[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5906]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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       TUFTS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC SERVICE

 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today I applaud Tufts University for 
furthering the values of leadership, citizenship, and public service, 
by founding a University College of Citizenship and Public Service. By 
creating this new college, Tufts' President, Dr. John DiBiaggio, is 
fostering an attitude of ``giving back'' to supplement the University's 
vision that `active citizen participation' is essential to freedom and 
democracy.
  Tufts has a history of commitment to civic education, having founded 
the Lincoln Filene Center for Citizenship and Public Affairs over 50 
years ago. The largest student organization on the Medford campus is 
the Leonard Carmichael Society, a community service group, which boasts 
about 1,000 members. Recently, Tufts has hatched the ``United Leaders 
for a Better Tomorrow,'' a new student organization that aims to 
encourage young people to pursue careers in public service. With 
chapters starting across the country, this group of young leaders seeks 
to re-enlist those Americans interested in public service in using 
public office as a vehicle for change.
  Tufts University is now renewing its commitment to public service 
with an entrepreneurial spirit. Tufts is not adding a stand-alone 
college, composed of its own buildings and faculty. Instead, the 
university is creating a `virtual college,' one ``without walls;'' 
challenging itself to infuse all classroom instruction with the ideas 
of citizenship and public service.
  According to Tufts' President Dr. John DiBiaggio, the tangible impact 
will mean that a major in child development who is mentoring 
kindergarten kids in a poor community could also participate in 
legislative advocacy to improve conditions in that community or, a 
Tufts student who wants to be a chemist will have an opportunity to 
measure pollution in nearby waterways, determine the sources of this 
pollution and then create a local team to clean them up.
  The need for a college of public service has never been greater. 
While Tufts students, Massachusetts residents, and citizens nationwide 
are volunteering at record rates, voter participation rates continue to 
fall. Just two stops away on the T's red line, the ``Vanishing Voter 
Project'' at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government measures 
the depth of the public's cynicism and apathy towards public service. 
Last week, according to the Vanishing Voter Project's Voter Involvement 
Index, only 19% of the American public paid any attention to the 
Presidential race. In fact, at no time during the Presidential 
Primaries--one of the most hotly contested races in years--did the 
number of Americans paying attention to the race rise above 46%. In the 
world's leading democracy, in an age where limitless information is 
available at our fingertips, we can do better.
  More than ever, it is critical that we restore and maintain civil 
society. We need voters that are educated and engaged. Tapping the 
cutting edge of the New Economy's budding e-commerce, Tufts is 
partnering with eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar. eBay, is now the world's 
leading person-to-person online trading community. Omidyar's ten 
million dollar investment in the College of Public Service includes 
financial aid packages for 24 undergraduates every year, enhanced 
public and private sector internship opportunities, citizenship-based 
career workshops, and a senior honors program in civic activism. Mr. 
President, Tufts University's College of Citizenship and Public Service 
and its partnership with eBay's Pierre Omidyar illustrates the 
possibilities provided by technological innovation. The promise of a 
technology based digital democracy is that billions of people will 
engage in business, receive their news, and even vote, directly and 
instantly. Our challenge for this new age is to continue to foster 
values of public service, community, and citizenship, in order to 
constantly renew and re-engage our citizenry and our democracy.

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