Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

Agent of Democracy
creating things with broad public benefit.” This requires creating a
more entrepreneurial campus culture where students would think of
themselves as innovators, creators, and problem solvers. It required
us to change our approach to campus life trying to find civic learning
in every corner of students’ daily lives.
Brown: You mentioned getting national attention. What is the
significance of the work you describe?
Weinberg: We started from the observation that students lead
busy lives outside the classroom, but we do not do a good job of
capturing the educational value in those activities. Partially, this
comes about because colleges and universities use professionalized
models, where people solve problems for students. For example:
residential halls are filled with layers of professional staff who spend
their time solving problems by enforcing an endless stream of rules.
If a student has a roommate conflict he calls the Office of Residential
Life and a professional staff will find the proper rule or procedure to
solve the problem. This is a horrible way to organize an educational
environment. We rob students of opportunities to learn through
problem solving. We reinforce notions of entitlements as students
come to see college staff as service providers and themselves as
customers or guests.
At Colgate, we have moved away from a professional service
model by infusing campus with the spirit of public work. We want
students to think of themselves as members of a community who
have a responsibility to work with others to create a healthy living
environment. We are then working with them to make sure that they
have the organizing skills to act on their public values.
In my view, there are a few important shifts embedded in this
view: first, we are arguing that we need to give students a more robust
definition of democracy that moves beyond democracy as voting
and community service to democracy as a way of life. To get to this
place, we need to capture all the educational moments. Civic education
takes place in campus controversies, residential halls, student organizations,
campus planning, and a range of other places. Finally, we
are challenging people to move beyond values. We need to make sure
that our students have the skills and habits to act on their values.
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