New Year’s Resolutions, WiCC Style: Over this last month, I have met with several business, foundation, nonprofit, and government leaders who are always pleasantly surprised to know about the work we do across the state.  They never realized what kind of strength in numbers and committed people we have.  Now that people are learning about the work we’re doing, we need to be prepared to stand up speak with loud voices about the kind of work we do and the unique vision for higher education that we feel so strongly about: that higher education can be more community-responsive and meaningfully engaged with community-based problem-solving; that we live in a state where concepts such as service, volunteerism, and activism are united with educational goals; and that we strengthen our democracy by educating students to be critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and compassionate individuals.  WiCC wants to be there to help facilitate connections between our institutions and outside groups to leverage strategic opportunities to help realize these visions.  Let’s commit to making progress together into the New Year of 2017.

Upcoming Visits: Over the next four weeks, I will visit UW-Superior, Lawrence University, UW-Whitewater, Medical College of Wisconsin, UW-Stevens Point, and Gateway Technical College to help deliver the vision of community-engaged.  In some cases, I will be consulting on Civic Action Plans.  In others, I will meet with groups of faculty fellows.  In others, I will be speaking to broader groups.  Still in others, I will participate in MLK Day of Service activities.  I’m eager to get out of the office and do work that helps advance the civic mission of higher education.  If you’re interested in hosting me for a training, a talk, a workshop, or a focused discussion with stakeholders, please let me know.

Research Briefs – I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK: WiCC will have a new intern working on creating research briefs so that you can stay on top of the most current scholarship in our field.  Do you have a specific research area that you want to know more about? It could be current trends in assessment of civic learning, campus climate and community engagement, research on centers of community engagement, etc.  What topics do you want to know more about? Please let me know.

Volunteer Centers + WiCC Members: Last month, I wanted to raise your attention to a meeting we held between Volunteer Centers in Northeast Wisconsin and five institutions of higher education.  VCs can be valuable partners for higher education as we seek to meaningfully connect with community partners, businesses, and public entities.  We will meet again in March to have a brainstorming session about how those local universities can partner with VC member organizations on large-scale projects that they cannot do on their own.  This is an example of how WiCC can catalyze our members to deepen our community impact.

There are so many exciting things happening in our field! I am so grateful that I’ve been able to work with so many of you over the last 1.5 years.  Having such a committed group of people behind me is refreshing! Let’s humbly show this state how much of an asset higher education can be to everyone in Wisconsin.  Again,

Happy New Year!

Best,

Gavin Luter