First-Year Experience or One-Year Experience? The Future of Civic Engagement in Higher Education

Glenn Moots () and James M. Patterson
Additional contact information
Glenn Moots: Political Science and Philosophy, Northwood University, Midland, MI 48640, USA
James M. Patterson: Politics Department, Ave Maria University, Ave Maria, FL 34142, USA

Laws, 2024, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Building on recent civic engagement conversations, this article considers several legal proposals and existing frameworks that are meant to expand opportunities for civic growth and interaction in higher education. Though well intentioned, these proposed and existing guidelines, as we demonstrate, in many cases, restrict the ability of students to learn in traditional ways that facilitate their civic interactions on campus. The suggested and recently implemented reforms include expanded Advanced Placement and Dual Credit opportunities, reduced support for general education classes, and 90 h degrees intended to replace 120 credit hour degrees. The issue with all of these ideas (implemented or not), as we show, is that they amputate what is critical to a genuine undergraduate civic engagement experience: time physically spent on campus, building bonds of trust within a cohort in a way that makes possible the tough conversations, without which true civic connection never becomes a reality. The recommendation of our article as a whole, then—at the local, state, and federal levels—is to use all available legal tools, including ones connected to financial aid and accreditation, to not further reduce time that students are required to spend on campus as a prerequisite of graduation. Maintaining residential requirements, as we further show, will also advance goals of equity and equal access.

Keywords: civic engagement; state legislature; accreditation; dual enrollment; diversity; equity and inclusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/13/4/55/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/13/4/55/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:13:y:2024:i:4:p:55-:d:1459918

Access Statistics for this article

Laws is currently edited by Ms. Heather Liang

More articles in Laws from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().