Mount Holyoke College

       

    
Public
    Interest


    
    A solid understanding of key issues
    facing society and of different approaches toward solving them
    is a necessary condition for effective public interest advocacy
    and decision-making in the private sector. There is often profound
    disagreement on how best to address the critical issues of public
    concern at any particular time. The Center will be a site for
    discussion and debate of issues of public concern. It will treat
    the public interest as a contested realm and seek to promote
    understanding of the sources of disagreement.

    
    Each
    semester we will concentrate on a specific issue of public concern
    (chosen well in advance from proposals submitted by the community).
    We encourage faculty and student organizations to incorporate
    aspects of the theme into their courses and student activities.
    On occasion, the Center will provide support for new one-time-only
    courses especially relevant to the theme of the semester. In
    collaboration with the faculty and students who proposed the
    topic, the Center will host a symposium where national experts
    from different backgrounds and with different points of view
    discuss the issues of contention, lay out where and why there
    are differences in analysis and policy recommendations, and explore
    the possibilities for common ground.

    
    
    The Center will also bring to campus speakers and resident fellows
    in the chosen area. We will invite scholars and practitioners,
    and will sponsor residencies for alumnae particularly. Some of
    the visits will be for a day or two, others might be multi-week
    or even semester-long residencies. The resident fellows will
    share their insights and firsthand experiences with students
    and faculty in formal and informal settings and engage in discussions
    about the links among theory, policy implementation, and the
    reality of daily life.

    

      
Past
      Themes
      
 
      
Spring
      1999: Choices
      and Challenges for Public Education: Agenda for the 21st Century
    

    
Public Interest
    Issues:

    

      
Poverty
      and Welfare
      
Public
      Education
    

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