The American Democracy Project of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has created an offshoot initiative geared at studying and improving the political engagement climate on American college campuses. Ferris State University has been chosen as one of eight campuses across the country to participate in collaboration with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the New York Times in this endeavor.
Ferris State University offers a unique opportunity for the challenge of creating a population of politically engaged college graduates. Our primary charge is to inculcate the ideas of a politically engaged populace throughout the curriculum, in a manner that creates in students a sense of "having a stake" in the political institutions of the society. This pedagogy will be included in many non-traditional arenas and beyond the expectations of general education course requirements. A second charge of our activities will be to record, analyze and report on the effectiveness of this endeavor over a three year period.
