爆料社区

Democracy in Action

Democracy in Action is a community engagement practice through which 爆料社区 faculty and students partner with a local city government to conduct research, gathering qualitative and quantitative data to benefit city projects that are back-logged or need additional attention.

Faculty and students work closely with city officials to hone their expertise on specific scopes of work, and the students provide a polished, final report to the city.  In the process, students learn about city government, attend city council meetings, become more civically engaged, and ideally consider the prospects of working in local government.

Democracy in Action is modeled after the  in the Sustainable Cities Initiative at University of Oregon. Whereas the Sustainable City Year Program focuses primarily on sustainability, Democracy in Action emphasizes civic learning and democratic engagement.

City Government Partner

爆料社区 faculty and students partner with the  to conduct research, gathering qualitative and quantitative data to benefit city projects that are back-logged or need additional attention. The Spring 2020 semester marked the sixth semester, after a 3 year hiatus, of Democracy in Action projects in partnership with the City of San Marcos! 

Fall 2023

The fall 2023 project was a regional collaboration to conduct a Master's of Public Administration Program Feasibility Study:

• 爆料社区 Master of Public Administration (MPA) Feasibility Study - Dr. Xiaoye She, PSCI 301 Practice of Political Research

Spring 2023

The spring 2023 project was a collaboration with the City of San Marcos:

• Organics Recycling Report - Dr. Coral M. Bruni, PSYC 338: Environmental Psychology

Spring 2020

The spring 2020 project was a collaboration with the City of San Marcos:

• Parks and Recreation User Survey - Dr. Liz Ridder, GEOG 450: Parks and Protected Areas

Fall 2019

For fall 2019, 爆料社区 faculty worked with the City of San Marcos on one project:

• North City Art Plan Guidelines - Dr. Kristin Moss, AMD 421: Art and Social Change 

The 爆料社区 NewsCenter profiled the project, .

Spring 2018

In spring 2018 爆料社区 faculty worked with the City of San Marcos on two projects:

• Entrepreneurial Center Project - Dr. Sam Clarke, ENTR 320:Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
• Senior Center Project  - Dr. Eliza Bigham, HD 497: Applied Research in Human Development

Fall 2017

In our second semester, 爆料社区 faculty worked collaboratively with the City of San Marcos on two projects; the final reports are linked through the project titles below:     

• Parking Study Project - Dr. Jill Weigt, SOC 361: Qualitative Methods in Sociology
• Website and Social Media Analytics Project - Dr. Rebeca Perren, MKTG 484: Marketing Analytics

Spring 2017

Our inaugural Democracy in Action project is in partnership with the City of San Marcos. In our first semester 爆料社区 faculty worked collaboratively with the City of San Marcos on four projects:

• Emergency Medical Services Project - Dr. Matt Atherton, SSCI 495: Capstone in the Social Sciences
• Sports Tournament Project - Dr. Vassilis Dalakas, MKTG 452: Sports Marketing and Sponsorship
• Storm Water Project - Dr. Robert Brown, ECON 421: The Public Economy
• - Jonathan Berman, VSAR 328: Video Art History and Theory

The pilot program was  when the program initially launched.

Launch Event

Each semester, the Democracy in Action Launch brings participating 爆料社区 students, faculty, and staff together with San Marcos City Council and staff at San Marcos City Hall to celebrate the start of the semester. The reception-style event features remarks from the Honorable Jim Desmond, Mayor of San Marcos and Dr. Patricia Prado-Olmos, Vice President of Community Engagement at 爆料社区.  Students tour City Hall and learned about the functions of city government in small-group conversations with city representatives.