Vermont Campus Compact

As presidents of colleges and universities, both private and public, large and small, two-year and four-year, we challenge higher education to reexamine its public purposes and its commitments to the democratic ideal. We also challenge higher education to become engaged, through actions and teaching, with its communities.

We have a fundamental task to renew our role as agents of our democracy. This task is both urgent and long-term. There is growing evidence of disengagement of many Americans from the communal life of our society, in general, and from the responsibilities of democracy in particular. We share a special concern about the disengagement of college students from democratic participation. A chorus of studies reveals that students are not connected to the larger purposes and aspirations of the American democracy. Voter turnout is low. Feelings that political participation will not make any difference are high. Added to this, there is a profound sense of cynicism and lack of trust in the political process.

We are encouraged that more and more students are volunteering and participating in public and community service, and we have all encouraged them to do so through curricular and co-curricular activity. However, this service is not leading students to embrace the duties of active citizenship and civic participation. We do not blame these college students for their attitudes toward the democracy, rather we take responsibility to help them realize the values and skills of our democratic society and their need to claim ownership of it.

This country cannot afford to educate a generation that acquires knowledge without ever understanding how that knowledge can benefit society or how to influence democratic decision making. We must teach the skills and values of democracy, creating innumerable opportunities for our students to practice and reap the results of the real, hard work of citizenship.

Colleges and universities have long embraced a mission to educate students for citizenship. But now, with over two-thirds of recent high school graduates, and ever larger numbers of adults, enrolling in post secondary studies, higher education has an unprecedented opportunity to influence the democratic knowledge, dispositions, and habits of the heart that graduates carry with them into the public square.

Higher education is uniquely positioned to help Americans understand the histories and contours of our present challenges as a diverse democracy. It is also uniquely positioned to help both students and our communities to explore new ways of fulfilling the promise of justice and dignity for all, both in our own democracy and as part of the global community. We know that pluralism is a source of strength and vitality that will enrich our students’ education and help them to learn both to respect difference and work together for the common good.

We live in a time when every sector—corporate, government and nonprofit—is being mobilized to address community needs and reinvigorate our democracy (Gardner, 1998). We cannot be complacent in the face of a country where one out of five children sleeps in poverty and one in six central cities has an unemployment rate 50% or more above the national average, even as our economy shows unprecedented strength. Higher education—its leaders, students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumni—remains a key institutional force in our culture that can respond, and can do so without a political agenda and with the intellectual and professional capacities today’s challenges so desperately demand. Thus, for society’s benefit and for the academy’s, we need to do more. Only by demonstrating the democratic principles we espouse, can higher education effectively educate our students to be good citizens.

How can we realize this vision of institutional public engagement? It will, of course, take as many forms as there are types of colleges and universities. And it will require our hard work, as a whole, and within each of our institutions. We will know we are successful by the robust debate on our campuses, and by the civic behaviors of our students. We will know it by the civic engagement of our faculty. We will know it when our community partnerships improve the quality of community life and the quality of the education we provide.

To achieve these goals, our presidential leadership is essential but, by itself, it is not enough. Faculty, staff, trustees and students must help craft and act upon our civic missions and responsibilities. We must seek reciprocal partnerships with community leaders, such as those responsible for elementary and secondary education. To achieve our goals we must define them in ways that inspire our institutional missions and help measure our success. We have suggested a Campus Assessment of Civic Responsibility that will help in this task. It is a work in progress. We ask you to review the draft and to ask yourself what aspects of this can work on your campus and also to share with others practices that are not on this list.

We ask other college presidents to join us in seeking recognition of civic responsibility in accreditation procedures, Carnegie classifications, and national rankings and to work with Governors, State Legislators, and State Higher Education Offices on state expectations for civic engagement in public systems.

We believe that the challenge of the next millennium is the renewal of our own democratic life and reassertion of social stewardship. In celebrating the birth of our democracy, we can think of no nobler task than committing ourselves to helping catalyze and lead a national movement to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education. We believe that now and through the next century, our institutions must be vital agents and architects of a flourishing democracy. We urge all of higher education to join us.

We invite you to add your campus to this list. If the president or chancellor of your institution wishes to sign on they should send an e-mail to Amy McGlashan. We urge all readers to use this document to encourage dialogue on your campus among administrators, faculty, staff and students.

Bennington College	Norwich University
Burlington College	Saint Michael's College
Castleton State College	School for International Training
College of Saint Joseph	Southern Vermont College
Community College of Vermont	Sterling College
Goddard College	Trinity College of Vermont
Green Mountain College	University of Vermont
Johnson State College	Vermont Law School
Marlboro College	Vermont Technical College
Middlebury College	Woodbury College
New England Culinary Institute

As colleges and universities have increased their commitments to community resources and services on the local and international scene, the need to develop a service-learning co-curriculum or a service-learning component across the curriculum has become apparent.

This year, Burlington College began an initiative to encourage all instructors to incorporate aspects of service learning into their coursework. Building on a solid tradition of service-based internship placements, the goal is and was to transform the concept of "volunteerism" from something one does on a special occasion to something that can be seamlessly integrated into an academic experience.

The past two-years have seen BC develop several service-learning projects and classes as well. As part of the Central America Program's study abroad trip, for example, students helped develop a women's gardening cooperative in San Jose, Guatemala, and worked on remodeling classrooms at our "sister college" in San Ignacio in Belize. Our Alternative Spring Break trip to North Philadelphia saw the transformation of an abandoned lot into a for-profit, community-owned tree farm and park. Students planned and built a recycling center for the residents of Morovis, Puerto Rico, and helped rebuild a hurricane-damaged farm-designing an irrigation system and repairing greenhouses. And, finally, this year will mark our first Burlington College-Old North End Service Day, where students and faculty actively engage BC's neighbors through volunteerism.

Through our partnership with Campus Compact, Burlington College hopes to continue serving as a model for a small-scale service learning curriculum; the College hopes to learn from and to share resources with other CC member institutions.

The College of St. Joseph is pleased to join other Vermont colleges and universities in adding our name to The Presidents' Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education. The declaration is in direct accordance with our mission to educate individuals for lives of continuing growth and service. CSJ encourages its students to translate their knowledge and experience into enthusiasm and support for the democratic process. Active civic participation is the only way to guarantee our democratic freedom and the continuous improvement of society. We will continue to teach our students that they possess the power to create positive change, both locally and globally.

The Community College of Vermont serves as citizen in twelve teaching and learning sites throughout the state. We know how essential it is that we are respectful and responsible members in our communities and that we develop in and beyond the classroom the habits of good citizenry. We are grateful that our membership in Campus Compact will inspire us and hold us accountable to the high standards to which we must aspire.

"When America ceases to be good, it can no longer be great". -de Toqueville, 18th C.

To value each other and the earth; to know how and why we are connected to each other and this planet: this is what the world needs now, more than any time in our history. It is education which can and must develop our ability to value people enough to want to take action for the welfare of our planet. It is education which enables the enlarging complex form of recognition out of which comes empathy, respect, our sense of responsibility, our capacity for goodness and greatness-relational knowledge developed not only by what is taught, but how it is taught. Essential education shows how to learn with and from each other. Our physical and biological interdependence, intensified by communication and access, places a greater stake on how we think about community and our own capacity, as well as desire to make a difference. The earnest concern which informs my distinguished colleagues' decision to commit to The Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education reveals a new seriousness, idealism, even nobility, of the character of educational leadership in American life today. Higher education is repudiating the ivory tower in favor of the workshop of the polis. I join a Vermont distinguished tradition of solutions for society's most urgent needs, hopes, and possibilities-not a retreat, as in the old notion of "academe", but a going forward together to evoke what humanity always has needed to discover, person by person: the conviction of every person of being needed and capable: "I can do something to make things better, more just, more wise, more beautiful." The necessity to make this confidence and sense of responsibility accessible to every citizen is what the Campus Compact is all about. It is an honor to join this effort.

At Johnson State College of Vermont, we have a distinctive mission which calls on us to "provide a community characterized by active engagement in teaching and learning, by high standards of academic work and human relations, and by seriousness of purpose…and to provide our students with the skills, knowledge, and understanding which are the basis of productive employment, civic involvement, and lifelong learning." I note the emphasis on active engagement and civic involvement, indications that civic responsibility in higher education is central to the mission of Johnson State College. Our commitment is evident in our award-winning Center for Service Learning, which provides opportunities for personal growth and practical skill-building to our students.

Civic responsibility is not an abstraction, but an ideal realized in active hands-on learning. Our Dean of Students, Ron Chesbrough, recently joined a group of students on a SERVE trip to Mexico, where he engaged in what he described as "the most rewarding work that I recall in terms of witnessing positive student behavior, community engagement, and real learning, both personal and practical." Such involvement by college leaders and students, working together, lends reality to the rhetoric of civic responsibility and illustrates how ideals can be put into practice.

Institutions of higher education have an absolute ethical commitment to the betterment of the communities in which they reside. Vermont's colleges and universities better meet that commitment when they work in concert and with the support of the Vermont Campus Compact. On our own campus, we have seen a revitalized level of effort and engagement this year, with students working in social service agencies, read aloud programs, and in a range of ways helpful to the local community. Signing the president's declaration is a symbolic reaffirmation of our institution's commitment to the public good and to the critical task of engendering good citizenship among our students.

That the signing of this Presidential Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education is occurring while Middlebury College is immersed in its Bicentennial Celebration is of particular note. As "The Town's College," Middlebury was created by the Town's forefathers to become an integral part of the fabric of this community. Over the decades and now centuries, the leaders of the College and the Town have worked diligently to evolve and grow together. It was the citizenship and active involvement of a few, who, in combination with "the actions and teachings" of those on the Hill, have helped shape what is now an international community. We are both proud and humbled to stand with our Vermont colleagues as we reaffirm our commitment to become even more fully engaged with our community partners as we also help educate our students for active citizenship in the world they now inherit.

I am proud to be among the signatories of the "Presidents' Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education" for the Vermont Campus Compact. All post secondary institutions in a democracy, regardless of their other educational missions, have a special responsibility to prepare their students to become thoughtful, active participants in the country's social, economic, and political process. The Declaration we are signing today is a public acknowledgment of that responsibility and our promise to fulfill it.

It is with pleasure that I represent Norwich University by signing the Vermont Campus Compact. Colleges and universities have always embodied the very best of our nation's democratic principles. At Norwich University we have always believed that active citizenship is the cornerstone of our republic. Our founder created Norwich because he believed in the importance of citizen-soldiers to the vitality of democracy. Today, we continue to embrace that vision and encourage our students--military, civilian and adult-- toward a life of service to country and community. And we commit as a University community to teaching the importance of lifelong, active participation in the American democratic experience.

Saint Michael's College wholeheartedly endorses the goals and ideals of this declaration. Indeed this institution is founded on the idea of civic responsibility and service to others. We work continuously to make this a reality, not just an avowed position. Over 70 percent of our students engage regularly in volunteer service. Our curriculum, especially our Peace and Justice program, is designed to reinforce service work through the intellectual life of the classroom. This college also has a vibrant student government association which models citizenship in a participatory democracy so that students can take this practice into their adult lives. Our student-run Fire and Rescue Squads answer some 2000 emergency calls a year from five neighboring towns. In so many ways Saint Michael's College lives its belief in the ideals of the Presidents' Fourth of July Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education. We are committed to these ideals.

Speaking at Bennington, Vermont in 1928, Calvin Coolidge said, "If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont."

The "generous store," if it is to fulfill the vision put forth by Mr. Coolidge, must include our colleges and universities-those in Vermont and also throughout the greater American community. For where but in these institutions do indomitable independence, respect for the individual and for the common good, freedom of expression, frank open-mindedness and civic responsibility reside? Where but among the young, the curious and idealistic do the spirit of liberty and democracy thrive? It is an honor to join my colleagues-the presidents of the Vermont colleges and universities-in signing the Presidents' Declaration today, and in helping to nurture the good citizens of tomorrow.

The higher education community has struggled for decades to balance institutional missions of preparing individuals to be lifelong learners and citizen leaders with the widely accepted notion that the college experience is only a means to a well-paying end. The Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education clarifies and supports the fact that in addition to fostering an environment where students develop critical thinking and communication skills, colleges and universities across the nation have an obligation to instill a sense of responsibility to community awareness and engagement in their students.

I applaud my colleagues and am encouraged by their recognition of this important cause.

"Education is thinking about experience," the philosopher John Dewey claimed. If this deceptively simple definition of education is true-and we here at Sterling College believe it is true-then the community of higher learning must attempt not only to help shape the thinking of our students, it first must shape the experiences students are asked to use as a basis for developing their thinking.

What better foundation on which to build this process of action and reflection than through the type of service opportunities made available through Campus Compact. Genuine experience gained in serving others thus becomes a springboard for greater accomplishment. When we instill in our students a sense of service and social responsibility learned from real life situations, we have offered one of the great gifts any institution may bestow on its students. Coincidentally, we have helped them meet what ought to be the foremost requirement for any college degree. While we may agree that knowledge is power, we are teaching out students that a spirit of generosity and "plain hard work" is of equal if not greater value.

Many institutions strive to create a clear educational philosophy, a distinctive campus culture, a coherent curriculum, and accomplished graduates. But too few of us remember that any institution of higher education must also create a climate in which civic responsibility can easily be fostered, indeed, a climate where civic responsibility is an essential piece of the very workings of that institution.

We know that students continue to learn when they leave the classroom. We know that the co-curriculum of an institution is just as important as the curriculum itself. Therefore, it follows that the examples we set as members of the campus community are central to our success. If we wish for our students to be open-minded, informed, and empathetic, then we must behave this way ourselves. We must show them that good decisions require emotional depth, as well as intellectual rigor.

While we have learned that direct experience shapes individual understanding and that learning occurs best in the context of a compelling problem, there is far too little education occurring outside of the classroom, in our surrounding communities, effecting change beyond our campus confines.

This is an exciting time to be in a leadership position in higher education. The research universities of this nation must undergo significant changes in the next few years. As members of a campus community, we are in an excellent position to lead the way in this transformational effort. The universities that will be successful in the next century will be those that become genuinely engaged with their communities so that the intellectual resources of the faculty, staff, and students are available to every citizen of the state. In many ways, this is the true test of whether a university or college president has fully absorbed what it means to be dedicated to creating environments in which the students of today can become the leaders of tomorrow.

An involved citizenry and a responsive legal system are both essential if democracy is to flourish. In recognition of these imperatives, the Vermont Law School community actively fosters civic participation and our curriculum emphasizes the public-serving role of the lawyer. We enhance our legal studies with lessons on understanding, acceptance, and respect for diverse viewpoints, because we know that today's students will need these tools to become tomorrow's effective civic leaders.

VLS is pleased to join its Vermont peers in signing the Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education. Our shared commitment to democratic principles and public participation can be the wellspring for renewed civic contributions and engagement, in our local communities and across the nation.

Higher education as a corporate body feels the tug of the intellect toward the allure of abstraction while its feet are firmly in the bedrock reality of student development. The civic responsibility of higher education is to develop the responsibility of citizenship in each of our students. To profess the former is to be held accountable for the latter. Vermont Technical College accepts its civic responsibility as enacted through the preparation of each of our graduates.

At Woodbury College, civic engagement and community service are highly valued. That is why I am pleased to be among the presidents of Vermont's colleges and universities signing the President's Declaration today. We believe that adult learners come to Woodbury not only to develop career skills, but also to become more powerful, proactive members of their communities. Students arrive seeking new knowledge and skills, but they also carry with them the desire to create justice, establish harmony between people, and develop healthy communities. A consciousness about service is easily nurtured in adult students, who often have a history of citizen participation. Through course work, action learning, workshops and internship experiences, we will continue to help students to develop and refine their personal commitments to community service.