Going to the Community

Let me offer three points. First, I want to take a few minutes to set the context for a democratic education. I want to cite six or seven key choices that I think anybody who\u27s interested in community service as a vehicle of citizen education needs to face and which we face at Rutgers as do other universities around the the country. Thirdly, I want to address Harry Boyte\u27s thoughtful criticisms of communitarianism

Measurement of Neutron Reflectivity from a Silicon Crystal: Preparation for an nMDM Measurement

Physicists from Argonne National Laboratories, Valparaiso University, the University of Hawaii, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology have designed an experiment to use the known neutron magnetic dipole moment (nMDM) to measure Schwinger scattering in silicon (Si), a process whereby the orientation of the magnetic dipole polarization is altered by interactions with the atomic electric fields in a Si crystal. This measurement is intended to be a precursor to a search for a neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) employing a similar spin rotation via a different interaction. Both measurements depend on neutron Bragg reflections down a slotted Si crystal. For a successful measurement, the neutron beam has to reflect approximately 150 times, without a large loss of beam intensity. This requires a high reflectivity, on the order of 99% reflective. In order to make an accurate measurement of the Schwinger scattering, both the incident neutron beam and the crystal\u27s reflectivity need to be well understood. In summer 2010, we characterized the newly commissioned \u27nMDM Experiment\u27 neutron beamline at the NIST Center for Neutron Research, and measured the reflectivity of the slotted Si single crystal intended for the experiment. These measurements laid the groundwork for the coming nMDM Schwinger scattering measurement

Measurements of the Angular Cross-Sections of the Decay Products of Proton Capture by Lithium-6

We have studied the nuclear reaction Li-6 + p =\u3e He-3 + He-4 using protons from the 200-keV linear accelerator located in the Manning Nuclear Physics Laboratory in the Neils Science Center. We have measured the angular distribution and energy of the resulting He-3 and He-4 nuclei. Measurements were made using a Si surface barrier detector. The incident proton energy was 125 keV, and the angular measurements were made between 150 and 120 degrees downstream of the beam. Results and highlights are presented

Neutron Electric Dipole Moment: Research and Development

The neutron\u27s electric dipole moment (nEDM) serves as an important test of the Standard Model of particle physics and it\u27s various alternatives. Various models of fundamental physics allow for different magnitudes for the nEDM, and recent experiments have begun to exclude some models. Valparaiso University is part of a collaboration of institutions working on an improved experiment to measure the nEDM, to be conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the next few years. The experiment will be performed at 0.4 Kelvin, and will involve the use of magnetic fields and very large electric fields. Research at Los Alamos National Laboratory this summer has focused on identifying materials with the proper electronic properties under these conditions for further study and development efforts. Some measurements and conclusions are presented

A Mandate For Liberty: Requiring Education-Based Community Service

The extraordinary rise in American interest in community service has inspired widespread participation by the nation\u27s young in service programs. It has also provoked a profound and telling debate about the relationship of service to voluntarism on the one hand, and to civic education and citizenship on the other. Two complementary approaches to service have emerged that are mutually supportive but also in a certain tension with one another. The first aims at attracting young volunteers, particularly students, out of the classroom and into service projects as part of a strategy designed to strengthen altruism, philanthropy, individualism, and self-reliance. The second is concerned with integrating service into the classroom and into academic curricula in hopes of making civic education and social responsibility core subjects of high school and university education

Public Talk and Civic Action: Education for Participation in a Strong Democracy

Civic education programs have always played a distinctive role in the American education curriculum. For the most part, however, civic education has been associated with civic knowledge and the cultivation of a cognitive faculty thought to be identical with political judgement (private judgment on public issues). Perhaps this has been appropriate to a society which understood democracy primarily as a system of accountability in which elected representatives do most of the actual governing and citizens limit themselves to the passive roles of voter and watchdog

The Civic Mission of the University

The modern American university is embroiled in controversy, fueled by deep uncertainty over its pedagogical purposes and its civic role in a free society. At times the college establishment seems to know neither what a free society is not what the educational requisites of freedom might look like. Nonetheless, both administrators and their critics have kept busy, for like zealots (classically defined as people who redouble their efforts when they have forgotten their aims), they have covered their confusion by embellishing their hyperbole. They wring hands and rue the social crises of higher education... apathy, cynicism, careerism, prejudice, selfishness, sexism, opportunism, complacency, and substance abuse, but they hesitate when faced with hard decisions, and prefer to follow rather than challenge the national mood

Introducing the VPHA Policy Forum

Data before and during the pandemic indicates Virginia\u27s public health system needs reform. This article suggests that reform requires policy change, and it introduces the VPHA forum as a place to examine current policies and explore new ideas. Finally, it encourages policymakers, advocates, and the public to focus on fundamental questions about how public health is financed and delivered in Virginia. Answering these questions is necessary to creating better public health policies - and better health - for all Virginians