SETH MICHAEL MEYER
Staff Writer
“The self is not something ready-made,” suggests American philosopher John Dewey, “but something in continuous formation through choice of action.”
Dewey was a strong proponent of civic action in education, and his push for such reforms produced things like classes in civics and sparked interest for various programs which continue on today.
A new program on campus, Democracy 101, has been developing since its start in February. Its goal is to inform the public of current events through weekly informal lectures by faculty and guest speakers.
Dawn Eckenrode, one of the founders of the program, claims it has been a “collaborative process,” which began as a reaction to the community’s heightened interest of engaging with the campus and being informed on current events.
Eckenrode believes Fredonia is the place to host such events because of the plethora of informed faculty.
“We have so many wonderful resources . . . a lot of great faculty, very knowledgeable people who have a lot to say on topics and events,” said Eckenrode.
Democracy 101 could not have started at a better time. Eckenrode claims that the program started in hopes to set the record straight in the midst of the circulation of misinformation. “There’s so much contention with the whole ‘fake news’ spin on things,” she said, “so this is a way of getting refutable, well researched information out.”
Tucked away in the corner of the Reed Library every Tuesday afternoon, these lectures draw a crowd of about 30 people. This week, Fredonia hosted Peter Gaile, professor emeritus of political science at Canisius College, where he talked about the upcoming Constitutional Convention vote.
His first remarks were of how misinformed the citizens are about this topic and how informed they should be. Every 20 years New Yorkers face a choice of opening up their state constitution and fixing what they believe needs to be fixed.
Thousands of people across the state seem to be unaware of this occurrence. A Siena College poll found that in July of 2017, 67 percent of New Yorkers still know nothing about the Constitutional Convention.
If that can seemingly slip by undetected, what else is the public unaware of?
Johnathan Chausovsky, professor of constitutional law at SUNY Fredonia, suggests that an efficient democracy is founded in awareness of issues and current events, and he believes Democracy 101 helps to inform the public.
“The idea of Democracy 101 . . . is quite simply to get people talking about our democracy and having civic engagement,” Chausovsky suggests.
For those like Gaile and Chausovsky, who invest themselves in civics, they will all agree that awareness is the cornerstone in a stable democracy. Programs like Democracy 101 fight to keep the public informed so that the government for the people and by the people remains as so.
Chausovsky argues the ultimate cost of becoming uninformed in the American democratic system, “the risk is democracy. A democracy only works if people know what the heck is going on and participate.”
Democracy 101 lectures are held on Tuesdays in the Reed Library. For more information on previous and upcoming lectures go to: http:// fredonia.libguides.com/ democracy101/home