From the Director’s Desk June 2017

Greetings Civic-Minded Colleagues and Friends!

As the year draws to a close, I congratulate you all on the many successes that your campuses have experienced.  I’ve traveled from Superior to Eau Claire to Northeast Wisconsin down to Southeast Wisconsin.  New centers are opening! New faculty learning programs are launching! New policies to support community engagement are passing! Civic Action Plans are drafted! Thanks to everyone who continues to make progress toward their community-engaged goals.

In the spirit of celebration, I wanted to thank the WiCC member presidents who have been committed to the community engagement movement for many years but are moving to new institutions for the 2017-18 academic year: Thomas Kunkel, St. Norbert College; Michael Lanser, Lakeshore Technical College; Jamie Loftus, Cardinal Stritch University; Lee Rasch, Western Technical College; Eileen Schwalbach, Mt. Mary University; and Gregory Woodward, Carthage College.  Let us thank them for being a part of the WiCC Coalition to build more community-connected colleges and universities.

In the spirit of reflection, it is safe to say that this year has made us all reconsider how to go about our work on campuses.  We have recognized that nothing is a “given.”  In my own personal life, I’ve been reading books that encourage me to “give up the storyline of how you think your life should go.”  It will be up to us to continue to adapt to our circumstances, accept the world as it is, and start dealing with it in different terms.  WiCC will be here to provide resources and supports for the quickly-changing landscapes.  For instance, we will be launching several Communities of Practice (in partnership with MN and IA) for interested WiCC members.  Our summer includes 3 webinars on various topics that people have expressed interest in learning about: online service-learning, fostering bi-partisan dialogue, and working with development offices.

For the Civic Action Plan signatory campuses, we are hosting a Civic Action Plan Implementation Retreat aimed at Provosts, Chief Student Affairs Officers, and implementation teams.  Travel grant applications are available.  Please e-mail lynne.blinkenberg {at} wicampuscompact(.)org for the document.  This purpose of this meeting is to gather upper-level administrators together to discuss how they can assist with CAP implementation.  Nancy Thomas (Tufts University, Institute for Democracy in Higher Education) has confirmed her participation in the event.  We expect that other upper-level administrators from different universities and colleges from across the country will also join us to share their experiences.  Participating institutions can also apply for seed grants to begin implementing their CAPs.

We have some changes happening at Wisconsin Campus Compact, as well.  We will be moving host institutions on June 30 and changing our governance structure.  As soon as more details become available, I will be in touch.  Stay tuned!

Finally, it’s almost membership renewal time! Please start discussions on your campus and expect more correspondence to come soon.  Also, if you have contacts at non-WiCC-member campuses, please send me an e-mail introduction (gavin.luter {at} wicampuscompact(.)org)! We’d love to expand our network.

Have a great beginning of your summer!

Best, Gavin