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Civic engagement and social responsibility

President Ginsberg:
Your title is an interesting one—Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility. Let's begin with what might sound like a simple question, but really isn’t: What do those terms mean?

Dr. Hübler:
That’s a great question, and one we get often. At the heart of our work is preparing students for active participation in their communities. That can take many forms, from civic engagement and community service to advocacy. We want students to ask themselves, “How can I use my voice and my values to influence what’s happening in my community, my country, or the world?”

President Ginsberg:
So it’s about helping students participate in society in meaningful ways. We often say TU is a university for the public good, and it sounds like your office is deeply rooted in that mission.

Dr. Hübler:
Absolutely.

President Ginsberg:
How would you differentiate between civic engagement and social responsibility? They seem parallel but not quite the same.

Dr. Hübler:
We see them as interconnected. Civic engagement often refers to taking action—getting involved, advocating, influencing policy. Social responsibility has more to do with ethics—understanding who we are, what values shape us, and what kind of communities we want to live in. Both are essential.

President Ginsberg:
So civic engagement might involve elected officials or policy change, while social responsibility is more about our individual values and how we relate to others?

Dr. Hübler:
Exactly. And often, it takes both. Sometimes you’re working with grassroots community leaders or organizations. Other times, you’re collaborating with neighbors or even strangers to identify issues and drive change. It’s about equipping students with all the tools they might need to do that effectively.

Understanding restorative practices

President Ginsberg:
Building strong communities requires strong communication. You mentioned restorative practices and dialogue—can you expand on that?

Dr. Hübler:
Definitely. One key element of civic and community engagement that often gets overlooked is the ability to foster connection. We teach students how to build relationships through restorative practices, dialogue, and community organizing.

That includes learning to truly listen—understanding someone’s story, what they care about, what motivates them. A lot of our current work focuses on storytelling: the story of self, the story of us, and imagining what’s possible together.

President Ginsberg:
That feels especially important in today’s world, where we often see polarization and division. What you're describing seems like a powerful remedy.

Dr. Hübler:
That’s exactly the hope.

President Ginsberg:
It seems the kind of work you're doing might offer some remedies to the deep divides we see in our society.

Dr. Hübler:
We’d like to think so. Many of us, even on our staff team, have had moments when it’s difficult to talk with people close to us—sometimes even family. So, we seek tools and opportunities to help bridge those divides.

What we’ve found—at TU and even nationally—is the power of story. Understanding why someone believes what they do is often rooted in personal experience—maybe they felt like they didn’t belong in a community or weren’t valued in their country.

They may not have had the tools or knowledge to figure out how to work with others—whether they feel the same way or see things differently—to address a challenge. When we look at the big picture—the world’s issues, or even just the divisions in our own society—it can feel overwhelming. That’s why we focus on the local, including what we can do right here at TU.

We ask, “What can we do here to create a more welcoming, inclusive community?” That might involve addressing food access, housing access, or collective safety. It starts close to home.

President Ginsberg:
Yet, to get to that point, there seems to be a prerequisite—a willingness to listen. It feels like so often in conversations, especially when we disagree, we're more focused on how to respond than on what the other person is actually saying. And in doing so, we miss the meaning. It sounds like your work is aimed at stopping that kind of disconnect and creating genuine connection.

Dr. Hübler:
Absolutely. And as you're saying that, I’m reminded that we need two key things: curiosity and imagination.

If we’re genuinely curious about why someone thinks the way they do, and we ask deeper questions—not to challenge them, but because we’re truly interested—that leads to active listening. It’s a skill, and we help students practice it.

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge

President Ginsberg:
I understand there are some programs here at Towson that support this kind of engagement. One that comes to mind is the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. Could you tell us what that is, and how it contributes to fostering that sense of connectedness?

Dr. Hübler:
Sure. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit. They support campuses in developing civic engagement strategies and campus democratic action plans. While voting is a key component, they view civic engagement much more broadly.

If we’re only empowered on one day—Election Day—what about all the other days of the year? Civic life isn’t just at the ballot box; it’s something we live every day.

President Ginsberg:
So civic life is all around us?

Dr. Hübler:
Exactly. It exists in all our spaces. Civic engagement is an everyday practice. At TU, we developed a 10-year campus democratic action plan to guide our work.

It helps us ask: “Where do we want to go? Where are the gaps?” It’s a tool for building partnerships and ensuring students gain the skills, mindsets, and knowledge to see themselves as active participants in society—every single day.

President Ginsberg:
And how’s the program going? Give us a progress report on how it's been.

Dr. Hübler:
We put the action plan together in 2024—just a year ago—and it’s for the next 10 years. We’ve already made some great progress. We recently submitted our report—it’s a long one—but it gave us a chance to reflect on what we’ve accomplished during this election cycle. What excites me most is that the plan gives us a roadmap. It helps us approach campus partners creatively and think about how to take civic engagement at TU to the next level.

We have a lot of students who live on campus. When they move in, it’s a prime opportunity to say, “Hey, you’ve moved. Have you updated your voter registration?” We integrate that into processes that already exist, like move-in checklists.

The reality is, students who move often may not have consistent documentation of their residence. If they wait until Election Day to sort that out, they might show up to vote and be turned away because they can’t prove where they live. So, proactive engagement is key.

President Ginsberg:
So part of the strategy here is helping students—and maybe even others—not just be registered, but truly participate in our democracy. It’s about that sense of agency, right? That personal responsibility to be engaged.

Dr. Hübler:
Absolutely. One of our key learning objectives in the Office of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility is civic agency.

It can be tough to feel powerful when so much is happening in the world that feels beyond our control. But civic agency is about helping students realize they actually have more power than they think.

President Ginsberg:
But they have to take that power. I was reading something that described civic engagement as a responsibility to actively shape our society—not just to vote, but to really participate in the democratic process. Given all the turbulence today—around what democracy even means, or which policies best serve the country—your approach doesn’t seem focused on content, but more on process. Regardless of your stance, there’s a responsibility to participate in the levers of government.

The civic renewal fellowship

President Ginsberg:
Another program I found really interesting is the Civic Renewal Fellowship. That’s a year-long training, right? To help students facilitate community conversations?

Dr. Hübler:
Yes. The idea came from being on a college campus in 2016, seeing how deeply impacted students and colleagues were after the election. There was a lot of emotional energy—powerlessness. In 2020, I realized we needed to equip people to shape their communities after an election, no matter the outcome.

So, we partnered with the Counseling Center, restorative practices, dialogue, inclusion, and civic leadership to create a training program. It empowered people across campus—faculty, staff, and students—to lead conversations in their networks. SGA hosted listening circles. Academic departments, student orgs, student affairs—all came together. We used restorative practices to let people process, reflect, and figure out how to move forward as a community, even if they disagreed.

When I came to TU, I brought the model here. We’ve expanded it to go beyond elections—using listening circles and restorative practices to talk about key campus issues.

Now, we call them TU Community Conversations—facilitated discussions on important topics like food access, housing, and most recently, collective care and campus safety.

The program evolved from one-off trainings to a year-long, high-impact experience. Students learn how to build community, facilitate conversations across differences, and identify paths forward. We recently added a community organizing component—so students not only listen, they also act. After hearing concerns, we partner with other campus groups to make improvements.

President Ginsberg:
So it’s about being active—taking action. I’m reminded of a quote from my friend and hero, Marian Wright Edelman, who said, “Democracy is not a spectator sport.” If we want a democracy, we have to be participants. This program sounds like a catalyst for that kind of involvement.

Dr. Hübler:
Absolutely. And I want to give credit where it’s due—Charis Lawson from my office runs the Civic Renewal Fellowship. She’s our coordinator for civic engagement.

Obstacles to civic engagement on a college campus
President Ginsberg:
It all sounds incredibly valuable. But let me flip the question a bit—not to be a skeptic, but to dig into the challenge. What are the barriers to student participation? Because today’s environment makes it really hard to engage with people who hold different views. The divisions are deep. So how big of a hurdle is that? And what other obstacles have you encountered in building a successful program?

Dr. Hübler:
That’s a question—and a challenge—for all of us. Students often come with a strong desire for change, but they’re not always sure where to direct that energy.

President Ginsberg:
So… what’s the recipe?

Dr. Hübler:
Yeah, right? [Laughs] Many students look to large protest movements—that was definitely me when I was younger. I’d ask, “Where’s my movement?”

President Ginsberg:
Where’s your sign?

Dr. Hübler:
Right? And not finding it, or posting on social media—those kinds of things, we see as acts of activism.

What I have found is that it can still feel very lonely. I’ve gone to demonstrations and felt great, and then I walked away, back at home in my living room, thinking: “And now what?”
I don't know any of the movement leaders, I don't know what the agenda is or what the next steps are. Or I posted something—how many people will actually read it, engage with it, and will it really bring about any change?

How social media impacts active participation

President Ginsberg:
You mentioned social media. I was wondering as you said that—what has been the influence of those channels of communication? They can be accurate or wildly inaccurate, but certainly they shape opinion. You’ve probably thought about this?

Dr. Hübler:
I have. And I will also say—I don’t use social media. At all.

President Ginsberg:
At all? Really? And why have you made that decision?

Dr. Hübler:
It took up a lot of space.

I noticed it took me away from being in conversation with other people—or from taking care of myself. So, I’m just using that energy and time in a different way.

President Ginsberg:
You've created a boundary, it sounds like. But many people haven’t. And social media—for good and bad—is shaping a lot of public opinion. I suspect it’s also contributing to the intensity of division.

Dr. Hübler:
Yes, I think social media has a place in change work or active participation.
But there are so many other pathways—like community organizing, dialogue and restorative practices, civic discourse skills. In our work, we’re harnessing that energy students bring and introducing them to these lesser-known opportunities.

Responsible activism

President Ginsberg:
One criticism I hear often—especially now, in such turbulent and divisive times—is that there’s great apathy. That people have stood back and not engaged.

Martin Luther King once wrote, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

What you’re doing seems to energize activism—not for activism’s sake, but in a responsible way. Does that quote resonate with you?

Dr. Hübler:
It does—but I think it depends on how we define silence.

In today’s society, where social media equals “noise,” silence might be misunderstood. Just because someone isn’t saying something online doesn’t mean they’re silent.

Martin Luther King and other organizers knew how vital it is to organize in the background—to build community, to have conversations. That takes time. And it doesn’t always require being loud. There’s a time for that—but the organizing must lead.

President Ginsberg:
That’s a powerful distinction. Silence may not be silence—and its opposite isn’t always meaningful. Sometimes it’s just noise, not contributing anything real.

Another quote comes to mind—John F. Kennedy said, “Every person can make a difference, but every person must try to make a difference.”
That feels like what you're saying: the opportunity to contribute balanced by the responsibility to try.

Dr. Hübler:
Yes. And I mentioned the importance of story, so I’ll share a bit of mine—why I care so much about this work.

I grew up in East Germany during Communism, in Leipzig. That’s where the peaceful revolution started.

It began in a small church—silent at first. People outside didn’t know. But it grew to hundreds of thousands, including my father and his friends, who demonstrated every Monday. The right to protest was not a right in my country.

President Ginsberg:
It wasn’t. And there was real risk.

Dr. Hübler:
A huge risk—not just to my father, but to all of us. Authorities could’ve taken us away, imprisoned him, disappeared him, destroyed our family.

My great-grandfather—who was dear to me—was in the resistance against the Nazis. He was a political prisoner, in a labor camp.
He was freed and lived in exile, fighting for the British army. His risk was even greater than my dad’s.

Having those role models has shaped me. It made me ask: “Why do people risk so much to bring about change they believe in?”

And: “What’s my role? What’s the role of people I care about, and those I don’t even know—like students? What is our role to do what is right, even in the face of consequences?”

President Ginsberg:
That’s a magnificent way to close. You began with stories, and your story is incredibly powerful.

It’s motivated you and shaped your life’s work—helping others tell and live their stories through civic engagement and social responsibility.

About the series

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The On the Mark podcast presents a forum for candid conversations about meaningful and consequential work happening here at Towson University.

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