WESTFIELD – Congressman Richard E. Neal visited the campus of Westfield State University yesterday as part of his week-long stint in his home district.
Neal, a Springfield Democrat, has served as the longtime representative of Massachusetts’ Second and First Congressional Districts, and stopped by WSU’s Tekoa Room for coffee with a group that included WSU President Dr. Elizabeth Preston and members of the school’s faculty and staff.
The main topics of yesterday’s discussion were the value of civic engagement and community involvement.
Dr. Brian Conz, himself a Springfield native, and a professor of geography and regional planning and director of civic engagement at the university, informed Neal that the school is in year two of a three-year state grant designed to “boost civic engagement initiatives and involvement with nearby and international communities.”
Congressman Richard Neal (left) and Westfield State University President Dr. Elizabeth Preston (right) listen to comments from WSU Biology Dept. Chair Dr. Buzz Hoagland (Photo by Peter Francis)
“We also were recently granted a VISTA (worker,) which will be working with our partnership with Holyoke public schools,” he said, highlighting ‘tragically low’ early literacy data that came out following the city’s third grade results from the 2013 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems (MCAS) test. “We have that person coming to work with our pre-service teachers in collaboration with our in-service teachers in Holyoke to boost early literacy initiative.”
Dr. Hillary Sackett, an assistant professor of economics at the university, explained her recent trip to China on an international faculty travel grant to study sustainability.
“As an economist, we’ve always said you can’t understand the future of sustainability in the United States without understanding the future of sustainability in China,” she said, adding that the trip convinced her to re-envision her International Economics course, along with the school’s civic engagement and Go Global initiatives.
“We’ll be talking about all the topics I’d be talking about in my International Economics course, but through the lens of China because of their unprecedented level of economic transformation,” she said. “At the end of the semester, we’ll be taking two weeks to go there, visiting with corporations, government officials, the whole gamut, to try to get at this civic learning piece – understanding multi-cultural perspectives and also navigating different political structures.”
Susan Lamontagne, the University’s dean of student affairs, tout ed the school’s community service presence in Westfield.
“Our student government organization is 75 members strong, I believe, and they really believe in getting out there and helping in a number of different ways,” said Lamontagne. “Some are longstanding partnerships. In athletics, some of our athletes go into the school systems to host Special Olympics and read to students.”
“Our student government has been working with the Shriners doing various fundraising activities, along with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for more than a decade now,” she said. “This year we have partnered with a small cadre of local non-profits who we really want to get to know. We have them set up so that we are going to make a push with first-year students.”
Lamontagne praised the efforts of Conz and stated that many first-year students are coming in with prior community service experience, and are eager to know how they can get involved.
“We have students that just ran their first Relay for Life on campus without any of us soliciting it,” she said. “It was all run by students. Their goal was $20,000 – they reached $40,000.”
“So there’s just a tremendous amount of students doing good things, and we’re here to be that foundation, to say ‘lets make the links to teach you skills while you’re doing these good things, and reflect on the change you can make,’” Lamontagne said.
Neal, who served as a Springfield City Councilor from 1979 to 1983, and as Mayor from 1983 to 1989, is no stranger to civic engagement.”
“For me, it was the Kennedy presidency that caught my attention, having seen him the day before the election in 1960,” said Neal. “My mother brought myself and my sisters to the steps of City Hall to see him.”
Congressman Richard Neal speaks with Dr. Hillary Sackett of Westfield State’s Economics Dept. about her trip to China last summer (Photo by Peter Francis)
“De Tocqueville was trying to figure out what set America apart from the rest of the world, and he couldn’t come up with a phrase after his epic tour of the country,” said Neal. “So he said ‘it’s a habit of the heart.’ It’s the best work that an American family did every day – they did not for remuneration, but because it was the right way.”
Neal, who was a teacher prior to his foray into politics, said he was “delighted” to see civic engagement stressed to students at the university.
“The whole notion of linking us together as a community – that we all pull the wagon because we may someday have to ride the wagon – there are so many good parts that come from that,” he said. “It’s a big booster in public education.”
“I’m a full subscriber to the idea of ‘tell them what you’re going to tell them’ and the brand here is superb, always has been,” said Neal, the senior-most member of Congress from Massachusetts and the New England region. “The physical facilities are impressive. People come to Westfield and they stay and make their lives here.”
“It’s really rewarding, to have somebody with both local, national and international political involvement who embodies that (civic engagement),” said Conz of Neal, highlighting his role in the peace process in Northern Ireland. “It’s inspiring for our students to be aware of these different levels that you can be involved at.”
“What we have traditionally thought of as being civic engagement has been along the lines of a service learning model, and the direction it’s going in is really broadening the scope of that,” said Sackett. “It’s saying that civic engagement is much more than that service learning. That’s just one piece, – a very important piece – but that civic engagement is also about multi-culturalism and understanding systemic oppression.”
“You can engage with communities in a way other than through service that is equally engaging for the students and gives them the opportunity to gain multiple perspectives on issues that really affect many different communities in many different ways,” she said. “It doesn’t have to go through the traditional lens of just community service. There’s so much more to this model, and that’s really exciting for me to be involved in.”
