Democracy Lab aims to be ‘model’ for overcoming polarisation

Universities have been urged to work on facilitating the “civic mobility” of their students in a politically fractious time by the director of a new US research centre.

The Rutgers Democracy Lab, part of Rutgers University–New Brunswick’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, is one of a number of institutes set up in the past year with an express aim of trying to help higher education heal a divided nation.

Nicholas Longo, who began as the inaugural director of the centre last month, said initiatives such as the Democracy Lab are focused on dialogue, civic studies and civic engagement.

In the face of culture wars on campus, challenges around student demographics and declining budgets, Longo said, some universities might be tempted to “shrink from their civic missions” at this moment.

“Universities might want to…stay away from this work around democracy that’s a little bit too political, and it could turn partisan.

“But I think…this is built into every single university’s mission. Every mission has something about educating the next generation,” he told Times Higher Education.

“At Rutgers University, we’re doing it across all three campuses [and] we’re talking about 70,000 undergraduate students,” Longo continued. “We really wanted to do this work at scale and have Rutgers be a model for what this could look like.”

Longo, a civic engagement scholar-practitioner, said the skills promoted at the institute are essential for all graduates to become “civic professionals”, from scientists and lawyers to those working in social services.

“I actually think there’s bipartisan agreement that democracy is in crisis. But I think that it’s our job…to make sure that this doesn’t become a bipartisan issue.

“We should all be in favour of educating for democracy.”

The centre will aim to build a civic-minded community through research and analysis of citizenship issues, political participation and civil discourse.

Planned initiatives include a “Think and Do Tank”, where students work alongside faculty to solve complex issues, an expansion of the university’s Scarlet Service public service-oriented summer internships, and the creation of a Social Media and Democracy Research Hub.

Longo, who is also a professor of planning and public policy, said many young students have not had “healthy experiences” with democracy, so the institute aims to try to “move the needle” on that.

“They’re going to feel like this is a place where I can have a voice. This is a place where I can learn to listen to other people that I disagree with and find some common ground.

“When they become alumni, they’re going to [be] the civic professionals we hope to see in society.”

Faculty across both STEM and humanities disciplines will be encouraged to integrate civic engagement learning into their coursework.

“Universities think a lot about social mobility, [which] is a huge piece of the work [that] universities can offer, but they could also offer civic mobility,” said Longo, who previously helped lead a democracy lab at Providence College.

“If you come from a civic desert and you haven’t had opportunities or you haven’t been invited to be engaged, our universities can be these sites of civic opportunity.”