Political Science Professor Don Jackson, director of the TCU Center for Civic Literacy, said that if people do not become more civic-minded and begin to address the many ongoing problems central to most urban communities, then the places they live and their democratic institutions will suffer greatly. Jackson recently took time to answer a few questions about the first-ever Civic Literacy Conference at TCU in January and his future goals for the center.

What is civic literacy?
There’s a national movement called civic engagement. As a university we want to educate individuals to be informed, responsible and ethical participants. When you add the educative role to civic engagement you get civic literacy.

How do you become civically literate?
One of the things is you have to be willing to make a commitment to your community because you care for it, but it can’t be the type of loving regard that overlooks the problems and says everything is wonderful.

What are some of the problems facing our local community?
In my view, the most profound problem is dropout rates, which in urban inner-city districts are commonly above 50 percent. That’s a problem not just for the students who drop out, but also for the communities in which they live. How are you going to be gainfully employed if you drop out of school?

Beyond that, air pollution is going to be more problematic and poses an economic development problem. If we do not meet EPA standards eventually there are restrictions that can be placed on growth and development. And we are often in non-compliance in Dallas-Fort Worth.

How did the first Civic Literacy Conference begin to address those issues?
This was an opportunity for us and the TCU community to listen to the broader community of Fort Worth, including the city government, other influential community leaders and the Fort Worth ISD, to identify the problems that we face over the next decade or so.

What kinds of projects will the center be undertaking in the future?
Eventually, through the TCU Center for Civic Literacy, we hope to have a significant community-based research program. It will be problem-solving research. I hope it will involve collaboration of TCU faculty members with persons from the city or non-profit organizations. That’s much different from the way academic research is commonly done.