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SGA Recognized in Huffington Post Article

In an article posted Monday at The Huffington Post, Harry Boyte, Director of the Minnesota-based Center for Democracy and Citizenship, and coauthor Jason Lowry point to UMBC's SGA as an example of students demonstrating how to "to work across differences to take hold of our collective destiny."  According to Boyte and Lowry, "[t]he student government (SGA) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County has become a national model for successfully transforming itself to be a center of student organizing and empowerment. Indeed, UMBC's student government is one of the inspirations for the American Commonwealth Partnership."  The American Commonwealth Partnership is a network of higher education leaders and institutions seeking to prepare students for lives of deep and effective engagement in their communities.  Several people from UMBC, including President Freeman Hrabowski, are involved in the American Commonwealth Partnership's leadership.

The authors argue that Barak Obama's 2008 call for Americans to come together to address the nation's challenges--encompassed in the campaign theme of "Yes, we can"--largely failed to translate to civic action after the election was over, because both the government and most other Americans reverted to a view of government-as-provider and citizen-as-client: "It's not only Obama who lost the plot line after the election. The whole society forgot."  Against this backdrop, UMBC's SGA and students at several other schools are showing how people can organize to make a difference in the face of social challenges. 

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Posted: July 24, 2012, 8:35 AM

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