Citizenship part of UIS education
September 03, 2008
By: Armando Vega
Staff Writer
“The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.” Theodore Roosevelt first spoke these words at the turn of the 20th century, almost as a prelude to the trials our nation would face.
Good citizenship is just as important as ever. Today it means we should make a good-faith effort to be informed and engaged in the ongoing discussion on the direction our country, and even the world at large is taking. This requires a basic knowledge of the world as it is and a desire to offer oneself up as an agent towards making it a better one.
Toward that end, the University of Illinois at Springfield has mandated that all undergraduates complete 13 credit hours under the Engaged Citizenship Common Experience, or ECCE, curriculum. The key themes of ECCE are social responsibility and leadership and cultural awareness, and how these forces are shaped politically, economically, and socially.
Karen Moranski, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education who oversees the ECCE program, remarks that the spirit of ECCE lies in its very name. “Engaged Citizenship. It’s designed to teach students how to live in a global environment, and know and work with people of backgrounds different from their own.”
The program is unique to UIS, as similar projects cannot be found at most universities. Whether freshmen or transfer students, all undergrads will in time need to become familiar with our school’s ECCE offerings as completion of ECCE requirements are necessary for graduation.
ECCE is divided into five broad categories of course offerings, each of which has its own requirements in terms of credit hours and number of courses needed for completion. “U.S. Communities” makes study of the various subsets of our American society— women, ethnic groups, and religions, among others.
“Global Awareness” offerings examine the makeup of our increasingly interconnected world at large through the lens of the different time periods, cultures, and political systems in existence. The “Engagement Experience” courses require applying the themes of ECCE in the real world, and students can meet these requirements “through an Applied Studies Term, Credit for Prior Learning, a service-learning course, a research project, a group project course, or study abroad, among others.”
Finally, there are ECCE electives, and the Speakers Series course which mandates that students present themselves at speaking engagements presented by noted speakers who “exemplify engaged citizenship.”
Information on the ECCE program can be found at |
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