While there are various ways for students to become civically engaged, to be simultaneously engaged in forms of community service and civic action while critically reflecting on related curricular content is the best path to the kind of responsible, democratic involvement the entire liberal arts agenda espouses.  

The most effective teaching method to prepare students to become active, responsible citizens is community-based learning and research (service learning) because it exposes students to the complex issues and needs of the larger society, engages them in addressing those needs through a variety of actions and problem solving strategies, and links classroom learning with the conditions and contexts of the real world.

While every course taught at Fort Lewis will not include a civic component, it is imperative that the overall academic experience of students be conducted within a reflective-active and civically oriented environment.  Additionally, it is essential that an ethic of citizenship and civic engagement permeate the extra-curricular/co-curricular culture of student life as well as the curricular.