What is a Community Howl?

It’s a chance for interested faculty, students, staff, and community members to have a deliberative discussion (small group structured conversation facilitated by an undergraduate student) about issues that impact our community.  It is not a debate—we aren’t looking for winning sides or partisan talking points. We are looking to create experiences of dialogue and bringing perspectives together in one place. The Howls are for YOU to voice your own opinions, experiences, and interests related to the topic whole also being open to listen to other perspectives from your peers—no advanced research or expertise required!  The goal is to understand an issue in a new way and explore different options to address issues that impact us all. The discussions explore pros and cons related to different solutions or priorities of a given issue, and encourages critical thinking to evaluate the possibilities for addressing complex community issues.

What are the Topics? 

All the topics and discussion options are developed by the National Issues Forums whose mission is to increase citizen engagement in public policy issues through structured discussions. This semester’s topics are:

• Keep America Safe (Wednesday, Oct 23 at 6pm in The Joe Glick Ballroom C)

  • With various global threats to our citizens (terrorist attacks, election interference, climate change, and economic issues), what should the US government’s priorities be in keeping citizens safe? What should the US’s role be on the world stage?  The options explored in this issue will be: 1) Keeping America first and spending more money on infrastructure and national needs than military; 2)Asserting US power in military intervention and trade to address these threats; 3) Work with others to solve issues globally including addressing complex issues like climate change.

• Opioid Epidemic  (Monday, Nov 4 at 6pm in the Joe Glick Ballroom C)

  • Drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of death in the US.  This discussion explores different options of how we address this epidemic: 1) focusing on treatment for all that have drug dependency, 2) focus on enforcement and preventing people from becoming addicted in the first place, and 3) focus on individual choice all allowing all to chart their own paths.

When is it again? 

October 23^rd and November 4th at 6:00 pm (until about 7:30 pm) in the Joe Glick Ballroom C.  If you can’t make this Howl, there will be more in the Spring semester on immigration and national debt.  And all University community members are welcome to join in the discussion!

Who’s Organizing This Event? 

ASUN Center for Student Engagement is sponsoring this event to bring more options for community engagement to students.  Student facilitators are currently enrolled in Dr. Amy Pason’s COM 468: Facilitating Difficult Discussions course.