Class on Civic Engagement Culminates in Town Hall Meeting for Community
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 29, 2006
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Class on Civic Engagement Culminates in Town Hall Meeting for Community
An English department pilot program focused on promoting civic engagement culminates Saturday, Dec. 2, in a town hall meeting for members of the California State University, Chico campus and Chico area communities.
Participants will include CSU, Chico President Paul Zingg, Dean of Undergraduate Studies Bill Loker, College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean Sarah Blackstone and 120 freshmen enrolled in English 130, who will lead the town hall meeting process. The meeting is free and open to the public.
The meeting is from 9 a.m. until noon. Participants will first convene in Selvester's by the Creek, directly behind Kendall Hall on the CSU, Chico campus, before dispersing to locations on campus for discussion groups. The event will begin with opening remarks by Zingg, and conclude with closing remarks by Blackstone. A reception with a light lunch and beverages will follow the meeting.
The meeting will consist of two sessions, each of which will feature discussion groups on a wide variety of local, national and global topics, including "The Politics of Immigration," "Drug Use: Chico and Chico State," "The Media's Influence on College Students," "Steroids and Sports," "Genocide, Africa and the World's Response" and "Chico Community, Crime, and Campus Involvement."
Professor Thia Wolf, director of CSU, Chico's First-year Experience Program, said all six sections of the English 130 class for first-year students have been focused on reading, writing and researching civic engagement, with the town hall meeting-one of the oldest public arenas in American public life-as a culminating experience.
"We see the meeting as one means of fostering meaningful engagement among our students," Wolf said, "and we hope that some of the discussion sections will permit all participants to arrive at resolutions, calls for action, or other outcomes that will extend the importance of the discussion beyond the meeting place and time."
Wolf said English professor Jill Swiencicki, coordinator of the Composition Program, has identified key groups in the community with interests in the discussion topics, and invitations have been extended to those groups.
CSU, Chico's First-year Experience Program is designed, through a number of curricular and co-curricular efforts, to help first-year students succeed academically and socially, and make a smooth transition to University life.
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