How Can Colleges and Universities Protect Our Democracy?
Reflecting on a convening of scholars, students, and community leaders
By Brandon Klugman and Nora Howe
Our colleagues have written eloquently in this space about the duty of America’s K-12 schools to protect, defend, and continuously strengthen our democracy by preparing students to be informed and engaged citizens who can participate in self-governance.
Benjamin Franklin famously called our system of government “a republic, if you can keep it.” It is well established that our compulsory public education system is an institution critical to ensuring we do indeed keep it, but elementary, middle, and high schools cannot secure our democracy on their own. In this time of democratic decline, urgent action is needed from all institutions, including those of higher education.
That higher education has a role to play in maintaining our democracy is not a new idea by any means, but its role is less frequently discussed and less well defined.
What exactly is the role of higher education in defending and promoting democratic values and practice? How are institutions currently doing this, and what can be improved? How can scholars, practitioners, and students alike work together to further promote democratic values and behavior?
Inspired by these questions, we worked with a team of Brown University undergraduate students to plan a convening as part of the Higher Education and Democratic Practice initiative at the University’s Swearer Center this March. Our goal was to bring together a group of people thinking about and working on issues related to the intersection between higher education and democracy from a variety of angles, to discuss these questions and come away with ideas to make the field of higher education more effective in the fight to strengthen our democracy.
The 50 participants included college and university administrators, professors, college and high school students, and community practitioners from across the country. A full report is being generated the day’s discussions, but we are eager to share initial takeaways. These core points should be at the foundation of ongoing work to make institutions of higher education strong.
Great work is already happening
From universities where two-thirds of students turn out to vote, like University of Baltimore, to colleges where student-led democratic structures like student juries or student board membership form the basis of campus life, the promotion of democratic behaviors and values is already core to many institutions’ missions and actions. Non-profit organizations and coalitions have been hard at work for years increasing turnout rates and advocating for systemic change. Best practices already exist, and can be further amplified.
There are many ways to think about how colleges and universities can respond to this charge
Should institutions respond to this charge by focusing on classroom instruction, governance structures, extracurricular life, or take another tack altogether? Without structural changes to institutions, are changes to values and behavior possible? Colleges and universities are complex institutions that can pursue the broad aim of promoting democratic practice through many avenues, and each must be explored.
Student perspectives are critical
The students who attended the convening often represented the most insightful voices in the room. Their presence was vital to our gathering and they must be included as work in this area moves forward on individual campuses and in broader spaces like future convenings. Further, it is key that a diverse range of student perspectives are included — a coalition of community colleges, institutions from a variety of urban and rural settings, and HCBUs is key to success.
There are more than 7,000 postsecondary institutions in the United States. That’s an average of 16 per congressional district, and no congressional district has fewer than four. These institutions can and should join their primary and secondary school counterparts on the front lines to ensure we do the hard work necessary to, as Franklin said, keep our republic. While that will mean something different for each school, we believe there is power in collective and collaborative work to identify current best practices, new opportunities, and bold visions for the future.
The March convening was a good step in that direction, and with continued work organized by the Higher Education and Democratic Practice Initiative we hope to see it through.
The Higher Education and Democratic Practice Initiative is an initiative of the Swearer Center at Brown University. The initiative is led by Scott Warren, Swearer Center Democracy Fellow and Generation Citizen CEO.
Generation Citizen is a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 tax exempt organization which does not endorse candidates; our goal is to engage our staff, participants, and stakeholders in political and civic action on issues that matter to them personally and in their communities. The opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the writer alone and do not reflect the opinions of Generation Citizen.
