Welcome to the Faculty Only section of Students Face Up to the Nation's Finances, where you can download a wide assortment of ready-to-use teaching and discussion materials. The Students Face Up curriculum can be taught on its own, as a college course, seminar or campus event, or can be integrated into existing courses in a variety of fields of study including Political Science and Economics. All of our material is designed to raise awareness of the federal government's long-term fiscal problems, the exploding federal budget deficit and staggering national debt, while exploring potential solutions to the problem.


Who Can Use the Students Face Up Curriculum?

Thanks to a grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, all of our curriculum materials and other resources are free of charge. We do ask faculty and students using or contributing to the curriculum to register: it's quick, free and easy. Students Face Up, Public Agenda and its Students Face Up partners will not sell or share your e-mail address or other information with any third party. For more information on this subject, please read our privacy policy.

Portions of the curriculum are also available for concerned citizens outside the academic community interested in holding workshops or events for the public to learn more about the nation's escalating financial crisis and brainstorm on ways to turn back the tide of red ink.


A Core Curriculum, Enhanced With User-Generated Content and a Student Contest

The Students Face Up curriculum, in keeping with the nature of the federal budget crisis - which can only be solved by citizens talking to each other about the choices we face - is open-source to the extent that both students and faculty members can submit papers, videos, podcasts, PowerPoint presentations, and URLs of additional resources to enhance our core Students Face Up student and teacher curriculum materials.

Students Face Up isn't about passive learning. The idea is to learn about the budget deficit and the national debt and what they're doing to our lives - yesterday, today and tomorrow - and then step up and do something about it. So our comments and discussion areas are a vital part of the curriculum, as is the Students Face Up contest for student-submitted essays and multimedia presentations (videos, podcasts, songs, PowerPoint presentations).


Journalism students from Syracuse University, seen here in Washington, D.C., at a Students Face Up to the Nation's Finances workshop Aug. 1, 2008.
The entry deadline for the Fall 2008 Students Face Up contest is December 1st, 2008. Most of our professors are counting student contest entries for credit in the courses in which the Students Face Up curriculum has been included.


Two winners will be chosen by our judges; and two will be chosen by site users, in a popular vote: in other words, a reality show (we're not calling it Dancing With The Deficit, but, that's the general idea) students can enter right here on their PCs.


Registered users of the site will be able to vote online and comment on entries, which will be visible to site users as soon as they are submitted. So submitting early will give students a chance to have more people see their ideas and win votes for the title of best essay or best multimedia contribution. Each winner will receive a prize of $500 plus recognition for his or her ideas, which may be published on various web sites and publicized in news releases and articles about this project. Click here to learn more about the contest.


Learn More About Students Face Up

Students Face Up to the Nation's Finances launched in the fall of 2008 and is now being used on some fifty college campuses around the country. This important initiative, which helps students face up to the choices that will determine their future and that of their children, is expected to expand to include at least 200 colleges and universities by the fall of 2009, with a projected total of 450 to 500 participating campuses by the following year.

Students Face Up is designed to raise awareness of the many issues involved in America's growing fiscal crisis, spark serious discussion of the problems and policy choices posed by the looming deficit, and motivate students to become active citizens demanding policy changes. The curriculum, which serves as a mechanism for student voices to be heard by leaders and opinion shapers, benefits from Public Agenda's research and analysis of how young Americans think about issues vital for their own and the nation's future.

Students Face Up is a natural outgrowth of Public Agenda's successful and ongoing nationwide citizens' dialogue project, Facing Up to the Nation's Finances. This multi-year collaboration has involved The Concord Coalition, The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation, and Viewpoint Learning. Public Agenda's work on federal finances also has brought it into partnership for public events, Washington briefings, and publications with many other organizations.

Coordinating with Public Agenda and the Concord Coalition on the Students Face Up initiative is The National Academy of Public Administration, which was instrumental in the initial pilot of the student program.

What distinguishes this initiative from other worthy efforts to raise awareness about America's fiscal crisis is its combination of learning, dialogue, incentive to action, and research and communications, as well as its integration into existing college courses in public policy, economics, public administration, political science, history, and other fields.

For more information on how you can be a part of this project, please contact Students Face Up coordinators Andrew Yarrow at 202-719-9777 or Gail Gottlieb at 202-719-9752. For media inquiries or help in finding an expert or participant to interview about Students Face Up, please contact Shaheen Hasan at 212-686-6610, extension 50.