Looking back & looking forward

M Channel’s 2021-2025 initiatives with Stetson University

 Florida’s oldest private law school and university

Beginning in 2021, M Channel’s director, Steve Schmidt, was asked to assist in a visioning process and co-draft a mission statement that led to the founding of Stetson Law School’s Jacobs Clinic for Democracy and the Environment.

Steve’s work on the law school’s new Advisory Committee, in turn, led to ideas for a Democracy Center. After initial discussions and presentations, M Channel advised and assisted in a number of ways as the University moved forward with new, expanded initiatives.

As a highlight, we brought for consideration a collaborative agreement to platform the unique Special Collection of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. We assisted in planning the digitizing of this expansive work to make it accessible online. The famed Robert Hutchins’ think tank’s resources are now offering an exceptional source of thinking and democracy-related topics for deliberation across the internet.

For several years, we also stepped up cooperatively with the University administration, president’s office, faculty and the Center for Public Opinion Research to help develop a number of inter-department Democracy Center projects.

Progress was made, a foundation put in place, and more progress is in the works even as political ‘headwinds’ and ‘stormy times’ challenge current institutions across higher education and the nation.

As 2026 arrives and having contributed steadily to Stetson’s endeavors in this arena, we move on with recognition that protection of educational institutions and the public interest is vitally needed.

A living democracy and thriving republic requires constant, caring work.

Onward

SJS /December 2025

We recall a quote of Benjamin Franklin responding to a question in 1787 about the newly announced birth of the US as he left Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention:

We have “a Republic, if you can keep it.”