{"id":16718,"date":"2016-04-14T16:27:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=16718"},"modified":"2016-04-14T16:27:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:27:45","slug":"a-great-day-for-the-jonathan-m-tisch-college-of-civic-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=16718","title":{"rendered":"a great day for the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor McNeil writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As the nation continues to engage in increasingly fractious political discourse, it\u2019s more important than ever to develop a community of leaders who are able to rise above the fray and bring positive change to the public sphere. Fostering such change has been a cornerstone of Tisch College<\/a>, and now, with a $15 million gift from Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch, A76, and a new name that more clearly describes its mission, the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life is poised to extend its reach, both on campus and in the world.<\/p>\n

The Tisches\u2019 gift, announced on April 14, will endow professorships in the emerging field of civic studies<\/a>, which examines why people get involved in causes and what happens when they do; support ongoing research on youth voting and political engagement, among other topics; and expand opportunities for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to participate in service learning and leadership development programs as well as internships.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The new professorships that will be created through the Tisches\u2019 philanthropy are part of an ongoing effort to advance Tisch College as a national leader in civic studies. Faculty in these positions will hold joint appointments in Tisch College and in another school at Tufts.<\/p>\n

The Tisch research program, including the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning<\/a> (CIRCLE), the nation\u2019s leading center on youth voting and political engagement, and the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education<\/a>, which is conducting a first-of-its-kind national study of college voting rates<\/a> at 800 participating institutions, \u201cis on a growth trajectory,\u201d says Peter Levine, the college\u2019s associate dean of research. \u201cWe have 10 social scientists on staff doing research. We have an agenda of trying to change civic life in America.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Daniel Nelson writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[the]\u00a0recent gift\u00a0will be used to grow Tisch College\u2019s programs, including further\u00a0developing its research\u00a0and academic initiatives.\u00a0Tisch College is home to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), which is\u00a0\u201cthe leading source of authoritative research on the civic and political engagement of young Americans,\u201d according to the program\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research is really an area of huge new interest,\u201d Solomont said. \u201cIt\u2019s a real expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that the gift will help Tisch College and CIRCLE\u00a0expand its research of young voters, a voting bloc he believes could be extremely powerful so long as it engages in its civic duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could change the political landscape dramatically,\u201d he said, referring to eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 29. \u201cBut you\u2019re not showing up to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tisch College\u2019s current research initiatives investigate what drives the influential youth voting bloc to the polls, and how to better engage young voters in the overall civic system, Solomont\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here at Tufts is that young people today want to be engaged,\u201d Jonathan Tisch\u00a0explained\u00a0in the press release. \u201cThey want to make a difference. Hopefully they will bring the experience and knowledge from Tisch College with them as they work with others to create an even better world.\u201d<\/p>\n

A portion of the gift will also go towards the\u00a0Tisch College\u2019s establishing of professorial endowments \u201cin the emerging field of civic studies,\u201d according to the press release.\u00a0These endowments will help Tisch College, provide opportunities in civic engagement across all seven of schools at Tufts,\u00a0Solomont said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor McNeil writes: As the nation continues to engage in increasingly fractious political discourse, it\u2019s more important than ever to develop a community of leaders who are able to rise above the fray and bring positive change to the public sphere. Fostering such change has been a cornerstone of Tisch College, and now, with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16718"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16757,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16718\/revisions\/16757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}