MURFREESBORO — As
deep political divisions in the United States Congress mirror divisions in the
country at large, two former members of the U.S. House of Representatives will
share their perspectives on the inner workings of Washington with MTSU
students.
Republican Ronald A. Sarasin, former congressman from
Connecticut, and Democrat Glenn Nye, former congressman from Virginia, will
bring “Congress to Campus” Monday, Feb. 27, and Tuesday, March 28.
The “Congress to Campus” program, a creation of the United
States Association of Former Members of Congress, enlists ex-congressmen and
women to donate their time to help improve civic literacy and participation
through candid conversations with college students.
“The Congress to Campus program’s message of bipartisanship
has never been more important,” said Kent Syler, assistant professor of
political science. “At a time when American politics is so polarized, it’s good
to be able to show students that Democrats and Republicans can work together.”
While at MTSU, Sarasin and Nye will address students in
classes such as “American Public Policy,” “American Government and Politics,”
“Public History,” “Tennessee History,” and “United States History.”
Sarasin is president and chief executive officer of the
United States Capitol Historical Society, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational
resource chartered by the U.S. Congress. He served the Fifth Congressional
District of Connecticut from 1973 to 1979.
“It’s a lot more partisan and divided than when I served
there,” Sarasin said of the current Congress. He said strong conservative
Democrats from the South and moderate-to-liberal Republicans from the Northeast
balanced each other out and often found common ground during his tenure in the
House.
Nye is a director at Datacoup, a personal data marketplace
company, and an adviser at FiscalNote, a technology company that builds
government relations management software. He served the Second Congressional
District of Virginia from 2009 to 2011.
“Part of our goal is to dispel misconceptions and clarify
for the audience how things work in real practice,” said Nye. He said the two
key drivers of the sharp partisanship in American politics are gerrymandering,
which he said enables politicians to pick the voters instead of voters
selecting politicians, and changes in the way the public obtains news.
The “Congress to Campus” activities are sponsored by MTSU’s
Albert Gore Research Center, the Department of Political Science and
International Relations, the American Democracy Project for Civic Learning and
the College of Liberal Arts.
For more information, contact Syler at 615-898-5708 or kent.syler@mtsu.edu or Louis Kyriakoudes,
director of the Albert Gore Research Center, at 615-898-2632 or louis.kyriakoudes@mtsu.edu.
No comments:
Post a Comment