When Elon University President Connie Book read about a father accused of murdering four of his children last year in Johnston County, she was as horrified as everyone else. The children, who were homeschooled, ranged in age from 6 to 18 and had been killed over the course of several months.
For days afterward, Book kept asking herself the same thing.
“How could this have been happening in this neighborhood with nobody intervening? Somebody should have been asking, ‘What is happening in this house? Where are the children?’”
But too many people don’t even know their neighbors these days, Book said—never mind inquire about their children.
It’s part of a larger social breakdown chronicled in 2024’s North Carolina Civic Health Index, which showed a fraying social fabric from declining participation in local clubs and civic groups to engagement with local government and voting.
That problem—and higher education’s role in solving it—will be the subject of an April 20 Greensboro Newsmakers event at The Pyrle in downtown Greensboro. Organized by The Assembly Network and Action Greensboro, “The Civic Health Conversation” is a free event that will bring together Book, former N.C. A&T Chancellor Harold Martin, and students from both Elon and A&T in a wide-ranging conversation about how to reverse negative trends highlighted in the civic health index.
North Carolina ranked 34 out of 51 states and territories in the number of people who said they have volunteered in the last year, according to the report. It ranked 35 out of 51 among people who reported donating $25 or more to charitable or religious organizations. Even fewer said they made small political donations, making North Carolina 42 out of 51. The state ranked dead last in voter registration.
“Those aren’t good numbers,” said Greensboro City Council Member Irving Allen this week. “But we also have to look at that in the context of the steps that have been taken in North Carolina to make it more difficult to register to vote, to vote early, and to vote on election day.”
That context is important, Martin said, as are student efforts at A&T and beyond to push for better and easier voting access.
“Over the last few elections, I have observed young people actually share a concern that my vote does not matter,” Martin said. “And that’s a dangerous place to be with young people in a college environment.”
We all need young people to stay engaged and believe they can make a difference, Martin said. We need them to be influential in their communities, to have their own children, and to instill civic values in them.
That’s why events like the one on April 20 can be vital, Martin said.
“Having these kinds of forums in environments is important, where people are comfortable in having discussions, but they’re also enabled to think differently and much more profoundly about a single decision—to volunteer, to get up and go vote,” Martin said.
Colleges and universities can be engines for civic engagement, Martin and Book agreed.
“I’m a big believer that civic engagement is a skill set to be taught,” Book said. “It’s like riding a bicycle. Somebody has to teach you how to do it. You don’t just naturally wake up and know how to be engaged with your community or the importance of it.”
Martin and Book have both been heartened by the conversations they have with college students—their energy around everything from domestic policies like immigration to the war in Iran. They just need to learn what to do with that energy.
“I fundamentally believe we have to teach it in college,” Book said. “It certainly starts in pre-K through 12, but I think in college, this is the space where they’re leaving their household, where someone else ran most of the structure, and they’re beginning to build the seeds of how they’re going to live their life.”
Studies show fewer Americans are going to four-year colleges or universities, Book said, a decline that has been apparent for the last decade. For that reason, she and Martin agreed, we have to find ways to engage people civically earlier and in other venues.
“I’ve started using the words ‘civic prosperity’ rather than ‘civic engagement,’” Book said. “If we’re doing it right, all the people of the community can flourish if we’re meeting their needs.”
Students often look at engagement with politics and government in terms of what they can get out of it, Martin said. When they begin to look at it in terms of what they can do for their community and how the community can flourish through their actions, he said, they are closer to making the change they wish to see in the world.
N.C. A&T student Terrence Olu Rouse and Elon student Anya Bratić will join Martin and Book as panelists at Monday’s event.
“I look forward to the discussion with them because they bring a very different view and perspective about civic participation and engagement,” Martin said. “I want to hear what they’re looking for from their country as they look to the future. It’s very different from what I saw when I grew up in a segregated nation in the early years of my growing up.”
Monday’s event is free but does require registration. Doors will open at 5 p.m at The Pyrle, 232 S. Elm Street. The discussion will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Correction: The original version of this story misstated Elon University President Connie Book’s title. It has been updated.