ABSTRACT
The Active Citizen Series was created at Elon University to provide students and the broader campus community with continuous opportunities for political engagement and civic discourse. Universities have an important role to play in cultivating future generations of active citizens to sustain a democracy. Elon’s Active Citizen Series is a university-level initiative open to students from across the disciplines. Beginning in 2008, a series of events ignited a renewed interest in democratic engagement on college and university campuses across the nation. The Active Citizen Series emerged to deepen political engagement at the institution, especially during nonelection years, with the intention of fostering civil discourse across political differences. As the Active Citizen Series has grown and developed, programming generally falls into one of three categories: national political events, engagement with state and local government, and events to develop skills for civic engagement.
