SAN MARCOS — A civic engagement pilot program between the city and Cal State San Marcos kicked off this week.
The “Democracy in Action” program is modeled after a similar program at the University of Oregon and, and is aimed at mutually benefiting both city and school.
Cal State San Marcos essentially contracts with the city as a consultant, and its faculty and students partner with San Marcos to conduct research, gathering qualitative and quantitative data to benefit city projects that are backlogged or need additional attention.
The city gets to hone its expertise on specific scopes of work, the students provide a final report to the city at the end of the program, and they also earn about city government, attend city council meetings, become more civically engaged, and ideally consider the prospects of working in local government.
San Marcos held the launch event on Tuesday, shortly after Jim Desmond’s state of the city address. Desmond and Dr. Patricia Prado-Olmos, vice president for Community Engagement at CSUSM were the keynote speakers, and students toured City Hall and met key city representatives in advance of the Tuesday City Council meeting.
