USM Symposium on Civic Education and Civic Engagement to Feature U.S. Sen. Cardin, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller on Nov. 3 at Towson University

Baltimore, Md. (Oct. 31, 2023) – The University System of Maryland (USM) is proud to welcome U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller as featured speakers for the USM Symposium on Civic Education and Civic Engagement, on Friday, Nov. 3 at Towson University.

The symposium will run from 8:30 a.m. until 3:45 p.m. and will be held at the University Union, with free, nearby parking in the University Union Parking Garage.

This day-long event will feature leaders in civic engagement and higher education, facilitated interactive workshops, and a panel interview of student leaders from across the USM.

Towson University (TU) President Mark Ginsberg and USM Chancellor Jay A. Perman will offer welcoming remarks.

Lt. Gov. Miller will introduce the keynote session at 9:15 a.m. The session will feature Sen. Cardin, as he reflects on his career in public service, in conversation with TU Vice President of Student Affairs Vernon Huerte.

Sen. Cardin has served in Congress since 1987, first as the representative for Maryland’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2006. He is finishing his third, six-year term as senator and announced last May that he would not seek re-election at the end of his current term. Sen. Cardin is a 1967 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law.

His full biography can be found here.

Civic engagement leaders throughout the USM will conduct a series of concurrent sessions—during the late morning and afternoon—on issues such as Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, Election & Voter Engagement, Integrating Civic Learning Across the Curriculum, and Service Learning as a High-Impact Practice.

At 1:30 p.m., Michelle Gourdine, Secretary of the USM Board of Regents and Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for CVS Caremark, will moderate a student panel discussion regarding civic engagement. The participating students are Jakeya Johnson (Bowie State); Rachel Michalski (Frostburg State); Jayden Johnstone (TU); Musa Jafri (University of Maryland, Baltimore County); and Vainavi Gambhir (University of Maryland, College Park).

The symposium concludes at 3:30 p.m. with a 15-minute closing plenary led by Michele W. Johnson, director of the Maryland 250 Commission, and USM Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs Alison Wrynn.

Civic engagement is a strong tradition throughout the USM, as demonstrated by the voter registration and events on campuses that preceded the 2022 election. Currently, 55 of 141 members of the Maryland House of Delegates and 16 of 47 members of the Maryland state Senate graduated from or attended a USM institution.

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The USM comprises 12 institutions: Bowie State University; Coppin State University; Frostburg State University; Salisbury University; Towson University; the University of Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science; the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and the University of Maryland Global Campus. The USM also includes three regional centers—the Universities at Shady Grove, the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, and the University System of Maryland at Southern Maryland—at which USM universities offer upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses.

USM institutions and programs are among the nation’s best in quality and value according to several national rankings. To learn more about the University System of Maryland, visit www.usmd.edu. To learn about the new USM Strategic Plan, “Vision 2030: From Excellence to Preeminence,” visit https://www.usmd.edu/vision2030/.





 

Contact: Mike Lurie
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: mlurie@usmd.edu