NEWS AND VIEWS

  • Separate and Unequal cover image

Historic Decisions Issue Guide - "Separate and Unequal in 1963: How Can We Create a Fair Society?"

This free issue guide was developed in 2014 by the David Mathews Center (DMC) for Civic Life (Montevallo, Alabama) and Alabama Public Television for Project C: Lessons from the American Civil Rights Movement. It is a 22-page guide that presents three approaches for deliberation. As described on the DMC website - "The resource encourages students to explore the difficult choices that citizens faced in Birmingham, Alabama on January 1, 1963.

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  • Common Ground for Action

Happy New Year - #cgafridays Return— Register for a Making Ends Meet forum today

Common Ground for Action (CGA), Kettering Foundation (KF) and National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI)'s new platform for online deliberation, has been steadily growing over the past year. In fact, demand for opportunities to try the new platform has been so strong that in November of last year we launched #cgafridays, a recurring series of CGA forums held each Friday for anyone who wants to participate.

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  • William V. Muse

Bill Muse Retires as National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) President

William V. Muse, who has served as President of the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) since 2008, announced his retirement at the NIFI Board of Directors meeting on December 3rd, 2015 in Dayton, Ohio. Including three years as a member of the Institute board, Muse provided ten years of leadership and support for the goals and programs of NIFI. Muse worked in higher education for forty years, including twenty years as president or chancellor of three universities--the University of Akron, Auburn University, and East Carolina University.

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  • Carol Farquhar Nugent

Would You Like to Serve as a National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) Professor?

The Bernard Osher Foundation has provided a $1 million endowment to 119 colleges and universities across the nation to establish Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI). These institutes are housed in the Continuing Education departments of the schools and offer noncredit courses for senior citizens. The National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) has been offering a course entitled Learning from Others: The Power of Public Deliberation through the OLLI program at the University of Dayton.

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  • Glacier National Park

"Negotiating Climate Change: Paris 2015" - Helping People Talk about Climate Change, from the Choices Program, Brown University

Now available from the Choices Program's (Brown University) Teaching with the News series is Negotiating Climate Change: Paris 2015, a free set of resources to help people learn and talk about climate change. The resources include videos, articles, downloadable handouts, an "Identifying Key Issues" worksheet, and supplementary information. The materials are designed for use with students but could be helpful for anyone who is interested in this public problem.

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  • Michael D'Innocenzo and students

Watch a Video - Michael D'Innocenzo Helps High School Students Talk about Public Issues

You can watch a two-minute video that describes Michael D'Innocenzo's work to help high school students in Floral Park, Long Island, New York, discuss national issues during a Renew New York High School Convention in 2013. Michael D'Innocenzo is a former National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) member, and a professor at Hofstra University, and a long-time convener and moderator of National Issues Forums (NIF).

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