Civic Engagement and Social Change certificate approved by Arts and Sciences Council

Council Chair Thomas Robisheaux at a previous Arts and Sciences Council meeting. Robisheaux's term as Council Chair is set to conclude, with a faculty-wide election occurring to fill the position later this year.
Council Chair Thomas Robisheaux at a previous Arts and Sciences Council meeting. Robisheaux's term as Council Chair is set to conclude, with a faculty-wide election occurring to fill the position later this year.

A proposal to create a new certificate focusing on civic engagement was approved by the Arts and Sciences Council Thursday at its final meeting of the year.

The Civic Engagement and Social Change certificate—which was presented to the council at its last meeting March 26—aims to teach about topics such as democracy, political participation, volunteerism and social movements. Unlike most programs, the certificate will include a co-curricular component in addition to four traditional courses. The co-curricular requirement of separate 300-hour and 150-hour community partnerships may be met through volunteering and more formal experiences such as the summer immersive service program DukeEngage.

“This is an opportunity to really rethink the liberal arts in the 21st century,” said Lee Baker, dean of academic affairs for the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. “Along with our Innovation and Entrepreneurship certificate, having actual classes integrated into the co-curricular activities our students are doing anyway is just a wonderful way of educating students.”

The certificate's academic requirements will include a gateway class, a capstone seminar and two electives for the total of four classes. Although the electives will likely draw from a number of different departments, the certificate will be housed within the Program in Education.

The passage of the proposal was not without controversy. An amendment was added after faculty members said the proposal as written was not broad enough in its treatment of key social issues. In particular, faculty members criticized the lack of diversity of the theories expected to be covered.

“We don’t want students to finish the certificate without having thought about various axes of diversity as a major mode of thinking about civic engagement,” said Ara Wilson, associate professor of women’s studies and cultural anthropology.

Eric Mlyn, executive director of DukeEngage and assistant vice provost for civic engagement, responded by saying the certificate's course materials would include a wide range of perspectives.

“This has never been intended to be an ad for certain theories of liberal democracy or certain theories of civic engagement,” said Mlyn, who co-wrote the proposal. “We want students to critically examine intellectual discourse—from de Tocqueville to works on black nationalism—that are part of the gateway course.”

Faculty members also raised concerns about the steadily growing number of certificate programs being made available to students, as the newest program will be the 20th such option in the College of Arts and Sciences and 22nd certificate overall. Baker addressed the concerns by noting that certificates are different from majors and minors in that they feed off of faculty and student interest—certificates that do not garner significant interest can be changed or removed.

Despite the criticisms, the proposal passed nearly unanimously.

“We have the opportunity with the experiential certificate in general to really break some boundaries,” Mlyn said. “Lots of peer institutions are looking at our progress with this.”

In other business:

The council approved a list of policy recommendations based on a report about plagiarism sanctions conducted by the Plagiarism Sanctions Review Committee.

Recommendations for faculty included improving awareness of existing procedures that deal with academic dishonesty and developing clearer and more consistent policies for grade sanctions, which allow professors to lower students' grades in cases of academic dishonesty. Having more consistent policies across departments can make it easier for the professor to deal with emotional students, said Stephen Vaisey, associate professor of sociology.

The council recommended a policy of continuing education about plagiarism for undergraduates throughout all four years. The ideal would be to make incidents of academic dishonesty more visible in campus culture, said Council Chair Thomas Robisheaux.

“Cheating and suspensions based upon infractions of academic integrity are invisible in the culture at Duke,” Robisheaux said. “So the students don’t even know when or if students are sanctioned for violations.”

A faculty-wide election for the position of council chair will be held later this year after Robisheaux’s three-year term comes to an end. Additionally, the Executive Committee of the Arts and Sciences Council will elect one new member from the natural sciences.

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