Uniting college campuses to share civic engagement experiences
Abstract
College campuses are eager to share information about advancing their civic mission and to gain knowledge from each other. Maine Campus Compact wanted to offer other colleges a forum to meet with campuses from their immediate geographic area so they could communicate about the commonalities of their work and partnerships, with the hope of accomplishing more together than they could independently. Maryli Tiemann, Program Director of Maine Campus Compact, submitted this effective practice in January 2007.Issue
College campuses seeking to further citizenship education may often feel that their efforts are isolated and that they could learn—and accomplish—more by connecting with other colleges engaged in similar goals.Action
Maine Campus Compact (MCC) presented their Campus Compact Steering Committee with the idea of gathering with other colleges for round table discussions to share their knowledge and experiences. To this end, they presented the Steering Committee with a list of all of the colleges in Maine, and asked them for input as to which colleges they considered part of their geographical area.MCC then took the following steps to implement the round tables:
- An invitation was extended to:
- The sites which had enthusiastic community service directors and Maine Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA programs
- The contact person for service-learning or community service for each surrounding campus
- Any other campus staff who were engaged in community work
- A faculty consultant was chosen to act as a facilitator for the round table event.
- The program director made a personal trip to the campus that was not a member of the Compact to invite them to a round table and took educational materials about MCC along with the invitation. This resulted in the nonmember college joining the upcoming round table.
- For other area round tables the program director invited neighboring colleges by phone, because this was less costly than traveling to offer a personal invitation.
- Food was provided at each round table—including breakfast treats and lunch on the day scheduled.
Preparation
Recruiting
Miscellaneous
Lessons Learned
- Inviting other area campuses and nonmembers of the Compact resulted in goodwill and added to the quality of discussion and generating of ideas.
- Rather than enlisting a faculty member to do so, it is best for program directors to facilitate round tables, because it can help keep the interactions more informal (participants feel more comfortable because of their prior relationship with the director).
- Phone invitations resulted in greater attendance than personal visits.
- Choice of venue is important—at least for the first meeting. Not surprisingly the most prestigious campus had better results at attracting participants. However, subsequent meetings can be held at various locations with satisfactory attendance.
- Eating food together provided time to share even more ideas and participate in informal networking.
Context
Maine Campus Compact has had meetings in the Central Maine area (Waterville/Augusta), in Orono/Bangor and in Bath/Brunswick.
Meeting places are as diverse as are the participants—with communities varying widely—from rural campuses that are a fair distance from each other, to metropolitan campuses less than ten miles apart. Some round tables have many participants while the Bath/Brunswick round table had only four attendees.
Maine Campus Compact is a coalition of 18 member campuses whose purpose is to catalyze and lead a movement to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education. Their goal is to transform campuses in ways that develop better informed, active citizen problem-solvers, stronger communities, and a more just democratic society, honoring the belief that campuses must be vital agents and architects of a flourishing democracy.
Maine Campus Compact works with member campuses to:
- Improve the quality of education by developing academic and co-curricular practices that cultivate the skills and habits of citizen problem-solving in students
- Engage faculty in community-based teaching and scholarship focused on societal concerns
- Develop collaborative partnerships among campuses and communities
- Advance leadership throughout the state in addressing critical issues and strengthening democracy.
Maine Campus Compact is part of a growing Campus Compact nationwide network that includes over 1000 college and university presidents, 31 state compacts, and a national office.
Outcome
All of the round tables so far have been effective in addressing the participants' needs and generating ideas. Diverse participants report varying agendas and direction of progress—since these are implemented on an individual basis.
A few of the ideas that have been generated from these round tables are:
- A document allocation where each campus brings copies of their forms/paperwork to distribute and discuss.
- A common celebration with community partners to communicate what is happening with civic engagement on various campuses.
- A collaborative community project, which would be addressed from various colleges at once.
- A shared AmeriCorps*VISTA member, who would focus on one issue (for example: access and retention with state school district grantees) throughout multiple campuses.
- Working with United Way (or similar nonprofit organization) to establish a mutual database/website that multiple campuses could use so that community partners would communicate with just one technical site.
Operating as a unified entity creates ample opportunities for greater success on college campuses and in local communities. An added bonus is the collegial connections among some campuses that hadn't previously existed, even when the participants worked on the same campus! There is also the likelihood that this type of combined effort will encourage more faculty to integrate civic engagement into their courses.
Evidence
As of this writing (January 2007) the Maine Campus Compact round tables are so new there has yet to be a formal evaluation process, but the continued numbers of participants, the networking that is taking place, the inclusion of major shareholders such as United Way, 2-1-1 and Volunteer Maine are evidence that the idea is meeting a need and making a difference.Posted On
February 14, 2007For More Information