Muleskinner

Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: Features

Central's chapter of the American Democracy Project (ADP) hosted "Show Me" Your Issue, a campus conference and film festival Thursday in the Union.

The conference, which featured a series of controversial films coupled with lecture and discussion led by Central professors, is part of ADP's ongoing effort to bring social awareness and spark civic engagement.

ADP is an initiative involving more than 200 campuses nationally, which mixes national programming determined by national project coordinators with activities coordinated by the individual campuses.

Shari Bax, associate professor of political science, said the organization does all it can to bring about increased interest in civic involvement to Central.

"In every event we do, we hope to create public awareness and civic engagement," Bax said.

Thursday's event was a year in the making. The ADP steering committee wanted to offer an event that afforded Central students the opportunity to view different world views on issues such as HIV/AIDS, the Iraq War, working wages in America and disability.

Junior Katie New said the purpose of the event was beneficial for all students.

"They wanted to increase student awareness on campus," New said, "not just during this event, but throughout the course of the year."

The featured event was a film and discussion session with Frederick J. Taylor, filmmaker, who, according to his bio, "views filmmaking as the medium for his message and is dedicated to creating entertaining and thought-provoking media."

His award-winning film, "Dolls with Issues," is a spoof of the modern talk show, where dolls portraying famous figures of the past, such as Sigmund Freud, are used to convey Taylor's attempt to explore culture.

"I enjoyed our speaker; he did a wonderful job of covering many issues," Bax said. "He was very passionate during the speech and was just as passionate at the afternoon reception."
ADP's core principle, "that civic engagement is critical for the preservation and vitality of American democracy," is the driving force behind ADP's attempt to curb youth apathy by offering services and programming to draw student interest.

"We have been fortunate that we have great attendance," Bax said. "The campus offers many choices [for students], and ADP is the opposite of apathy, and it is there to battle that by combining academics with an extra curricular base."

New said the drive yielded positive results in the organization's attempt to increase voter turnout.

"Those people that registered to vote through ADP actually voted in a higher percentage than the rest of the student body," New said. "It's encouraging because I know we have a very apathetic campus, so what they are trying to do can be difficult at times."

The ADP will continue to bring events to campus throughout the semester as a means to achieve its mission.

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