Vision Statement

When we think about who we want to be as a community, how we govern ourselves and make decisions together, and how we explore and resolve our disagreements, we engage in the civic life. The civic life takes place in formal political institutions like voting but also in the work of civil society, including civic, professional, and advocacy organizations, classrooms, houses of worship, sports teams, workplaces, unions, social movements, and others. Here at American University the civic life happens in our institutions of shared governance in departments, schools, the faculty senate, student government, student organizations, staff council, affinity groups, and others. It is also reflected in much of our teaching, research and service. The common threads in these different settings are the basic questions we ask about our shared life together: How can I show up in the spaces of our common life? How do we (as individuals and as a community) think about what we should do together and who we want to be as community? How do we balance our individual rights with our responsibilities to one another in order to create and sustain a healthy pluralistic community? 

A university contributes to the civic life by bringing people into conversation with each other; by producing scholarship, art, and intellectual work of many kinds; by educating students in a variety of disciplines, fields, and perspectives; and by governing itself. With the Civic Life initiative, we especially hope to help members of our community bring the ethos of inquiry to bear on civic life. The ethos of inquiry is an open-ended process of investigating the world and includes the courage to question received opinion and the humility to recognize that we ourselves may be wrong about important things. The ethos of inquiry rests on the right to say what we think and the responsibility to listen respectfully to voices that disagree. Our shared understanding of the ethos of inquiry grounds our commitment to free expression and to productive dialogue.

As we engage with the civic life, it is important to acknowledge that disagreement is part of the human condition and of civic life. However, when we disagree with each other by giving and asking for reasoned arguments and evidence, we show respect for the fundamental human dignity for those engaged in these conversations. Civic life is sometimes messy, even contentious. However, we affirm that engagement with each other by seeking to understand our differences is essential for our flourishing both as individuals and as a community. Through such communication and dialogue, we can build bridges, search for common ground, and address and perhaps even solve vexing problems.

With the Civic Life initiative, American University recommits itself to the study and practice of the civic life. Through a series of events, classes, and activities, the Civic Life initiative aims to help community members discover and discuss what we disagree about, and also to learn how to identify and develop common ground. This work will focus on the development of skills such as critical thinking, communications, leadership, teamwork, information and data literacy, problem-solving, resilience, and ethical reasoning. While we will not, and do not aim to, reach complete agreement, we can understand ourselves and our fellows better through dialogue and study. In doing this work, we aim not simply to study civic life, but to practice it for ourselves here and now.