{"id":11490,"date":"2024-06-10T17:09:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T17:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/?p=11490"},"modified":"2024-06-10T17:09:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T17:09:36","slug":"paul-pribbenow-joins-college-presidents-for-civic-preparedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/2024\/06\/10\/paul-pribbenow-joins-college-presidents-for-civic-preparedness\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Pribbenow Joins College Presidents for Civic Preparedness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2024\/06\/PaulPribbenow_01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-11491 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2024\/06\/PaulPribbenow_01-285x300.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Pribbenow wears a gray jacket, a gray and maroon bow tie, a white collared shirt, and black-rimmed glasses.\" width=\"236\" height=\"232\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Recognizing this urgent moment for American higher education and our democracy, Augsburg University President Paul C. Pribbenow is joining 70 other college presidents of diverse institutions from across the country to advance higher education\u2019s pivotal role in preparing students to be engaged citizens and to uphold free expression on campus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Through <a href=\"https:\/\/collegepresidents.org\/\"><span class=\"s2\">College Presidents for Civic Preparedness<\/span><\/a>, a unique consortium designed by the presidents and convened by the <a href=\"https:\/\/citizensandscholars.org\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Institute for Citizens &amp; Scholars<\/span><\/a>, participating presidents are dedicated to preparing the next generation of well-informed, productively engaged, and committed citizens; defending free expression, civil discourse, and critical inquiry as essential civic norms; and increasing thoughtful engagement and better understanding by students for the effective functioning of our democracy. The consortium, first announced with 15 members in August 2023, has grown significantly, demonstrating momentum for this movement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Participating presidents will take campus-specific and collective action, reflecting three shared Civic Commitments:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Educating for democracy is central to our mission.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">We will prepare our students for a vibrant, diverse, and contentious society.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">We will protect and defend free inquiry.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Taken together, these fresh commitments embrace both free speech and diversity, two values often pitted against each other, by instead emphasizing meaningful engagement and inquiry with different voices and viewpoints. The commitments stress diversity as a strength of both American democracy and campus life and affirm the truth-seeking role of higher education through curiosity and inquiry. They also enable campus leaders to take substantive action to promote democratic engagement among students, with public accountability for progress through publication of an annual impact report.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAt Augsburg University, we honor our commitments to a vibrant civic life, to the liberal arts, and to the diverse students we serve, by setting a table where all voices are heard, all life experiences are valued, and all of our fellow travelers are engaged in support of a vibrant democracy,\u201d said Pribbenow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">In addition to championing these commitments on our own campuses, the presidents will undertake together and through the Institute a set of collective actions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Meet regularly and confidentially for peer learning and the exchange of information, ideas, practices, and tools, including on such topics as the 2024 elections and student activism;<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Help faculty engage effectively with free expression and civil discourse in the classroom by participating in the Faculty Institute on Dialogue Across Difference; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Create and seize opportunities for shared advocacy and public outreach on civic preparedness in higher education.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cHigher education has a responsibility to provide students with critical civic skills and knowledge to participate effectively in our constitutional democracy,\u201d said Rajiv Vinnakota, President of the Institute for Citizens &amp; Scholars, a nonprofit that cultivates talent, ideas, and networks that develop young people as effective, lifelong citizens. \u201cCollege campuses are among the most diverse spaces in our country, and college is an important time for students to develop the habits, practices, and norms to live in a multicultural and interconnected democracy. Doing so can create a ripple effect, making young people more optimistic and increasingly committed about their future and our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collegepresidents.org\/member\/paul-pribbenow\/\">Learn more about Augsburg\u2019s commitment to civic preparedness.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recognizing this urgent moment for American higher education and our democracy, Augsburg University President Paul C. Pribbenow is joining 70 other college presidents of diverse institutions from across the country to advance higher education\u2019s pivotal role in preparing students to be engaged citizens and to uphold free expression on campus.\u00a0 Through College Presidents for Civic &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":11491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3231],"tags":[4037,801,2332],"class_list":["post-11490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-advisories","tag-civic-preparedness","tag-democracy","tag-president-paul-pribbenow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11490"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11494,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions\/11494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}