Of the people
'This is the place we live in now’
Community building and civic responsibility are hallmarks of a UD education. But what happens to students in a nation that appears to be so disconnected and divided? Flyers and their faculty discuss how we learn, act and live — uncovering lessons on how to move forward, together.
It was another long week for Charlie Homan ’19. Dressed in a suit and tie, he found himself in the U.S. Capitol until 2 a.m., gathering legislative updates and tallying the support for each House bill and amendment.
His office, as the cloakroom floor assistant to the Office of the Speaker of the House, is just four steps off the House floor. Two long, narrow rooms, which no longer collect coats and umbrellas, provide a physical space for each party where members privately meet and discuss issues. They are also information hubs and centers of legislative action.
“I have one boss, the speaker, but I’m responsible for helping members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, so this is a really unique position.”
From his vantage point, Homan sees all sides of politics. Sometimes, it’s the version most often hyped in the media: entrenched and divisive. But more often, it’s the less sexy work of coming together to approve appropriations or strengthen national security.
At UD, students are getting an education — in the classroom and through experiential opportunities like Homan had during the annual political science immersion in Washington, D.C. — in what it means to contribute as citizens in their communities, however local or global they draw their lines of responsibility.
Alumni, students and their professors say they recognize that the world we live in today has specific challenges that require from them a set of citizenry skills with the common good at their core. The stakes are high. But in this especially fraught election cycle, they are even more committed to making sure it’s a place where everyone can live.
For Homan, the lessons learned are illuminating his career goals.
“As a non-elected official, [I’ll be] helping to ensure that the policy that is being passed isn’t one-sided, it’s not Republican versus Democrat,” he said. “At the end of the day, the people you are serving aren’t just the people who voted for you, those in your district; it’s everyone.”
“The outcome of the election will affect how bureaucracy works. In Washington, we’re talking about the agencies that make sure the government functions: the departments of defense, interior, treasury. Once Congress passes a law and the president signs it, it goes through this bureaucratic rulemaking process that tells how that law is to be implemented. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the bureaucracy was plagued by corruption: the ‘spoils system.’ Civil service reforms have helped us move away from that, to where civil servants serve and gain the expertise needed for the government to operate. If the movement to reclassify civil servant positions as political positions wins, then it will be easier to replace them.”
“Whoever wins the upcoming presidential election is unlikely to reverse course on the increasingly restrictive policy approach to immigration. Despite the fact that the majority of U.S. citizens are in favor of offering pathways to legal status for law-abiding prospective immigrants, and demographers and economists converge in claiming that immigration is a crucial support for the United States at the current moment due to our aging population, pro-immigrant policy actions have a high political cost at the moment and expose presidents to accusations of failing to ‘protect’ the country from the alleged threat.”
“As voters better understand how elected officials, through the selection of particular judges, shape the judiciary, they will be more inclined to base their Nov. 5 vote for president on how it impacts October — the traditional start date of the Supreme Court term when the nine appointed justices convene to hear cases. Today’s presidential campaigns even go so far as to include material for and against recent Supreme Court decisions in an attempt to sway voters.”
This is how we teach
It’s another day in the classroom, with 20-something students at desks facing the questions of their political science professor.
It doesn’t matter if the lesson is on a routine topic or a contentious debate; there are always a few students who react with a glazed expression. They avoid eye contact. They don’t raise their hands. They will not answer when called upon.
It’s not that they don’t have an opinion or are disinterested in the topic. The source is much deeper.
“They will often say, ‘I don’t know enough to vote,’” said Nancy Martorano Miller, chair of the political science department.
These students will choose to not engage — or vote — because putting your opinions out into the world can be scary. They’ve seen on social media the instantaneous venom that comes with saying something the wrong way. This is the world they live in.
It’s a professor’s job to help them through this process and come out on the other side.
Mark Gordon, a senior physics major, shared his experience in Introduction to American Politics. His professor, Christopher Devine, created an environment of shared information and discovery.
“He will be fair [and] show you both sides,” Gordon said. “He will say, ‘Some people think this, other people think that,’ and go through why certain people think that.
[P]resenting both sides makes me feel comfortable to have an opinion.”
Devine, associate professor of political science, said his goal is to model curiosity and openness in the classroom. He wants his students to know it’s OK to be uncomfortable with complexity but learn to tolerate and operate within it.
“I try to make connections to our Marianist mission and see our conversations through a perspective of faith. It’s about introspection and humility.”
That humility means even the professor admitting to not knowing all the answers, Miller said.
“You give them the space to talk about it,” she said. “You, at the front of the room, admit when you don’t know what the answer is. … Students will ask me things all the time and I’ll be like, ‘I don’t know, but it’s a good thing we live in 2024. Let’s Google it.’”
It’s OK to not be sure, but second-guessing all that could go wrong can be wearying for the student as it is for the educator. Some days it seems like everything from classroom conversations to program descriptions needs to be scrutinized.
“This is the place we live in now,” Miller said.
Nancy McHugh, executive director of the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community, is a philosopher by training. “I know that 99% of the conversations I’m going to have in class are going to be hard conversations,” she said.
So, when she teaches, she starts by building culture. Students get comfortable with one another and with her. They write critical reaction papers and self-reflections. She lets them know that their immediate reaction to a topic is not as important as their ability to simmer on something that is uncomfortable and to grow into an understanding.
“I ask students to examine themselves before they start examining each other,” said McHugh, who brings that same approach to the community-engaged work she coordinates through the Fitz Center. They’ll find it’s then easier to have meaningful dialogue.
Mr. President on campus
This is where we learn
There are places where we’d expect such skills to be taught, such as a political science classroom. The reality is that they can be found throughout the University.
Fitz Center Faculty Fellows who lead transformative community engagement projects — many with student involvement — come from disciplines such as religious studies, global languages, geosciences and sport science.
UD’s interdisciplinary centers incorporate opportunities to wade in the gray areas and work toward shared action, and the Center for Social Concern in Campus Ministry unites faith and action for justice through reflection, engagement, immersion, education and advocacy.
Student programs in the Fitz Center, such as the Dayton Civic Scholars, provide preparation, coursework, service and action over three years of committed and intentional growth.
“What we really try to do is deeply embedded community engagement that transforms students — it transforms the community, and it transforms the faculty and staff members who are supporting the students and the community partners in that work,” McHugh said. “That’s when we can start talking about what we’re doing: We’re acting as civically engaged individuals.”
Most will not go into elected positions after graduation, she said, but intentional programs like these allow students to realize their professional lives can have broader impacts on the community, and that actively engaged citizens can recognize and participate in systems of change.
Jill Bucaro ’11 combined her experience as a Dayton Civic Scholar with a passion for social work when she implemented a holistic program for the Montgomery County (Ohio) Law Office of the Public Defender. Her team of 16 employees provides resources and services for those who may otherwise be jailed for homelessness or addiction.
“Dayton Civic Scholars, and UD in general, did a really nice job at teaching us that change can happen on an individual level. But when we think about how we are going to solve these really awful issues plaguing our community, that is going to require change and collaboration on a more systemic level,” she said. “We talked a lot about neighborhoods, community organizing and natural leaders in the community.”
“That servant-leadership heart — leveraging everybody’s experience, knowledge and power to create change — that’s something that has helped me be very successful in my career.”
The political science department hosts the annual Dayton2DC immersion, during which students learn from a network of alumni. Homan, who participated in Dayton2DC his junior year, gave last spring’s students a tour of the House floor as the room was being prepared for the State of the Union address and then surprised students with a meeting with speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi.
During the summer Statehouse Civic Scholars program, students intern in governmental and governmental-adjacent offices, doing real work on issues important to the people of Ohio — and, often, also important to them.
Senior political science major Manduria Belotte interned this summer with Ohio’s nascent Department of Children and Youth. Her projects included developing a white paper on college educational benefits for foster youth. When she shared with her supervisor her passion for protecting infants, they greenlighted her proposal to expand educational materials on shaken baby syndrome for all caretakers. Belotte proposed developing YouTube videos to lower the literacy barrier and take advantage of the platform’s ability to translate content into many languages.
Seeing something that can be fixed to benefit the common good — that’s how Belotte views her future working in government.
“You have a gift. You have a talent. Bring it to society.”
“I feel that is civic responsibility as much as voting is. ... If you know better, you should do better.”
“Voter turnout is at a high, showing that more people are getting politically active. Active political participation fosters a more inclusive democracy.”
“Networking really laid the groundwork for relationships I maintain to this day, and I try to take that forward.”
“The government is doing a good job at efforts to combat climate change, including lowering the cost of energy for consumers while creating well-paying jobs in new clean energy manufacturing facilities.”
“Fresh, younger voices offer some hope and inspiration to our nation’s young people, in particular.”
“The landscape of social media has provided many forums for young voters to have their voices heard, and policymakers are listening.”
Where we go from here
We see divided politics on the news and in national presidential polls. But what does it look like on campus?
Twice in his Public Opinion and Political Behavior class, Devine has had students survey campus to gauge students’ political leanings. Their results: Campus is split as well, but in a good way.
“It was almost — to the decimal point — evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans on campus, with about a quarter of students being independents,” he said. “This is actually a pretty good environment in which to explore ideas, because we have plenty of representatives from both sides, both parties, and we also have people in
between.”
Colleges have a keen opportunity to engage their students is deep conversations and learning around what it means to be civically responsible.
This summer, a new group has coalesced around this opportunity. The University of Dayton, along with Dayton-area universities Wright State, Sinclair, Central State and Wilberforce, have joined with the Kettering Foundation cultivating habits of citizenship and engagement for the benefit of individuals and civil society.
The collaboration highlights the power of regional partnerships in creating scalable solutions that can have a far-reaching impact, said Tayo Clyburn, the foundation’s chief strategy officer and senior adviser to the president.
“This collaboration is a priority for the Kettering Foundation because colleges and universities play a crucial role in the preservation of our democracy by facilitating curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students to hone the skills they need to become active and informed citizens,” he said.
Miller is co-chairing the subgroup Common Learning Outcomes and Associated Efforts, which will look at long-term curricular and co-curricular learning and engagement. McHugh is co-chair of the subgroup named This is An Important Year.
“What can we do, cross-institutionally, that helps students sort through and think through the really complex political issues that are coming in this year?” she asked.
“There’s a sense in which we’re in a particular world, in a particular moment. What are the strategies and practices and ways of living that are going to help us all flourish? How can we thrive together?”
When looking at UD’s contribution to the conversation, mission will be a strong component. That the “common good” is still a common phrase across campus means students across all disciplines are already discerning their places in the world.
In the end, the partnership would like to develop a model that produces students with the skills to become compassionate, engaged, educated, collaborative and humble participants in society.
“Being humble doesn’t mean being quiet.”
“It means recognizing one’s strengths and one’s gaps, and understanding one’s place in a very positive, active way within the world,” McHugh said.
Part of the process will be identifying the topics students are most interested in this election cycle. It might be surprising to hear that the economy — for all its coverage in the news — is not always on top. Those from Gen Z might instead list judicial policy, the war in Gaza, housing rights or reproductive legislation.
For political science graduate Jordan Ford ’23, civil rights is in her top three. A past Dayton2DC participant who now works for a law firm in Washington, D.C., she sees an opportunity to participate in civil society by working on issues to benefit others.
“I think ‘this is the place that we live in now’ is something we have to just sit with and resonate with, and having to unfortunately sometimes adapt to until further change can come,” she said. “I don’t see it as a negative or positive. I think that’s just the reality of the state of our nation currently.
“But it doesn’t have to look like this forever. We can be those people to drive and be the enforcers of change — and a positive change at that, and a meaningful change to liberate people. I think that’s one thing I really want to strive for, liberation.”
And that is the world she will work to live in one day. —Michelle Tedford