Restoring Trust in Institutions: Faculty-led Student Projects at Baruch College, Spring 2021

November 5, 2020

Restoring Trust in Institutions

Faculty-led Student Projects at Baruch College, Spring 2021

Deans Birdsell, Huss, and Lang

We write today to encourage faculty teaching courses that bear on institutional trust, politics, civic culture, or any related issues, to consider adding assignments for faculty-led student research or student service projects addressing these topics. We are motivated by a strong sense of opportunity and by the many benefits we think can apply broadly across the College. We are also pleased to announce new resources to support these endeavors, which we describe in greater detail below.

Rationale

Regardless of the outcome of this week’s (month’s?) election, the next President of the United States will be dealing with widespread distrust of institutions in every sector and from every point on the political spectrum. While this is not a new phenomenon – the Gallup organization has been documenting a steady decline in institutional trust since the middle of the 1960s – threats to trust are multiplying to the point that civil society itself is at risk. On November 1, 135 scholars of authoritarianism published an open letter of concern that “democracy as we know it is already imperiled.”

The reasons are many, from rising income inequality to sustained and deliberate assaults on government and the press, to geographical and social self-sorting, to media echo chambers, and to centuries of racial discrimination. Many institutions have of course earned their distrust through policy and administrative failures, outright theft, abuse of customers or employees, and a host of other factors. The basic work of even highly functional but of course imperfect institutions is easily attacked by political partisans who can exploit low levels of civic and scientific literacy among the citizenry.

We believe that the aftermath of this election and the challenges of the new administration, whoever leads it, provide ample opportunity for academic projects in every department and every discipline at Baruch. We envisage both faculty-led student research projects to better understand how trust is lost and regained and action projects that students can carry out under faculty guidance to seek to restore trust, performance, or both in the areas that interest them. These activities can be framed as assignments in regular courses or conducted as internships. The key is to start thinking about your spring 2021 syllabus now.

Benefits

We believe that there are several benefits that may derive from these endeavors. First and most obviously, they provide students with opportunities to pursue research and action projects on highly salient issues well foregrounded in press coverage and relevant to their own lives. In business disciplines that might mean exploring questions of connected capitalism, ESG investing, CSR, or the implicit social license to operate on which businesses depend. In the arts and sciences it might mean exploring issues of identity, social belonging, ‘fake news,’ popular understandings of the role of science in decision making, citizen science projects, the environment, etc. In public affairs, it could involve the relationships between government and community, citizen understanding of voting processes, client involvement in nonprofit decision making and a host of other issues. Second, though mobilized at the level of the course section, this would be a truly campus-wide project, increasing the interaction among faculty and students alike. Third, these activities will connect students directly to institutions and sectors that are important for their careers and their lives as citizens. By extension, fourth, it builds Baruch’s visibility among important constituencies for all three schools and the campus overall.

Support

We are able to offer two kinds of support for these endeavors. First, the late Allen Aaronson left the College money to pilot civic engagement projects. We can use those funds to cover the costs of student fieldwork (to the extent that they can be conducted safely at this time), including transportation and materials. Second, we are pleased to say that the New York City Civic Engagement Commission (NYCCEC) will collaborate with Baruch. They are focused on one very targeted project – helping voters understand ranked choice voting (RCV) which goes into effect for this spring’s city primary campaigns and for the general election in the fall – and better understanding how to measure effective civic engagement in New York. NYCCEC will do all the orientation necessary for students’ participation in the RCV project, so Baruch faculty will not need to build any additional sessions or readings on that topic into syllabi.

We are currently looking into ways of offering students who pursue Independent Studies some stipend-based means of support.

Moving Forward

We will soon release guidelines for those who seek Aaronson funding. Expenditures should be modest, no more than $750 per section. In the interim, please contact one of us if you have an idea for a project. Below is language that the NYCCEC suggests for inclusion on the syllabus of any course that offers students the opportunity to become involved with the RCV project.

“Students will be involved in supporting a Citywide effort to register and educate New Yorkers on ranked choice voting in preparation for the June 2021 primary.  This will cover Civic Engagement 101, an introduction to local government and civic engagement opportunities, and a primer on ranked choice voting.  Students will be expected to collect information/data about neighborhood venues that could serve as hubs for education and data gathering, sign up for outreach efforts, including train the trainer trainings, and hold at least one of their own trainings with at least 5-10 people in their circle to educate them about ranked choice voting.  Each student will be expected to collect data at the neighborhood level and training participants about knowledge of ranked choice voting and the impact of the training on community knowledge.”