 "Photo: Scott Coffman")
A town hall meeting was held on Wednesday in the public forum of the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy to discuss the initiatives for the new Center for Sport, Citizenship and Society.
The purpose of the meeting was to give representatives of the center a chance to come out and explain their efforts to the community, as well as receive feedback and input on their initiatives.
About 50 community members attended the meeting, including students, faculty, staff and other community representatives.
The Center for Sport, Citizenship and Society, which will open in the fall in the John Glenn Institute, will be a research center and collaboration among the John Glenn Institute, the School of Physical Activity and Education Services, the Department of Athletics and an advisory board made up of faculty, students, staff and community members.
The center will examine and research links among sport, citizenship and their effects on society. It will be the first interdisciplinary research center of its kind in America.
"(Sport and citizenship) may seem as an odd sort of coupling, but in fact it's actually not," said Bill Morgan, interim director of the center. "There's a long history of the involvement of sport and the political affairs of this country."
Morgan said that at about the turn of the 20th century, America had a growing gap between the rich and poor, much like there is in society today. He said that progressive intellectuals began to think this gap took away from the idea of democracy.
"Without some sort of civic solidarity and sense of community and sense of belonging, democracies don't work," Morgan said.
Sports create a civic solidarity because they attract great numbers of people of all kinds and create a sense of community between people. They can also be seen as a model for social practices because sports teach children fair play and teamwork, he said.
Morgan said OSU is the perfect place to have a research center dedicated to sports and citizenship because there is a well-established athletic tradition and it is home to the John Glenn Institute, which is dedicated to studying civic engagement.
"I'm always interested in the relationship between sports and values," said Tim Curry, an associate professor in sociology and a member of the advisory board. "There's a growing gap between sports practice and sports values, and this is the place to start thinking about how to bridge some of those gaps."
"The School of PAES is very supportive of this initiative," said Donna Pastore, interim director of the School of PAES, one of the schools involved in the center. "Our faculty is very excited about the research opportunites and the outreach opportunites of the center."
The Center for Sport, Citizenship and Society will be hosting an introduction event to the larger community on Friday, Oct. 27 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mershon Auditorium. The event will feature a panel discussion based on the theme "Forging Citizenship Through Sport."
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