reflective process is egocentric in the sense that students are writing about themselves, they are simultaneously asked to see how their identities are socially constructed. For students, this often means reflecting on their connections with generations of family, church communities, work colleagues, high school sport teams, and networks of friends. It reinforces com- munity connections, responsibilities, and engagement and dem- onstrates how being engaged in communities has been formative in their lives.
To move students from the personal to the political, the FYLCP participates in the ADP and the readership program of The New York Times. The ADP, whose larger purpose is to encourage stu- dent civic engagement and showcase how students can positively impact their communities, is a joint effort between the various state colleges and universities and The New York Times. We use readings about free speech from www.firstamendmentcenter.org and our own campus’s “free speech zones.” By combining these resources, students stay abreast of current events and place these events in larger social/cultural/political contexts.
Engagement “On Campus”
In support of ADP, Communications and Theater Arts hosted a First Amendment speech contest and produced Inherit the Wind. Student speeches were awarded cash prizes by campus faculty and community leaders. Students were encouraged to attend the con- test and performance of Inherit the Wind and to write reflections centered on the play and First Amendment freedoms.
Political Science supported one speaker who responded to stu- dents’ questions ranging from wire tapping and the war on terror to censorship. Students were excited to discuss these issues in a co-curricular setting with voluntary attendance. Political Science has also organized in-class presentations by speakers from The New York Times who engaged students in discussions about media bias and the media’s relationship to democracy.
As part of a campus-wide event, several first-year classes at- tended the “Banned Book Week” event, where books that have been banned by various organizations or schools from around the state and country were displayed during the month of September (Banned, 2006). Once back in the classroom, students were asked to reflect on the rationale for banning books and then engage in a discussion about their thoughts.
Engagement “Off Campus”
The benefits of civic engagement to student learning and social development have been well-documented (Corbett & Kendall, 1999; Eyler & Giles, 1999; Eyler, 2000), so we have created op- portunities for students to take direct action. TAMU-CC has developed a strong working relationship with the local chapter of
the World Affairs Council (WAC), inviting speakers to campus about once a month. These speakers have included academicians from foreign nations as well as guests from business organiza- tions, think tanks, or similar organizations. First-year students attend these sessions to hear about what effect a Cuban regime change may have on international relations or challenges faced by the local oil production community. These experiences broaden students’ horizons and also allow us to “show off ” our students to community leaders.
First-year students engage in local economic, political, and social issues by reading and writing for CorpusBeat magazine and its affiliated Web site. This local magazine’s “mission is to develop young people by having them write and learn about government, business and life in South Texas. [Its] contributors and research- ers are students from … local high schools and colleges” (http://www.corpusbeat.org/About.ASPX). Several learning communities have had presentations from the magazine, inviting students to interview local business and political leaders, blog on campus life, create photo essays, and write about local issues. Past issues have covered the challenges of keeping educated young adults in the area, the threat of diabetes, and immigration.
The Computer Literacy project organized communications faculty and students to work with low-income people in the com- munity in need of computer literacy skills development. Those needing assistance were taught how to log on to the Internet, use a mouse/key board, send email, and fill out online employment applications. One of the goals of this activity was
to develop a workshop model for service projects in the future.
Assessing the Impact of Engagement in the First Year
We have attempted to assess the curricular impact of American Democracy Project (ADP) through two surveys. One asked students to rate their levels of engagement in the classroom, school-related non-academic activities, and non-school related volunteer activities and queried them about their motivations for civic engagement. We found that our initial efforts at encouraging civic engagement had a positive impact on our first-year students. They reported being more willing to engage in their communities as well as exhibiting a more positive attitude toward engagement ( Jorgensen, Jozwiak, & Huerta, 2006). Classroom performance has also been enhanced by the use of The New York Times. In the second survey, we found that students using The New York Times in class were more likely to have positive attitudes toward civic engagement. Compared with students who did not use the paper, those who read The New York Times were more likely to perform better in class. (Huerta & Jozwiak, in press).
Our evidence for success relating to “on campus” and “off cam- pus” events is more anecdotal, but telling nonetheless. Students are often surprised and shocked when they see some of their fa- vorite books on display during “Banned Book Week.” The library staff is often asked why a particular book had been challenged. Question-and-answer sessions with guest speakers have been lively, and students relished the idea of exchanging points with experts in the field. Students who wrote responses to CorpusBeat
magazine expressed the view that writing about local issues made them more interested in local elections and politics, particularly the recent debates about beach access and banning smoking in bars.
In our end-of-the-year evaluations of the first-year learning communities, students have responded positively to many of our civic engagement initiatives. Although there have been a few dif- ficulties over the years in coordinating our effort, we have discov- ered that intrinsic motivation on the part of students and faculty is absolutely necessary for the success of any civic engagement initiative.
References
Banned books week 2006. (2006). American Library Association. Retrieved Nov. 15, 2006, from http://www.ala.org/
Corbett, J. B., & Kendall, A. R. (1999). Evaluating service learn- ing in the communication discipline. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator,53, 66-76.
Ehrlich, T. (2000). Civic responsibility and higher education. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.
Eyler, J. S. (2000). What do we need to know about the impact of service learning on student learning? Michigan Journal of Community Service-learning, Special Issue: Strategic Direc- tions for Service Learning Research. 11-17.
Eyler, J. S. & Giles D. (1999). Where’s the learning in service learn- ing? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Huerta C. & Jozwiak J. (2008). Developing civic engagement in general education political science. Journal of Political Sci- ence Education, Vol. 4, no. 1, 42-60.
Jorgensen, D., Jozwiak, J. and Huerta C. (2006). Assessing the multiple dimensions of student civic engagement: A pre- liminary test of an ADP survey instrument. In J. Perry & S. Jones (Eds.), Quick hits for educating citizens: Successful strategies by award-winning teachers.Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 71-77.
Jozwiak, J. Wahl, S., & Wolff Murphy, S. (2008). Civic engage- ment as a curricular initiative in the first year experience at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. In W. Troxel and M. Cutright (Eds.), Exploring the Evidence: Campus-Wide Initiatives in the First College Year (Monograph No. 49). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Re- source Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
I. Contributors’ Names and Contact Information
Susan Wolff Murphy
Associate Professor of English Phone: 361-825-2640 Fax: 361-825-2210
Email: [email protected] Joseph Jozwiak
Associate Professor of Political Science Phone: 361-825-5997
Fax: 361-825-3762
Email: [email protected] Shawn Wahl
Associate Professor of Communication Phone: 361-825-2296
Fax: 361-825-6097
Email: [email protected]
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) 6300 Ocean Drive
Corpus Christi, TX 78412-5812
II. Institutional Description
a. Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) b. Four-year
c. Public
d. Primarily commuter
CASE STUDY
TRINITY UNIVERSITY