For over 20 years, AASCU’s non-partisan American Democracy Project (ADP) has engaged thousands of campus leaders, faculty, staff, and students in a broad network of regional public universities to instill all students with knowledge and skills, preparing them to be informed and engaged global citizens, empowered to create a more just society and world.

At this critical juncture in the nation’s history, we invite all AASCU member institutions to commit to the American Democracy Project.

ADP campuses are committed to the nonpartisan project of preparing students who are ready to participate and lead effectively as global citizens in a multicultural society. They model open, democratic engagement on important issues from multiple perspectives for the communities and regions that they serve. ADP institutions foster an ethos of civic-mindedness throughout the institution; make civic learning and democratic engagement an expectation for every student; practice civic inquiry across the curriculum; and advance civic action through democratic processes and practices.*

*Based on the key recommendations for higher education in A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy’s Future (AAC&U, 2012).

ADP Testimonials

Students, faculty, staff, and administrators shared their experiences with ADP at the Civic Learning & Democratic Engagement Meeting in June 2023.

Watch playlist.

Thank you

We celebrate the institutions who have already committed to AASCU’s American Democracy Project.

Confirmed committments.

Commit Now

If your institution has not yet committed, we invite you to encourage your president/chancellor or provost to do so via this form.

Make your commitment.

Questions?

We recognize that this work requires thoughtful conversation, so please reach out to Cathy Copeland, director of ADP, with any concerns.

AASCU recognizes that each institution engages in ADP according to its unique mission, history, and context.

ADP campuses have access to:

A broad network of leaders, faculty, staff, and students who share resources and generate collaborative research and scholarship
Regular convenings, including at the annual Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement meeting
Professional and leadership development to help leaders at all levels to create, maintain, and lead civic-minded institutions
ADP’s extensive national partners network
Opportunities to participate in grant-funded national projects, programs, workshops, writing circles, and other initiatives to help them achieve their mission

What does it mean to commit to the American Democracy Project?

President/Chancellor, Provost or designee completes this simple form.
Campus must be an AASCU member
Annually, the campus identifies someone to serve as ADP coordinator, the liaison between AASCU and the campus
Campus participates in regular assessment of ADP impact

We commit to the American Democracy Project.

At this critical juncture in history, we invite all AASCU member institutions to commit to AASCU’s American Democracy Project
to prepare students to be engaged global citizens in a multicultural society and world.

Check to see if your institution has committed.

On behalf of my institution, I commit to the nonpartisan goals of AASCU’s American Democracy Project:

Make civic learning and democratic engagement an expectation for every student
Integrate civic inquiry across the curriculum
Model open, democratic engagement from multiple perspectives
Foster an ethos of civic-mindedness
Advance civic action through democratic processes and practices

My institution will identify an ADP liaison and participate in regular assessment of civic engagement impact. As an American Democracy Project campus, my institution will have access to:

Recognition as part of the American Democracy Project network
Resources, national partners network, conferences, and grant-funded projects
Professional and leadership development to help leaders (at all levels) create, maintain and lead civic minded institutions

Authorization

Name(Required)

First Last

Role on Campus(Required)

President/Chancellor

Provost

Designee

Email(Required)

AASCU Member Institution(Required)

Point of Contact

Please provide a name and e-mail for a point of contact between the national American Democracy Project office and your campus.

Name

First Last

Are you a robot?

From the American Democracy Project Archives

The original ADP logo.

The New York Times salutes The American Association of State Colleges and Universities on the completion of the first year of the American Democracy Project for Civic Engagement See ad.

All smiles with ADP co-founder George Mehaffy at the 2023 Academic Affairs Summer Meeting in Baltimore.

Faculty and staff participating in Stewardship of Public Lands at Yellowstone National Park.

ADP Infographic — The infographic was created early in ADP’s history to help tell the story of the variety of programming and work that ADP encouraged.

Tom Ehrlich, former president of Indiana University, joins students, faculty, and staff from Illinois State University at a Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement meeting in 2009.

Students gather under the Declaration of Independence at Richard Stockton University (NJ).

Membership in ADP allows ready access to partnerships and resources.

We thank our partners for their continued work to strengthen democracy by providing the following resources.

AASCU

ADP Resources

AASCU Campuses

Mind Over Chatter
Created by Indiana University, Kokomo
Political Diagnostic Tool
Created by Weber State University and Keene State University campuses

The New York Times

NYT All Access Program

Collaboratory

Why Track Community Engagement
Enacting the Vision: Institutionalizing Civic and Community Engagement on Campus
Overview of Collaboratory’s partnership with AASCU institutions to institutionalize community engagement on campuses.
From Random Interactions to Intentional Agendas: Curating a Community-Engaged Image and Identity through Data
A white paper describing how community engagement data can influence an institution’s image and identity

CFR Education (from the Council on Foreign Relations)

What Kinds of Governments Exist?
Explore the differences between democracies and autocracies, communism and capitalism, and right and left leaning ideologies.
What Is Government?
In this video, understand what government is and to what extent your voice is heard by those in power.
Laws, Norms, and Democratic Backsliding
Learn about the principles that underpin democracy and the countries in which they are under threat.
U.S. Government and Civics Resources from CFR Education
Widen your lens on a global perspective of U.S. government, history, and civic learning with this curated list of videos, simulations, articles, and timelines.
2021-2022 World101 and ADP AASCU Toolkit
2020-2021 World101 and ADP AASCU Toolkit

National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement

Election Imperatives
Drawing from our research on college student voting and the campus climates of highly politically engaged institutions, this report offers ten recommendations to improve campus conditions for political learning, discourse, engagement, and agency during election seasons and beyond.

Visual Capitalist

Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index Report
An annual report that attempts to measure the state of democracy and is centrally concerned with political institutions and freedoms.

Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC)

BPC Explainer Blog
DEI Legislation, Academic Freedom, and Free Expression: Where to Go from Here?: Assesses the scope of DEI policies, explores toward transparent relationships with legislators and boards of regents, and recommends adjustments to acknowledge academic freedom and free expression concerns.

Bringing Theory To Practice

The Paradigm Project
A multiyear initiative that aims to develop new models of holistic, inclusive, engaged learning and to activate systemic change—not simply piecemeal innovation—across higher education.

National Issues Forums (NIFI)

Resources to Organize Deliberative Dialogues
Deliberative learning is an approach to education that emphasizes dialogue, inquiry, and choice making. Deliberative learners explore complex topics in-depth, consider diverse perspectives on these topics, identify and work through tensions inherent to those views, and attempt to arrive at reasoned judgment. When used to support students’ development as citizens, deliberative learning takes on a public dimension: students grapple with issues of public significance in order to arrive at a shared decision.

Project Pericles

Civic Engagement Resources
Project Pericles’s civic engagement resources are for faculty, across all disciplines, who are interested in: civic engagement course syllabi, community-engaged learning, deliberative dialogue, nonpartisan voter education, and addressing voter suppression.

More Perfect

Ask and All: A Plan to Expand National Service & Volunteering
A plan to create within a decade a rite of passage, common expectation, and common opportunity for more than 1 million young Americans as they come of age and 500,000 older Americans as they seek an “encore career” to perform a year of national service.

Unify America

Unify Challenge College Bowl Overview
This is a two-pager about the Unify Challenge College Bowl. The Unify Challenge College Bowl is a face-to-face video conversation between two students who attend different schools and may vote differently, live in different geographies, or have different life experiences.

The Citizens Campaign

Booklet: The Citizen Service
Overview of our plan to build a new national public service of citizen leaders and local problem-solvers.
Leadership and No-Blame Problem Solving
A free certificate course that you can take any time online to learn how to get things done like practitioners of local government.
Course flyer: Leadership and No-Blame Problem Solving
An overview of our free, self-paced online certificate course that teaches citizens how to get things done like practitioners of local government.
Webinar: Closing the Civic Empowerment Gap
A conversation with two college presidents and other leaders on how to empower diverse students for leadership.

College Futures Foundation

From Persisting to Thriving: How We Can Act Now to Support College Student Wellness
The publication surfaces critical observations from a scan of California’s policy and funding landscape around college student mental health conducted by our partners at Learning For Action, as well as an analysis of the larger societal narratives shaping policy and funding decisions.

Specific to Voting

Fair Elections Center

Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project
A program that operates on a bi-annual bias assisting institutions to develop on-ramps to our Democracy for their students, primarily through nonpartisan political engagement and voting rights advocacy. The program is run jointly with NASPA and also recognizes the tremendous efforts of the participating institutions in the Spring semester after each federal election cycle.

Students Learn Students Vote

Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV)
The SLSV Coalition is the national hub and largest nonpartisan network in the United States dedicated to increasing college student voter participation. This library is a collection of resources submitted by SLSV Coalition partners.

ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge

ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement.
Senior Leaders are ALL IN to Vote
Nonpartisan Messaging Toolkit for Faculty & Administrators
Strengthening American Democracy: A Guide for Developing an Action Plan to Increase Civic Learning, Political Engagement, and Voting Rates Among College Students (V.4)

Global Initiatives

Presidential Missions

Presidential Missions facilitate and promote connections between AASCU member institutions and their international peers to develop and enhance institutional collaboration and problem-solving.

Learn more.

UMES’ President, Heidi M. Anderson, engaging with Argentine higher ed leaders in Argentina, during the 2019 Mission.

Presidential Missions facilitate and promote connections between AASCU member institutions and their international peers.

Since 2003, AASCU has sponsored presidential missions to various countries to encourage member institutions in the development of their international initiatives and global programs. This is one of the pathways AASCU pursues in fulfilling its strategic goal of educating global citizens.

These in-country programs for U.S. presidents lead to partnerships with colleague institutions in the mission host country. The outcomes have included faculty and student exchanges, and other types of program collaboration. These personal and professional experiences assist presidents in reframing their global learning programs, and strategic international initiatives.

Since its inception, this initiative has facilitated Missions to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Hungary, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, and South Africa.

AASCU member presidents and chancellors signing MOUs in Chile, 2008.

Who should participate?

Presidents
Chancellors
Spouses/Partners

How will you benefit?

Engage with international colleagues and potential stakeholders, to discuss international education and exchange perspectives on critical issues, challenges, and successes existing in each country.
Connect with colleagues and other primary stakeholders and entities, to develop partnerships at the institutional level that will create opportunities for faculty and student exchanges, as well as other types of program collaborations with host country institutions.

Testimonials

“AASCU’s Presidential Mission to Argentina provided us with an invaluable opportunity to connect with a broad spectrum of institutions of higher education in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Mendoza. The people we met from public and private universities impressed us with their professionalism and their openness to collaborate with our institutions.”

Eduardo Ochoa

Former President, California State University, Monterey Bay

Argentina, 2019

“We were able to meet key individuals from a large number of higher education institutions within the country. More importantly, it was evident that the government officials are supportive of establishing a global presence—especially with U.S. institutions.”

Heidi M. Anderson

President, University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Argentina, 2019

Interested in joining a future mission? Let us know.

"*" indicates required fields

AASCU 2023 Annual Conference

April 3, 2023

By martine@aascu.org

Engage with colleagues and experts in exploring how to lead for democracy.

Communities & Convening

AASCU Spouse/Partner Program

The Spouse/Partner Program recognizes the important role of presidential spouses/partners and provides leadership development, networking, and skill-building opportunities to those serving in these critical positions.

Learn more.

Rachel Frick Cardelle, Darlene Repollet, and Michael Mills at the 2022 Annual Conference.

Rachel Frick-Cardelle, and Darlene Repollet, and Michael Mills at 2022 Annual Conference.

Leadership through a different lens.

The role and expectations of a presidential spouse or partner may vary by region, institution, and personal preference. But some factors are common, such as your desire to support your spouse or partner. The Spouse/Program is designed to inform and foster an understanding of what you’ll need to thrive in the university environment, the surrounding community, and in your personal life.

Leon Roberts speaks at a 2022 roundatble.