Dear WiCC Supporters,

Did you enjoy our first major snowfall? Winter is basically here.  That means finals, a variety of holiday breaks, and New Year’s resolutions.  Here’s to a grant end of the semester for you all!

First, welcome to our new member Concordia University-Wisconsin (CUW) in Mequon! CUW will be a great addition to our coalition! Next, thank you to Alverno College for hosting me for an all-faculty meeting where we discussed Civic Action Planning (CAP) and how WiCC can support their work.  Their approach to getting the campus involved in the CAP process was bringing the entire campus in the same room and had them put into a Google Document all information faculty and staff knew about that could fit into the five commitments found in the CAP.  This was an innovative way to get folks involved! Hopefully everyone continues to work on their CAP documents.  If I can help with anything in your process, let me know.

It has been almost a month since the election, and I know some campuses are still thinking about how to best deal with post-election issues on campus.  We have put together some resources on our website HERE.  We need to remain focused on providing safe spaces for all students on (and off) campus and standing up for the values inherent to community engagement.  Campus Compact President Andrew Seligsohn said it well, “”We are neutral in elections, but we’re not neutral about values and commitments. We have a thumb on the scale for democracy. We have a thumb on the scale for inclusion, and for social justice, and for building communities that reflect those values. [We’re for] equal voice, equal participation, equal opportunity to shape one’s own future, and the future of one’s community, and the country. And so, our work is more important than it’s ever been.”

Finally, I wanted to provide some updates about WiCC as we are closing out 2016:

1. Strategic Direction: This past year, the WiCC Board adopted a strategic direction.  This new framework will guide our activities so that we become “Wisconsin Campus Compact v2.0” where we exist to do more than the traditional professional association.  We are centered on (1) Impact-discovering, deepening, and disseminating, (2) Support-institutionalization of community engagement through conferences and convenings, and (3) Capacity-building campus stakeholder capacity to change campus culture to support community engagement.  We strive to be a catalytic organization that not only offers professional development, special opportunities, and technical assistance to campuses, but we also want to be a catalytic organization that makes connections between our network and other networks interested in building a better world through mutually-beneficial partnerships.

2. Legislative Committee: Based on this strategic plan articulated above, we want to continue to reach out a build relationships with the State of Wisconsin.  Given WiCC’s governance structure, we need to make sure we’re doing this in a way that is agreeable to the three major systems of higher education: (1) Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU), (2) the Wisconsin Technical College System (WCTS), and (3) the University of Wisconsin System (UWS). To that end, we built a legislative committee with representation from all 3 systems.  The question before the group is: How can we build joint priorities between all systems that advance the civic mission of higher education? What are some points that we can unite behind that could further community partnerships in higher education? We had our first meeting before Thanksgiving.  At the meeting, we discussed many things, which brings me to my next point…

3. Comprehensive inventory of community engagement efforts across our institutions: If we’re going to capitalize on our collective strengths, and make an appeal that the state should invest in higher education community engagement, we need to know what we’re collectively doing.  We have an intern that is building as comprehensive list as possible of all community engagement efforts.  If you have anything to provide her about your campus’s community engagement efforts, please e-mail morgan.livingston {at} uwex(.)edu.  Soon, we will be e-mailing your campus liaisons a Google Document that has your community partnerships.  We will need your help to understand what we have missed and what we got correct.  If possible, we would also like to have a sense of the results achieved by the partnerships.

Thanks to everyone for their dedication to the civic mission of higher education! Keep up the great work.

Best,

Gavin