Regional American Democracy Project conference sparks national interest

The American Democracy Project (ADP) was started in 2003, and the UW-River Falls campus has been involved since the program’s inception.

The goal behind the ADP is to encourage civic engagement. This means that those involved are looking to make a difference in the civic life of the communities in which the programs are located and improve the so-called “quality of life” through both political and non-political means.

Speakers at the conference will address how this engagement can be obtained as well as sustained.

The idea for the organization was started by a group of 13 members, two of which include Chancellor Don Betz and George Mehaffy.

“We started from humble beginnings and just felt that the time was right to build civil engagement into the curriculum,” Betz said.

What was once a program started at a few schools blossomed into the well-respected program it is. The ADP is now in place at over 240 institutions.

“The program came from the belief that students need to be involved in leadership roles in the workplace as well as their community,” Betz said.

The conference is to be the first regional one of its kind held in the northern region of the country, and will include speakers and participants from across the nation.

“It was originally designed for North Central states like Illinois and Michigan. People are coming from all over including New Jersey and Texas,” Assistant to the Chancellor Blake Fry said.

Among the many speakers slated to speak at the conference is Senior Editor of The New York Times, Greg Brock. Chair of the journalism department Colleen Callahan is a participating faculty member in the effort to make the event a success.

“The New York Times is helping to support this conference by sending Greg Brock to speak,” Callahan said.

Brock is also having a presentation solely for students working for the Student Voice to answer questions; he will also be critiquing three issues of the Voice.

“We are really excited that the senior editor from The New York Times is talking to students,” Callahan said.

There will be a combination of speakers including authors, environmentalists and Mehaffy. Some other speakers include renowned environmentalist and policy maker John Cronin and Betz.

“We initiated this,” Fry said when asked about why the conference was to be held at UWRF.

This will give the University attention on a national level and could enable it to be looked at as a proficient leader for the organization.

“This conference is important to the University because it has the potential to establish the campus nationally in both of the topic fields,” Fry said.

The conference is to be held in the University Center, which will be another attraction for visitors from across the country.

“This will be a chance to showcase the University Center to national leaders,” Fry said.

The building is an important place to hold the conference because it was designed by students with over $1 million of improvements in sustainability and uses 40 percent less energy, Betz said.

“The building is part of the message of the conference and is a real life example of the work we are trying to accomplish,” Betz said.

An important aspect of this conference is to stimulate new ideas and make new connections.

Chancellor Betz will be speaking April 13 and will be talking about the origins of the ADP, where he thought the program would be versus where it is and looking at what worked and what didn’t in retrospect.

The conference will be held April 12-14 and admission will be free for students of the University. Students are encouraged to take advantage of learning from these presentations and more information on the conference can be found at http://www.uwrf.eduadp/conference/.