In an effort to bring the college community together around a sustained, year-long theme that resonates with students, faculty and staff, the Campus Climate Advisory Committee has launched "Participating in Democracy" as the project for 2011-2012.
As a campus-wide collaborative effort, we will organize and coordinate a number of events that center on democracy as a praxis. Emphasis rests on three key elements: inclusiveness, interaction, and synergy. For this project, we will examine "Democracy" not just as a form of government, but as something that affects our daily lives, informs the choices we make, and makes us "players" with rights and responsibilities. In addition, 2012 is election year. With over 2,000 students eligible to vote, all the more reason to foster a culture of democratic participation and civic engagement on our campus.
Topics will range from global democratic processes to practices of democratic citizenship on our own campus. Our campus record is not without blemish, as several incidents of racial bias and harassment have shown in recent months. "Participating in Democracy" wants to place these incidents, and the College's response, within a broader context of openness and respect for otherness, cornerstones of a functioning democracy.
For this initiative to be successful, many different voices will be brought in. Events include Common Hour meetings, faculty lectures, a film series, to name a few. The first Common Hour will commemorate the 10th anniversary
of 9/11, followed by several events and religious services. A Town Hall Meeting will be organized in early September to have a campus discussion about Trinity's revised harassment policy. And Trinity's La Voz Latina, in collaboration with SGA, has invited Hartford Mayor Pedro E. Segarra to speak at Trinity on September 15.