Compact Nation Podcast: The Community's College

About the Episode

In this episode, we continue our conversation about “nontraditional students” by talking with Verdis Robinson, the first National Director of The Democracy Commitment (TDC). TDC is a non-partisan national organization dedicated to advancing democracy in higher education and making democratic skills available to all individuals who desire a voice and a seat at the table of local, state, and national discourse and action. To that end, TDC provides a platform for the development and expansion of community college programs, projects, and curricula aimed at engaging students in civic learning and democratic engagement. Listen in for a discussion of what makes community college engagement different and what it is imperative to support it.

Guests

Verdis LeVar Robinson is the first National Director of The Democracy Commitment (TDC) after serving as a tenured Assistant Professor of History and African-American Studies having taught writing-intensive, web-enhanced, service-learning courses at Monroe Community College (MCC) in Rochester, New York, for ten years. In addition to serving as MCC’s TDC Campus Coordinator since the beginning of the organization, he has served on TDC National Steering Committee and on the Advisory Council for its Economic Inequality Initiative.

Professionally, Verdis is a fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Faculty Seminar on Citizenship and the American and Global Polity, and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Faculty Seminar on Rethinking Black Freedom Studies: The Jim Crow North and West.  He is also a Public Scholar with New York Humanities. Additionally, Verdis is the founder of the Rochester Neighborhood Oral History Project that created a walking tour of the community most impacted by the 1964 Race Riots.