Every summer, Campus Compact convenes a National Network Leadership Meeting, bringing together our Board of Directors, the chairs of our state and regional Compact boards, our state and regional executive directors, and our national staff. We take stock of our network and of the national movement for the public purposes of higher education, and we work to identify the steps we can take to increase the scope and impact of our movement.

This summer, we met in Minneapolis, where we were hosted by Augsburg College and its president, Paul Pribbenow, a member of our board and one of the most effective intellectual and practical leaders in higher education engagement. (If you have not read Paul’s essay in the most recent Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, I highly recommend that you do so.)

Augsburg, with its exemplary civic profile, provided a perfect backdrop for our chief order of business: moving toward a final version of an Action Statement to be affirmed by presidents and chancellors at our 30th Anniversary Summit in March of 2016. The Action Statement represents a renewal by institutional leaders of their commitment to engagement that prepares students for lives of citizenship and supports communities in advancing the public good. The building blocks for the statement emerged from a participatory, network-wide process that unfolded throughout the spring. Guided by the principles in the Presidents’ Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education, the Action Statement calls upon campuses to get specific about the steps they will take to build on existing engagement efforts and to develop a Campus Civic Action Plan that crystalizes their commitments.

There is still a bit more work to be done on the Action Statement before it is approved by our board and released. When it is, we will ask all who support this movement to join us in building support for the Action Statement among institutional leaders. We will also begin to share resources to help campuses envision how to develop a Campus Civic Action Plan. We will be seeking bold commitments from campuses, and we will be prepared to help campuses identify exemplary practices and pathways for moving from where they are to deeper engagement that maximizes impact for students, communities, and institutions.

Check this space for updates on the process.