Civic Engagement Resources

Be the CHANGE! This year's Civic Engagement Week theme highlights student's power to make positive social change through civic involvement. During this week participants will gain a better understanding of the system of immigration and U.S. citizenship. Participants will also have the opportunity to become more informed voters through programs that will not only allow students to register to vote but also to become more informed voters. Finally, there will be opportunities to create change through direct service as well as programs that focus on understanding what in the world CHANGE looks like through civic engagement.

Civic Engagement at St. Mary's University

Civic engagement at St. Mary's is founded on the University's mission, which calls us to involvement in and service to our community and society at-large. The educational aim of civic engagement is to develop and foster the virtues and skills of citizenship in a democracy. Chief among the virtues is the application of moral choice to public issues and decisions.

Chief among the skills of democratic citizenship are reflection, which leads to informed participation, and the willingness and capacity to seek the common good in public discourse and decision-making.

St. Mary's University embraces the fundamental right and responsibility to vote, but extends beyond to other key aspects of democratic life as well. Self-reflection that leads to reasoned commitments, a willingness to listen to and consider others' viewpoints, building community trust and habits of cooperation are necessary attributes of civic engagement.

The document Faithful Citizenship speaks eloquently to the fundamental purpose and future necessity of moral and civic engagement:

The next millennium requires a new kind of politics, focused more on moral principles than on the latest polls more on the needs of the poor and vulnerable than the contributions of the rich and powerful, more on the pursuit of the common good than the demands of special interest. . . .We must challenge all parties and every candidate to defend human life and dignity, to pursue greater justice and peace, to uphold family life, and to advance the common good.
(U.S. Catholic Bishops Administrative Board, Faithful Citizenship: Civic Responsibility for a new Millennium, pp. 4-5.)

Our students and faculty are encouraged to become involved in community affairs - locally, nationally and internationally. We believe that participating in public discourse and decision processes develops leaders and leadership skills. We aspire to foster and develop a campus culture that provides courses, opportunities and programs that educate an active and responsible citizenry.

At St. Mary's University, we are dedicated to graduating students who not only have a quality education but who are also civically engaged. That dedication is a part of not only our University mission but also a foundation of a Marianist education. Our students are involved in the community through academic courses, special projects spearheaded by faculty and staff, and student events sponsored by various programs and departments on campus.

St. Mary's University has a proud tradition of civic engagement and a history of providing our students with opportunities to participate in the political process, including through campus visits from elected officials ranging from Ronald Reagan, Hillary Clinton, Gerald Ford, Walter Mondale, H. Ross Perot, U.S. Senator and vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen, Texas Governors Ann Richards and Rick Perry and candidate, Kinky Friedman, among many, many others.

Various Student Organizations from Amnesty International, NAACP, We the People, LULAC, and the Psychology club are launching a program of education to raise awareness about protecting civil liberties during this time of national security. This campus event is part of First Monday, organized by the Alliance for Justice, and is one of many events on campuses nationwide.

St. Mary's University Faculty Profile

Briseno, who served the city for 24 years, including 11 as city manager from April 1990 to March 2001, teaches a graduate course: "Urban Political Institutions and Processes" and mentor four graduate students in public administration in St. Mary s nationally renowned Department of Political Science of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Organizations

• Campus Compact
  http://www.compact.org/
• Institute for Global Ethics
  http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/
• League of Women Voters
  http://www.lwv.org/
• National Student Partnerships
  http://www.nspnet.org
• National Women's History Project
  http://www.nwhp.org/
• Tolerance.org
  http://www.tolerance.org/index.jsp
  
  

Internship Opportunities

• Project Vote Smart, National Internship Program
  http://www.vote-smart.org/
• Action Without Borders
  http://www.idealist.org/