When civic engagement became a new priority for University of Wisconsin Oshkosh faculty, James Krueger, professor of political science, was on the leading edge.
For his tireless work embedding civic engagement into the fabric of UW Oshkosh, he recieved the Sister Joel Read Civic Engagement Practitioners Award. The award was presented by the Wisconsin Campus Compact on April 18 at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, as part of the Civic Engagement Institute.
The Sister Joel Read Civic Engagement Practitioners Award recognizes up to three outstanding faculty or staff members who have made significant contributions to civic engagement on their campus. The purpose of this award is to honor three practitioners who have built successful campus-community partnerships to both support student learning and development and the civic mission of the institution.
Krueger’s civic leadership impacts students across campus, both in and outside of the classroom. He has retooled his “Essentials of Civic Engagement” course to include high-impact, community-based learning. Students in the course learn about becoming civically engaged, then apply their learnings hands-on through a partnership with a local domestic violence shelter. In the past, student projects with the shelter have included creating plans to address service gaps and developing community outreach campaigns to help the shelter educate new populations about their services.
Krueger is also a leader for campus-wide engagement initiatives. He is very active in the UW Oshkosh American Democracy Project, and frequently serves on panels to discuss civic engagement skills, civility and public service. Krueger has a special interest in elections, and has created multiple avenues for students and community members to be well-informed about the political process. He has coordinated trainings with the Oshkosh City Clerk to help students become Special Registration Deputies during election seasons. These student deputies have registered more than a thousand students on the UWO campus.
“Our job at UW Oshkosh is to serve the public and we do that in a variety of ways,” Krueger said. “My way of doing that is to help students understand their connections with others, to more carefully consider the perspectives of others, and to exert a positive impact on their communities.”
Off campus, Krueger combines his passion for civic engagement with his love of the arts. Since 2012, he has served on the Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors in a variety of roles, including officer, committee member and director.
The Wisconsin Campus Compact presented five other awards at the April 18 Civic Engagement Institute. Campus Compact is a national coalition of nearly 1,100 colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. In 2002, Wisconsin joined National Campus Compact’s movement toward an institutionalized commitment of civic engagement and service-learning. Learn more about the Wisconsin Campus Compact at http://www.wicampuscompact.org/.
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