Department of Political Science F/AB 2055, Detroit, Michigan Phone: (313) Fax: (313) MEMORANDUM

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Department of Political Science F/AB 2055, Detroit, Michigan 48202 Phone: (313) 577-2630 Fax: (313) 993-3435 MEMORANDUM February 8, 2017 TO: CC: FROM: Monica Brockmeyer and Thomas Fischer, Co-Chairs

1 Department of Political Science F/AB 2055, Detroit, Michigan Phone: (313) Fax: (313) MEMORANDUM February 8, 2017 TO: CC: FROM: Monica Brockmeyer and Thomas Fischer, Co-Chairs General Education Reform Committee Darin Ellis, Associate Provost The Faculty of the Department of Political Science RE: GERC General Education Reform Proposal of May 4, 2016 The Department of Political Science has been asked to commit to writing its collective reactions to the General Education Reform Proposal of May 4, 2016 ( the Proposal ). We see opportunities within the proposed framework for the Department to foster innovative teaching practices and invigorate existing courses, or potentially create new courses. We also have serious concerns. These include worries about the practicality of the overall framework and the lack of attention to preserving an appropriate breadth of coursework in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Speaking in general terms, we believe that students should have meaningful coursework spanning American Government, Classical and English Literature, History, and Philosophy. Although the concern about too many required courses is understandable, the Proposal creates a framework that would allow students to complete their degrees without any exposure to academic disciplines that are essential to a well-rounded education. The Political Science Department finds it particularly worrisome that a University that treats the education of historically underrepresented groups as central to its identity and mission would allow its students to graduate without a comprehensive civics education. These students are entitled to a basic knowledge of their rights, of the connection between their interests and the actions of American national institutions, and of the ways in which individuals acting alone or collectively can influence the choices made by our government. We consider it imperative that Wayne State maintain an explicit civics literacy component to its GenEd program.

2 2 I. Civics Education The Political Science Department is proud of its long-standing role in Wayne State s General Education program, where we have served as the principal starting point for civics education on our campuses. This is a responsibility of the utmost importance because it provides our students with knowledge about: the values that unite and the issues that divide us as a people; the rights and processes that enable both citizens and aliens to protect and advance their own interests; and students own responsibilities to others in the local, national, and international communities in which they reside. Civics education is qualitatively different from other aspects of the curriculum because it bears principally on how students own actions (or inaction) affect others, rather than merely on how students can improve their own life prospects. This understanding is fundamental to our country s success as a representative democracy. As a public institution of higher learning, we have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that our graduates possess basic civic knowledge. The Reform Committee acknowledged that commitment expressly in its statements of both "Learning Outcomes" and "Guiding Principles." Yet, the Proposal fails to include a meaningful civics component. A common misconception overshadowing debates over the place of civics literacy in higher education is the presumption that the subject has already received adequate coverage in secondary schools. The reality is that the level of civics knowledge among the people of the United States is appallingly low. In recent surveys of civics knowledge by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, for example, only about fifteen percent of respondents were able to name John Roberts as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court -- about twice that many were able to recall that Randy Jackson was a judge on American Idol. One might argue that there is a "gotcha" aspect to asking whether Americans know one celebrity or another, but a clear majority of those surveyed by Annenberg could not even name the three branches of government, while a third cannot name a single one of the three. Sadly, the emphasis in public education has shifted away from civics literacy. Historically, public schools required courses on American Government for students in their senior year of high school. That makes a great deal of practical sense because it corresponds to the time in their lives when students gain the right to vote, become eligible for the draft, and otherwise assume their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Today, the public schools commitment to preparing students for civic life has waned. For example, students in Michigan today are only required to take a semester of course work on the American political system -- usually as sophomores, several years before a typical student would start to think about the political process as being something in which they participate. National assessments paint a similarly bleak picture of civics literacy among high school students. In the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress for 12th graders, only 24 percent were rated as proficient in civics. Just 8 percent of students in two particularly relevant categories -- African-Americans and those receiving free school lunches -- were rated as

3 proficient. To put levels of student attainment in perspective, sample multiple choice questions provided by NAEP included identifying the meaning of the right to counsel and recognizing that political parties are responsible for the nomination of presidential candidates. Thus, students' low test scores indicate that many recent high school graduates are unaware of some of their most basic rights as Americans and even the most visible of political processes in the United States. The NAEP findings suggest additional reasons for Wayne State to be at the forefront of preparing students for civic participation in support of the needs of their communities. A generous reading of the Proposal might allow for the possibility that courses under the "Diversity" and "Capstone" requirements would satisfy the goals of civics education. With respect to the former, the courses that currently satisfy the American Society and Institutions requirement are courses about diversity. It is impossible to teach these courses in a way that is relevant to our students without addressing differences in gender, income, race, religion, and sexual orientation. In an important sense, these are survey courses that address the role that matters related to diversity have played in America's development over time, as well as contemporary challenges. But the reverse is not true. It is simply not the case that every course that fits the diversity requirement would provide an adequate substitute for a general civics course on American Government, American History, Citizenship and Democracy (perhaps most fittingly named, Governing a Diverse America ) for the vast majority of our students who have a very limited understanding of American national institutions when they arrive at Wayne State. The proposal s "Capstone" requirement that students engage in some form of experiential learning is also limited from the perspective of civics education. The problem, ultimately, is that there are many forms of experiential learning. Some types of experiential learning may help to cultivate in students a commitment to community service, which is an important component of civic life in America. Other types are more applied and help students to acquire practical skills in their chosen field. In either case, a basic civic education course provides a necessary shared foundation for students before they engage is a capstone experience. A prior civics requirement would help students get the most out of a wide variety of Capstone, or engaged-learning, courses. For all of these reasons, we believe that Civics Education should be re-introduced as a general requirement for all students. We believe that it could fit within the Signature, Breadth, or Diversity category or all of the above but that it should be required of ALL students. We believe that such a course could be offered by multiple departments, not just our own, and we are eager and ready to innovate with our existing PS 1010 Introduction to American Government course to make sure that it achieves the spirit and goals of a revitalized Gen Ed program at Wayne State, in keeping with the University mission. II. Further Opportunities for the Department to Contribute to General Education Apart from the basic civics education course, our existing Department's course offerings fit within the proposed GenEd framework in additional respects. First, our Introduction to Political Science (PS 1000) course would surely satisfy a

4 4 breadth requirement. This course explores the principles of inquiry foundational to social science. Second, several of our existing course offerings would be appropriate for the proposed diversity requirement. Beyond the ways in which our basic civics course systematically addresses diversity issues ( Governing a Diverse America ), courses such as Urban Politics and Policy (PS 2240), Detroit Politics (PS 3250), Introduction to Comparative Politics (PS 2710), and Introduction to World Politics (PS 2810) focus entirely on diversity questions, whether local or global. Third, our Department also already offers a number of courses which provide engaged, experiential learning experiences. We would hope that these courses could be used to fulfill the proposed Capstone requirement. Such courses include Introduction to Public Policy (PS 2410), Michigan Politics (PS 3070), Political Campaigns in America (PS 3025), Special Topics: Mexico/Applied Field Research (PS 5999), and Special Topics: Citizen Detroit (PS 5999), among others. (For example, in the Citizen Detroit class, offered by Dr. Ronald Brown in Winter 2016 and Fall 2016, students engaged in civic dialogue with Detroit voters about the school board elections, the responsiveness of the city council and national elections.) All of these courses can be organized to give students hands-on, applied learning experiences outside the classroom and off the campus. They are open to majors and non-majors alike. III. Practical Problems of Implementation It is our understanding that the Committee has already begun to address some of the concerns we raise below, so we will keep this section brief. The most pressing implementation concerns raised by faculty in our department follow. Scheduling students for three interconnected courses may present insuperable problems not only for administration, but also for students juggling demands of employment and family. Flexibility in scheduling is very much at a premium at Wayne State, as our students tend to tend to lead complicated lives. The peer mentor sections raise many questions. The recruitment, training, and supervision of the peer mentors will require substantial financial and human resources, and it is not clear from where those will come. Would these administrative and supervisory tasks be delegated to departments? What involvement would they require of faculty teaching signature courses? Who would grade participation in these sections? Even if the existing Learning Communities provide good models, would these models be applicable to the broad range of Signature sections needed? The hypothesis that this phenomenon could simply be scaled up to serve every Wayne State undergraduate is unproved. The Capstone requirement involves an explicit pairing of course subject matter with some form of community engagement. It remains to be seen whether this model,

5 apparently based on the experience of the Honors College, can be implemented on the scale that is planned. Even assuming that there are community organizations ready, willing, and able to provide an interactive experience for every Wayne State undergraduate student, the linkage of coursework with such opportunities in the community is, in our collective experience, an incredibly labor-intensive undertaking. (Also, it is hardly clear that the many students of ours who are already engaged personally in the problems of the community will appreciate this opportunity, or appreciate seeing the lives of themselves and their neighbors used as laboratories for mandatory undergraduate study.) We would therefore advocate a broad understanding of what type of course would qualify as such a Capstone. Any requirement for communityengaged learning should include local, national and globally engaged courses. Students should be not only allowed but encouraged to take these types of courses within their major field of study. We would also recommend that faculty who take on such courses be in some way rewarded for the additional effort that teaching such classes inevitably entails. We have questions about how courses in the proposed GenEd curriculum would be staffed. Although we support the principle that full-time faculty should teach GenEd courses the needs and benefits of undergraduate majors must also be taken into consideration. Substantial faculty resources need to be devoted to an area of comparative advantage teaching to mid- and upper-level undergraduates, and providing mentorship to students as they complete their degrees and go on to graduate and professional programs as well as employment in their respective fields. In Political Science, we believe what genuinely makes the undergraduate experience at Wayne State distinctive is the strength of our major programs, where nationally and internationally renowned scholars are accessible to students in mid- and upper-level undergraduate courses. At our competitor institutions, these scholars either are absent or, at the University of Michigan and Michigan State, generally far less engaged in undergraduate education. Our undergraduate major programs are distinctively rigorous and effective (as students and alumni of Political Science and Public Affairs, routinely attest). Conclusion The Proposal represents an extraordinarily ambitious experiment. Our primary recommendation is that the Committee find a way within the proposed framework to ensure the inclusion of a civic education requirement for ALL students as part of a distinctively Wayne State General Education curriculum. We want all Wayne State students to be empowered, active, and informed citizens. Respectfully submitted, Daniel S. Geller, Chair For the Department of Political Science

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