John McHale, Assistant Professor of Communication, was recognized with a plaque for his commitment to The Innocence Project and the Student Television Workshop. The groups produced a short video, “Judicial Injustice,” which was named the best university-produced public service announcement in the national MSNBC poll. In February 2005, it was named the winner of the American Democracy Project’s Film Your Issue national competition.

Mary Campbell, Associate Professor of Social Work, and her husband Hank Campbell, Professor Emeritus of Technology, were recognized for their role in the Hurricane Relief Trip during which they led a group of students, faculty, and community members on a work trip to Ocean Springs, Mississippi last Thanksgiving. Many members of the group returned over Spring Break.

Scott Walus, a graduate teaching assistant in the School of Communication, was recognized for inserting civic engagement into his COM 110 classes. Students in Walus’s classes pick a policy speech topic about problems or inequities in the world that need to be addressed, then brainstorm for solutions. Part of the project also involves writing letters to public officials.

Taye Woldesmiate (’82 Agriculture; MA ’84 Politics and Government), a Visiting International Scholar in the Department of Politics and Government, was recognized for his career of work for the cause of justice and equity. Woldesmiate has been also chosen as a recipient of the E. Burton Mercier Alumni Service Award (see related story in this issue).

Provost Presley also announced the creation of the Illinois State University Excellence in Civic Engagement Award. The award will recognize exemplary curricular and co-curricular activities that promote intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement in undergraduate students. Nominations will be sought beginning fall 2006.

For a more complete list of April Civic Engagement events and for more information about the ADP visit http://www.ilstu.edu/americandemocracy/