Episode 52: How To Protect Yourself Against Misinformation with Richard Guarasci, Principal at Presidential Partners LLC

In the last couple of years, there has been an inflection where the government, truth, and civic engagement are all almost butting heads, if you will. Now we have this glaring vacuum of misinformation. For example, some people believe there are liquid tracking devices in our vaccines. Misinformation is not only preventing intelligent people from getting vaccinated, it also puts the carriers of misinformation in a tough spot. They put themselves at risk for illness as well as additional waves of future misinformation. How can higher education do a better job at closing the gap?

Well, Richard Guarasci, former president of Wagner College, realized that we are living in a moment of incredible vulnerability — and this, not only in American democracy, but in democracies around the world. We're seeing the flight from reason and evidence towards more emotional thinking. One of the virtues of college, university, and higher education is that they’re all predicated on open discourse. The free creation and transmission of knowledge thrives under democratic formats because that's what gives the openness for discovery and engagement. People like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson knew that an enlightened public in a democratic society was critical to stability and prosperity in terms of civic engagement, civic learning, and economic mobility. They understood that an enlightened public would require a strong educational system. 

Learning the Arts of Democracy

Higher education, which has prided itself (politically) on being nonpartisan in terms of the two dominant parties, can no longer be nonpartisan. It now has to be partisan for democracy, defending and building democratic leadership. That means being engaged with the K through 12 educational systems as partners in not just teaching civics and how government works, but building what Richard calls the 'arts of democracy' among school students. And this, starting with the little ones all the way through to college students. The art of democracy would include how to think critically, how to think on your own, and how to establish a sense of your own voice to understand the difference between opinion and argument, using evidence and reason. That's how you build coalitions of democratic society, develop empathy and listen for other points of view that are different from your own. Colleges have a role in reworking with their local school systems and communities to build that kind of civic competency.

Higher education itself is in the middle of a horrible crisis. We've had flat net tuition revenue for about 20 years, even though the price of college is still going up. Affordability is more difficult for students and their families, and student debt is going up. Colleges aren't losing money, they're static in terms of their fiscal situation. So turning higher education back to its civic mission of working with communities where there's low college attendance (e.g. minority groups) and increasing college preparation are a must. This would not only fulfill the civic mission of higher education, it would also reduce inequality and help sustain our democracy by giving people the competency, experience, and understanding of how democracies work and what they need from their citizens.

And that's a very hard process that requires a lot of patience and timing. The media doesn't help because it essentially throws a glaring light on any type of exceptional cases. The civic duty of higher education is that, as more and more individuals are enlightened and exposed to different cultures, traditions, and practices, people will naturally become smarter and more liberal in their understanding. This will help build a better civic society as a whole. We really are living through a moment of educational apartheid in our cities. For example, if you are an African American boy in the United States, and you're not at the fourth grade reading level by the completion of your fourth year in school, then you have an 80% greater chance of going to prison in your lifetime. That's just one example of the unequal distribution of opportunity and authority.

Linking Work and Democracy

The goal for an institution like Wagner College is for their higher education to link work and democracy together in some way. This is a connection that's not always understood in the United States. It means not only helping people develop careers in the service industries, but adding a civic component to their development. For example, if a student is in business, they're deploying capital, but maybe they want to think about the impact of capital on their neighborhoods, not just making profit. Also, how do they marry that to their community needs in a powerful way? 

Some people assume that there must be an added cost when the discussion of colleges spending more time on civic engagement comes about, but that isn't the case. If colleges don't create larger pools of students to attend college, then there are going to be a lot fewer colleges around for future generations. It's also going to be a very different kind of college setting. There has to be a vested interest in reaching out to communities and getting them from college-ready to college-successful — that's the bridge to the world. Many states have withdrawn from college and university funding, and are instead putting that money into prisons and other kinds of employee benefits. There's a dramatic underfunding of state systems and institutions. 

Changing How Students Are Taught

We have to change the way students learn and the way they are taught. Richard firmly believes that the way learning could be restructured is by putting more of the focus on experiential and civic learning — not all of it, but a good deal more. As a result, students would have more agency over their education while gaining a better understanding of the world around them, while still preserving some notion of specialization. If colleges don't begin to change their platforms and collaborate together on costs, the only alternatives are going to be market-based ones. This would drive the smallest organizations out, keep the big ones around, and reduce a lot of the services on campuses that now seem to be important for student success.

Connect with Richard Guarasci: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-guarasci-57900726/

Learn more about Wagner College: https://wagner.edu/

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