ANN ARBOR—Befitting its reputation as one of the great public universities in America, the University of Michigan will host a series of events bringing national leaders in higher education together with students, non-profit organizations, government, the arts and culture to Ann Arbor to recognize, explore and promote a national movement toward a civic university. The intended impact of these events is both national and local, influencing and sustaining dialogue and action, as well as demonstrating U-M’s commitment to serve society through its position as a premier public research institution. “Building the Engaged University: Inspiration and Challenge” begins Oct. 30-Nov. 1 with the national summit of the “Kellogg Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good.” This is an invitational event for faculty, university presidents, state legislators, students and community members to discuss issues vital to higher education’s role in serving society. The summit’s intention is to deepen the broad-based commitment to strengthen higher education’s public good role and craft an action agenda to increase the momentum for the national movement. A major public lecture will be held at 3 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Michigan League. Harry Boyte, co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota, will deliver the lecture, “Populism and John Dewey: The Politics of Pragmatism.” The lecture, sponsored by the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning, is intended to provoke discussion of the complex strategic and philosophical issues related to teaching and learning through community service. One of the features of the series of events is the national conference, “Imagining America 2002: The Engaged University, the Engaged Community, and the Daily Practice of Democracy,” Nov. 3-5. Imagining America, founded and based at U-M, is an alliance dedicated to putting cultural work in the public interest at the heart of American higher education and local community life.

The conference, which will host public events Nov. 4 in the Michigan League and Nov. 5 in the Alumni Center, will stress the daily practice of democracy—locally and globally—where higher education, public life, and the arts and humanities converge. The keynote address, “Harlem: A Parable of Culture’s Urban Perils and Promises,” will be delivered at 1:45 p.m. Nov. 4 in the Michigan League by Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and founding director of the Studio Museum of Harlem. She will be discussing Harlem as a zone “under embargo” and the role of universities in overcoming the isolation enforced by embargo. Other conference presenters include: · Richard Howorth, mayor of Oxford, Mississippi, owner of an independent bookstore and collaborator with the University’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture · Julia Reinhard Lupton, founding director of “Humanities Out There” · Pat Sharpe, director of the new Bard Early College High School in New York · Spencer Crew, former director of the National Museum of American History and now of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati · Dudley Cocke of Appalshop’s Roadside Theater · Kathleen Woodward, director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities and chair of Imagining America National Advisory Board · Ismael Ahmed, director of ACCESS, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn. Imagining America, launched at a White House conference in 1999, is a consortium of member colleges and universities. At the invitation of former University President Lee Bollinger issued in December 2001, 30 college and university presidents have become the charter members of the consortium. During the events, on Nov. 1, U-M will also host the Michigan Community Scholars Program (MCSP) Retreat. The retreat of faculty, community partners, staff and students is the final event in a series of capacity building activities to strengthen university-community relations. Participants will explore opportunities for realizing the full potential of integrating service learning and intergroup dialogue within a residential learning community. As part of MCSP, students in a residential living-learning community fill the corridors of U-M’s Couzens Hall with colorful posters describing what they have been studying, learning and doing during their fall semester in MCSP. The public is invited to join the students, faculty and community partners from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 5 in Couzens Hall to talk with them about their courses on issues such as community, democracy, the arts, diversity, sustainability, education, service-learning and social justice. The “Building an Engaged University: Inspiration and Challenge” series concludes Nov. 8 with a special edition Second Friday Breakfast with the Arts and Citizenship program at 9 a.m. Nov. 8 in Lane Hall, Room 2339. From 2-6 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Michigan Union, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) will host a 40th anniversary celebration. As part of the event, Parker Palmer, author of the widely acclaimed book, “The Courage to Teach,” will deliver the keynote address. Palmer is a senior associate of the American Association for Higher Education. For more information, visit www.ia.umich.edu/Education/index.html. For information about some of the presenters, see www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2002/Oct02/r102902a.html

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