On Saturday, January 21, Carleton had the privilege of hosting the Debating for Democracy (D4D) organizing workshop. D4D is full day training event for student activists sponsored by Project Pericles, a non-profit organization that facilitates social responsibility and participatory citizenship at 32 selective liberal arts colleges and universities. The event was attended by around 60 aspiring activists, including 7 students from St. Olaf and more than 30 students from Macalester College.
This year’s workshop focused on issue framing and was facilitated by Anna Marie Trester, an organizer and researcher at the FrameWorks Institute. Students spent the day participating in simulations, learning about linguistic tools, combating misinformation, and hearing examples of recent effective framing campaigns. Participants were also able to learn from conversations with each other; listening to peers from other colleges discuss issues that were important to them and initiatives that were going on at their respective campuses.
The timing of the workshop was also significant. The event took place the day after the presidential inauguration, at a time when many Carls find themselves invigorated and eager to engage actively in our democracy. It was also a weekend during which many Carleton students were already taking action at demonstrations in Washington and the Twin Cities. Dean of the College Beverly Nagel offered powerful introductory remarks at the workshop, noting the timeliness of the event and emphasizing the utility of effective framing, speaking from her experience working on social issues and research in Paraguay. The Executive Director of Project Pericles, Jan Liss, was also in attendance and spoke about how important it was, in any democracy, for young people to get civically engaged.