Cline Center: Public Engagement: Introduction Public Engagement
The public engagement mission of land grant universities requires that scholars reach beyond academia’s ivory towers so that their expertise and knowledge can make immediate and concrete contributions to society. The high degree of specialization within academia means that units will make different types of contributions depending upon their skills and expertise. Some will provide traditional extension services; others will focus on technology transfers and medical advances. Still others will staff public commission and boards.
The Cline Center for Democracy is deeply committed to public engagement and its contributions flow from its comparative advantages within the university. The Center’s most visible public contributions flow from two types of activities. The first is a set of symposia series: the Cline Symposium, the Northern Trust Forum on Democracy, Globalization and Societal Welfare, and the Lincoln Symposium. Organizing these annual events is a major activity within the Center because they are central to its mission. While each series has a different focus, each is an effort to enrich American civic life by creating better informed citizens and civic leaders. The Center uses its location and expertise to identify key public issues and assemble relevant information and speakers. It then assembles students and prominent citizens within a structured setting that facilitates meaningful dialogue and a deep, rich understanding of the issues at hand.
The second set of concrete public contributions flows from the Center’s research activities, particularly its signature initiative, the Societal Infrastructures and Development Project (SID). The SID is a major, institutionalized program of research that addresses one of the most pressing global issues the 21st century: How can we design national institutions to enhance the well-being of developing societies? While the SID began its operations just two years ago, its scope and potential has already attracted the attention of global policymakers and prominent non-governmental organizations. SID personnel are emerging as regular participants in high-level conferences concerned with facilitating prosperous societies. As a result the Center has begun to attract visitors who are interested in how their organization can benefit from the SID’s tools, techniques and information base.
Other components of the Cline Center’s research program, particularly those concerned with electoral reform and national constitution-making, also have attracted interest from external groups and made concrete contributions. Finally, the time and expertise of the Center’s staff has been called upon in a variety of ways. Staff members have contributed to the founding of a globally oriented sister institution, the Stevenson Center on Democracy; they have also been active in the planning of a state wide commemoration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Finally, the Center has played a major role in developing a Washington-based internship program for University of Illinois students, the Illinois in Washington program.
Annual Engagement Activities:
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Cline Symposium. The Cline Symposium is an annual public affairs forum that began in 1995. This series has pioneered a unique and engaging format, one that has continually produced a challenging and memorable learning experience for its participants. That format involves a semester-long seminar for invited students and a two-day symposium. The symposium includes a keynote address by an internationally prominent speaker, plenary sessions and six to eight small group discussions led by prominent alumni and friends of the university. The small group discussion leaders are assisted by students who participate in the seminar; these students are normally fellows in the campus’ Civic Leadership Program.
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Northern Trust Forum. The Northern Trust Forum is intimately connected with the Center’s signature research initiative, the Societal Infrastructures and Development Project (SID). Both the Forum and the SID are rooted in three important trends that defined the end of the 20th century and promise to define the 21st century: democratization, the spread of free market economies, and globalization. The Forum is an annual event that attracts world-renowned speakers, engages some of the College’s most distinguished alumni and friends, and capitalizes upon the campus’ world-class facilities, resources and reputation. The NT Forum includes a semester-long undergraduate seminar focusing on DMG, a public forum and roundtable discussion, a keynote address, and a half-day assembly.
Special Events:
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Lincoln Symposium: The Lincoln Symposium is the Cline Center’s latest public engagement initiative. It is an annual, Chicago-based event. The Center’s motivation for initiating it derives from its belief that the vibrancy of American democracy depends on the maintenance of a strong civil society. The crush of competing obligations in modern society makes it difficult for civic leaders to secure the depth of understanding needed to maintain a viable civil sector. The Lincoln Symposium is designed to facilitate this understanding by succinctly providing balanced and informed perspectives on leading public issues in a convenient setting. Attendees will benefit from the insights of a wide range of internationally prominent public intellectuals and policymakers, as well as rich interactions with other civic-minded citizens.
Conferences:
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