Goal of education is to engage students in democracy.

Schools should be more than learning communities -- they should be living laboratories for democracy and civic responsibility, according to Dr. Judith Ramaley, assistant director of education and human resources at the National Science Foundation.

"Democracy, education and citizenship are totally inseparable concepts. They are merely different facets of the same engagement," said Ramaley, who has been president of the University of Vermont and Portland State University OR.

At ACE's Fourth Women President's Summit in Washington DC in June 2002, she talked about the importance of educating students for a life of civic engagement and its challenges for higher education.

"Our first priority as educators must be to engage our students in the apprenticeship of liberty, which combines citizenship, education and the ability to act knowledgeably in support of the common good," she said. Schools can promote civic engagement through their expectations for graduates, curriculum, and how they involve students in the school's intellectual life and mission.

Why is change so hard?

Embarking on a path of increased civic engagement means schools must assess their commitment to a democratic way of life and how effectively they are acting to achieve those goals. "The path will lead us very quickly to an examination of the very nature of scholarship itself as engaged in by our faculty and students... and by our staff as well," she said.

It requires both examination and an openness to change. But profound change comes hard for many schools. Ramaley asked: Is there something about a college or university that makes change especially difficult?