Future politicians, activists, creators and leaders of nongovernmental and public service organizations — these could be the prime candidates for the first-ever signature undergraduate program in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

The committee charged with drafting Maxwell’s first signature undergraduate program has proposed the Maxwell Program in Civic Engagement, which will train students to be leaders of public service and activism. The final draft of the program proposal was released Nov. 22 and will be the focus of a school-wide faculty meeting Wednesday evening. 

‘We’re in the business of trying to identify ways of helping society or to benefit societies in the long run,’ said Robert McClure, chair of the signature program committee. 

The program, which has received both praise and skepticism from faculty, is meant to be a selective major able to draw top students because of its connection with Maxwell, which is ranked as the nation’s leading graduate school for public administration.

For six months, a committee of nine Maxwell faculty members has been reviewing, revising and collecting feedback on what Maxwell’s first undergraduate program should be, who it should target and how it will affect the rest of the social sciences at Syracuse University, McClure said. After Wednesday’s meeting, the faculty has a week to vote whether to adopt the new program or trash it. 

The final proposal defines civic engagement as ‘direct, persistent involvement with the larger worlds in which they live their lives.’ To complement the program’s broad definition, students would be required to double major in one of the social sciences, whether that be anthropology, geography or international relations, among others, according to the final report. 

In addition to the Arts and Sciences core, students would fulfill the new major by taking many classes already offered in the social sciences. But the proposal calls for three classes to be created exclusively for students in the civic engagement major: a justice and ethics class, a research seminar analyzing real-life examples of civic action and an action plan workshop that will help students craft their senior theses.

The focus of the program is not just to teach and analyze theoretical ways to fix communities around the world but to create a results-driven approach to problem solving, according to the report. 

The proposal calls for 20 hours of mandatory community service as part of the research seminar and will stress the importance of internships and involvement in Syracuse community service, according to the report.

The program is meant to attract exceptional students who have aspirations from leading a nongovernmental organization in another country to becoming a community activist or ‘anything where the student wants to make a difference in the world,’ said Paul Hagenloh, a representative of the history department on the committee. 

Hagenloh said the program is ‘purposefully flexible’ to allow students to study whatever kind of civic engagement in which they are interested. 

To hold students to the results-driven focus of the civic engagement major, they would have to complete a senior project in which they devise a detailed plan for addressing an issue in society, either locally in Syracuse or a problem somewhere else in the world, according to the report. 

The program would also remain relatively small, growing to a maximum of 150 students, according to the report. 

The committee has been drafting the major since May, when the new major, along with several other changes to Maxwell, was announced by Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina.

The program originally sparked controversy because some social science professors thought it might take away top students or resources from already established majors. But after months of feedback and meetings, the idea for a signature major has been for the most part well received by many departments in Maxwell.

Hagenloh said many of his colleagues have expressed interest in becoming a part of the potential major, either in a student-adviser role or in some other capacity. 

During the drafting process, the committee met with students and faculty, listening to their feedback and making changes where the committee felt it was appropriate, McClure said.

One of the most common worries, which were all compiled in the final draft, was that the new major would take away resources from the other social science programs. The committee clarified in the final proposal that the new major would not use any funds or resources allocated to the social sciences and would seek alternative funding. 

McClure said the committee was not charged with finding out exactly how the major would be funded. That will be left up to the deans and administrators if the faculty approve the major, he said. But McClure said he suspects a program focused on making a difference in the world will likely be able to draw funds from donors.

The committee also struck a first-year learning community requirement from the proposal after receiving student feedback, according to the report. The students said a mandatory learning community inhibits underclassmen from meeting people of different majors and interests and is ultimately undesirable to new students.

The final proposal and Wednesday’s meeting are the last duties of the current signature program committee. Members of the committee and the rest of Maxwell faculty will be able to volunteer to help out with the next phase, which will focus on drawing up detailed curriculum for the new major if it is approved this week, McClure said.

‘These were remarkably considerate people who had a deep commitment to undergraduate education,’ McClure said. ‘They were successful arriving at something that we could all agree on, that would be in the best interests of the school and the university.’

rastrum@syr.edu

Published on November 30, 2010 at 12:00 pm