Learning to challenge the status quo
Students get a taste of alternative approaches to democratic participation at workshop in Kagin
By: Maya Pisel, Associate News Editor
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: News
Eighty students from Macalester and Carleton College spent last Saturday in Kagin, learning strategies for democratic organizing that go beyond voting.
Debating 4 Democracy is an initiative of Project Pericles, a non-profit that "encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential part of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community," its website advertises.
After an introduction to the fundamentals of "direct action" or community organizing, participants spent the first half of the workshop role-playing relationships of power. Students were split into twelve small groups: six corporate teams and six community organizations.
In the scenario, chemical dumping had been discovered in an industrial town. A "Right to Know" law being considered by the city council would force the allegedly offending corporation to reveal the ingredients of their product. After planning strategies that took into account their objectives and relative power, groups took turns role-playing a 10-minute meeting between the corporation and community.
Project Pericles contracted Midwest Academy, a Chicago-based institute that trains community organizers and grassroots activists, to facilitate the workshop. One of the facilitators, a Chicago community organizer, is a current Mac parent; the other works for Organizing for America, the vestigial non-profit of the Obama for America campaign.
In the second half of the day, the participants used the Midwest Academy's strategy chart to plan a legislative campaign. Their objective was to convince a legislator to vote yes on a bill that would make college more affordable.
Civic Engagement Center Director Karin Trail-Johnson said that one participant wrote on his or her evaluation: "The strategy chart was most helpful at so many levels, and it was a really good presentation of the connections between electoral and community organizations."
Debating 4 Democracy is an initiative of Project Pericles, a non-profit that "encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential part of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community," its website advertises.
After an introduction to the fundamentals of "direct action" or community organizing, participants spent the first half of the workshop role-playing relationships of power. Students were split into twelve small groups: six corporate teams and six community organizations.
In the scenario, chemical dumping had been discovered in an industrial town. A "Right to Know" law being considered by the city council would force the allegedly offending corporation to reveal the ingredients of their product. After planning strategies that took into account their objectives and relative power, groups took turns role-playing a 10-minute meeting between the corporation and community.
Project Pericles contracted Midwest Academy, a Chicago-based institute that trains community organizers and grassroots activists, to facilitate the workshop. One of the facilitators, a Chicago community organizer, is a current Mac parent; the other works for Organizing for America, the vestigial non-profit of the Obama for America campaign.
In the second half of the day, the participants used the Midwest Academy's strategy chart to plan a legislative campaign. Their objective was to convince a legislator to vote yes on a bill that would make college more affordable.
Civic Engagement Center Director Karin Trail-Johnson said that one participant wrote on his or her evaluation: "The strategy chart was most helpful at so many levels, and it was a really good presentation of the connections between electoral and community organizations."
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