Community Perceptions: What Higher Education Can Learn
by Listening to Communities

By Nancy L. Thomas
Project Director, Listening to Communities

“Colleges and universities should hear this: There is an interesting world right outside the gate that you can actually learn about and learn from and make a difference in.” (A Listening to Communities participant)

In June, 1998, approximately 100 educators linked to higher education – college and university presidents, association and foundation leaders, faculty members, center and institute directors, researchers, consultants, and others – convened at Florida State University in Tallahassee to discuss the role of higher education in American society.[1] The topic, broadly stated, was whether and how higher education should respond to the growing concern over widespread lack of interest and participation in public life.  The conference focused on two roles higher education typically plays: colleges and universities as educators of citizens and as institutional members of a community.

Framing “the Problem,” the 1998 Tallahassee Meeting

As anyone can imagine of a large room of academics, there was considerable discussion of “the problem.”  The quality of civic life in America seems to be at risk.  Reports including the National Commission on Civic Renewal’s 1998 report, A Nation of Spectators, and calls for action by political scientists such as Robert Putnam warn that our nation’s civic health has steadily declined since 1974.  Americans do not vote, much less run for office.  They distrust the political process and leaders.  They volunteer at levels insufficient to support community needs. On campuses, political activism is low; students do not know the names of their elected officials much less campaign for aspiring politicians. If, as Alexis de Tocqueville observed of the United States 150 years ago, American democracy is strong because of its vigorous voluntary associations and emphasis on community, then their decline bodes reservations about the strength of American society.

Others framed the problem as moral and social in nature. Too many Americans are preoccupied with personal rights, individual choice, professional development, and economic prosperity without a corresponding commitment to the common good.  Basic values such as civility and strong families are in decline.  On and off campus, apathy and cynicism are high; a sense of social responsibility and commitment are low.

Common to most frameworks was the concern that Americans are polarized by group – political, religious, racial, ethnic, economic, geographic, class – affiliations.  In their most extreme form, deep convictions and affiliations generate acts of intolerance and hate.  Less obvious but nonetheless disconcerting, this polarization inhibits effective, shared problem solving.  Unable or unwilling to understand and work across differences, Americans cannot work collectively to develop innovative approaches to solving pressing social, economic, and ethical issues.

No room of academics would be worth its salt had the discourse also not stumbled over definitions.  What terms can we use to describe both the problems and strategies to resolve them? Should we refer to the broad realm of concern as civic, public, social, or democratic?  Does the term service imply a hierarchical, paternalistic relationship between campuses and communities?  Does the institution’s outreach mission fulfill its public (if one chooses that term) mission?  If the problem is more complex than declining volunteerism and voting, should it be framed in terms of moral reasoning and development? Although no consensus was reached, reflecting a subtle shift in thinking, the title of the overall project was changed from “The Forum on Higher Education and Civic Responsibility” to “The Forum on Higher Education and Democracy.”

Where are the Colleges and Universities?

Language aside, consensus emerged around several strategies for renewing higher education’s historical civic mission and revitalizing John Dewey’s image of education for democracy.  Those strategies include the need for a national network that can serve in a convening, communicating, and advocating role.[2]  The network should target research universities because of their influence on higher education policies and practices.[3]  Colleges and university presidents should exercise their authority and support these efforts.[4]  Educators need to find ways to exchange views and create common language around civic education and engagement in higher education.[5]

Higher education also needs to involve communities as it seeks to strengthen its link to democracy and public life.  It needs to find ways to bring university, community, religious, philanthropic, business, and government leaders together so that higher education’s civic role can be jointly defined.

Listening to Communities

The American Council on Education (ACE) developed Listening to Communities as a way to explore with local communities how higher education can best fulfill its role as educator of American citizens and as partner in collectively addressing community concerns.[6] Through a series of regional forums, Listening to Communities invited a range of civic, business, philanthropic, religious, government, and educational leaders to share with representatives of local colleges and universities their views on higher education’s role in a democracy. Specifically, forum participants were asked in advance to reflect on two pivotal questions:

ð     How can higher education fulfill its goal of engaging today’s youth in an active, community-oriented life?

ð     How can higher education and communities work together to strengthen civic life?

The dialogues were framed around two simple questions, What works? and What can higher education be doing better?  Pilot forums were convened in eight communities nationally.[7]  Most locations were chosen for geographic diversity and based on perceptions that their overall civic health is relatively high, partly due to contributions of local colleges and universities.

What emerged from this exploratory initiative is reflected in four sections of this paper. The first section reviews what works, partnerships that, when done well, add significant value to communities.  Colleges and universities are not, contrary to some views, isolating themselves.  Model curricular and outreach initiatives exist.

Nonetheless, Listening to Communities participants – more than 200 civic leaders and involved citizens – expressed the compelling concern that higher education is not cultivating their successors. While part of the problem is quantitative – insufficient numbers of individuals committed to public life – it is more notably qualitative. What’s needed, and what is summarized in the second section of this paper, is a “whole new way of thinking,” one that addresses both the skills and conscience students will need to address pressing social, economic, political, and ethical issues.

Listening to Communities participants provided valuable insight on how colleges and universities can cultivate the next generation of active, community-oriented citizens. Summarized in the third section, participants’ recommendations emphasize teaching and learning, specifically, integrating throughout courses and across disciplines civics, ethics, and society as text, interdisciplinary approaches, and innovative pedagogy.

Finally, reflected in the final section, forum participants underscored the importance of dialogue with communities as a first step toward creating a vision of the community.  This vision can then serve as the foundation for fostering students’ skills and consciences and for successful and sustainable partnerships. Mobilizing around that shared vision will, as one forum participant expressed, “strengthen the fabric of democracy.”

What works: Partnerships with Communities

Forum participants identified several significant ways that area colleges and universities work
collaboratively with communities to strengthen them, including:

Informing Public Policy through Research: By supporting faculty outreach and applied scholarship, universities can parlay knowledge to support social change. Many agreed with one participant who said, “Legislators need to think more before they act.  Area colleges and universities can help bridge that gap.”  Countless participants relayed examples where local universities worked with government agencies and local nonprofit organizations to research, analyze, develop, and assess public policy proposals. Collectively, they generated alternative problem-solving strategies and even challenged or supported proposed legislation. In many cases, the impact was long term.  For example, one graduate school of social science created a Commission on Poverty consisting of a wide range of community and university representatives. From that Commission evolved the city’s Community Building Initiative and research that then served as the foundation for the city’s application as an enterprise zone. Praising one university’s urban institute, a participant said, “It is like having your own Rand or Brookings Institute next door.  And because it is local, it has more credibility.”

Higher education can enhance its impact on social reform by supporting action-oriented research. Expressing a view supported by others, one participant argued:

I would like to see the initiative, for example, for educational reform coming from the academy rather than state legislatures.  The whole area of health care cries out for activism and transformation that is informed by research that should come out of the academy.  One might argue that all of the research is there and on the shelves collecting dust.  But I am talking about action . . . I think it is politically necessary for every institution to be engaged in the shaping of public policy, policies that will be in place for decades in the future. 

Higher education’s responsiveness to pressing social needs emerged as a problem. Informing social policy and playing a more active role in social reform should be timely. Expressing frustration, one participant said:

What is the relationship between universities and social justice?  Our higher education institutions have been slow to engage critical questions such as affirmative action. Two presidents have given what will probably become a classic work in this area – The Shape of the River by Bowen and Bok – but look at the time period in terms of the debate and the appearance of the book.  The opponents of affirmative action have almost won the argument!  And now we get the great research of two highly respected scholars. That will be useful.  But a lot of damage has been done already.

Forum participants also expressed concern over how research projects are designed and pursued.  Pressing for participatory methods, forum participants suggested that community-based research start with dialogue and mutual planning involving the people most likely to be affected by the policies or practices under scrutiny.  Offering a process for all community-university partnerships, one participant suggested, “Come in with Plan A, listen to my Plan B, and then we will create and implement Plan C.”  Eventually, projects should be “seamless, where you are not certain who had the idea originally.”  Other participants agreed, saying “We will work with you, but we will not rubber-stamp a proposal for you.”  

Supporting student community-based service and learning: Forum participants expressed enthusiasm for the involvement of local college students as volunteers, mentors, and role models for area youth, for student “learning by doing.”  Many commended student volunteers and interns for their poise, maturity, dedication, concern, and even their appearance and manners.  “These students serve as good examples for younger children,” one community participant stated. “Student mentors broaden the possibilities for their futures – college – something that these children might not otherwise be exposed to.”

Volunteer and service learning experiences, however, need some reworking. One participant said,

My organization [provides] a variety of internship experiences – medical, social work, a whole range of them – that basically are presented to us, universities saying, “Here are our students.  Here is what they need to learn. Plug them in.”  It seems to me that a more meaningful thing that would allow for more of a continuous evolution of students would be, on some sort of a timely basis, to have universities engaged directly at those field placement sites.  And a dialogue that says, what do you need?  And what can the university contribute to make these students more suited when they come back to you, when they assume their role in the community? 

Forum participants urged higher education to link community-based learning and volunteer experiences to the student’s present and future roles as members of a community.  Students, participants urged, can be encouraged to consider not just the campus but also the surrounding area as their community. Field placement sites can contribute to how students define their community while in college.  Students can be “oriented” by both the university and the host.  One participant gave an example of a scavenger hunt, organized by his community building organization, so that student interns could learn about the community.  Another reported that at his organization, student volunteers and interns go through the same orientation process that paid employees or long-term volunteers complete.  Students then feel that they play a legitimate and serious role in those organizations.

In one region, first-year students work with multiple government offices to organize and implement Work Day, a day of city beautification.  Students work in teams, painting the homes of senior citizens, planting public gardens, cleaning parks, or stenciling fish (as symbols warning against dumping toxic waste) on drain caps.  Forum participants described with enthusiasm the long-term relationships formed between government officials and students, a welcome side effect of the overall physical enhancement to the community.  “This program,” a city official commented, ”is a powerful corrective to the ‘Lone Ranger mentality’ that dominates society, the view that problems are solved by individual action.  In fact, they are solved by community cohesion.”

Typical student community-based learning experiences involve single-site projects.  Universities can reframe these activities around issues rather than places. Internships can be formed around three-way coalitions involving the community building or nonprofit organization, government, and the university. One participant noted, “Government agencies are set up as isolated units.  Colleges and universities can draw from multiple disciplines to advise an isolated government agency on several avenues of reform.  This elevates the solution.”  It also, participants noted, would elevate the learning experience to students playing a role of collector and conveyor of multiple approaches to a problem.  

Assuming a Convening Role: Participants valued campuses that play a leadership role to spotlight public policy concerns.  Commonly, campuses organize and host public forums, roundtables, and private meetings around pressing social issues, activities that “bring together like-minded people to solve problems collectively.” Viewed as possessing both expertise and authority, colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to mobilize people from the community, private industry, the government, and the campus to identify and explore problems, share knowledge and views, consider and discuss multiple solutions, and implement programs. These initiatives can be particularly powerful when the college or university president visibly assumes a leadership role in addressing social, economic, and political matters.

Creating the image of a "college town": In rural areas and defined urban regions, forum participants were particularly enthusiastic about the notion of creating a college town. Offering a simple but compelling goal, one participant summarized, “I am interested in maintaining this town as a nice place to raise my children.”  Regions that are home to quality institutions are viewed as attractive places to live and work.  “The secret is out,” said one participant of the considerable value added to the community by the programs and activities of the local university. They valued access to campus facilities, such as athletic buildings, museums, theaters, and spaces for meetings, and access to sophisticated technology. Visible college presidents were viewed as valuable community assets. In one region, characterized as predominantly white but with a growing Latino population, the local college played a notable role by attracting culturally and racially diverse faculty members, students, and staff. Their community engagement enhanced projects, particularly in providing role models for area youth of color. Similarly, campuses can revitalize a community by providing incentives to employees to live nearby. Student volunteers, presidential leadership, increased diversity, access to facilities and technology, cultural events, and economic contributions, cumulatively, provide welcome vitality to communities.

What’s Needed: A “Whole New Way of Thinking”

When done well, university-community partnerships – faculty applied research and outreach scholarship, student community-based service, institutional leadership around public issues and policy, and a college town image – are recognized and valued by community leaders. “We have a lot of good initiatives underway,” said one participant echoing the views of many others.

“But if you look at the magnitude of the needs,” that same participant continued, “we have a need for a larger scale.” What we are seeing in university-community engagement, many commented, is a start. One participant explained,

What we have here is a raging forest fire and too few people fighting it.  [This city] is replete with challenges, particularly in the core of the city.  We learned last week that our urban schools did not achieve any of the eighteen performance indicators required by the State of schools.  Six out of ten children in our urban schools will not graduate.  Tens of thousands of children are in real trouble if we were to look at their case files.  We are, in many ways, hemorrhaging the base of our economy in the city. We need to look for new ways to organize around these larger issues that get us to the scale we need to have an impact.

Partly a problem of numbers, forum participants noted that too few individuals committed to public work are coming through the pipeline.  Many expressed the pragmatic concern that American society faces a serious shortage of teachers, superintendents, nurses, clergy, counselors, and others who choose to pursue service professions as a career path. Forum participants criticized what they perceive to be a show-me-the-money attitude in students, an attitude that is sometimes mirrored by the institutions. One participant stated,

As a community organizer, I find that it is nearly impossible to find graduates of local institutions who are interested in my kind of work.  And I find that the institutions are not receptive when I approach them for volunteers or interns who can be groomed.

 Graduates of local institutions, they worry, simply seem uninterested in pursuing public work as a profession.

More than a matter of career path, education should be a matter, as one participant stated, of soul. Listening to Communities participants – community builders, neighborhood organizers, teachers and superintendents, religious leaders, politicians, nonprofit directors, agency heads, fire fighters and police officers, business leaders, and foundation heads alike – repeatedly expressed concern that higher education is failing to cultivate their successors.  Describing something less distinct than career choice, participants opined that higher education should strive to develop students’ consciences.  They urged colleges and universities to educate students to “an undisciplined-based, complex way of being – a soulful way of being, and smart!”

Suggesting that higher education rethink definitions of student achievement, forum participants advocated a shift in emphasis from “graduating professionals” to “graduating productive citizens.”  Higher education can cultivate in all students a sense of ownership of social problems and a sense of responsibility and commitment to their communities.

Equally important, students can learn to apply their knowledge in skillful ways that are relevant to changing community issues.  Articulating the competencies civic leaders hope graduates will demonstrate, one participant explained:

We know that we can train social workers.  We have good, for example, child welfare workers. But there is this absolute zone that I do not think has been thought through yet.  Where and how is the preparation for people whose job is not social work in the classic sense as it is social and economic engagement of people?   It is waiting to happen . . . It is crosscutting and interdisciplinary.  It follows the trends of community builders.  It makes the connection between human capital strategies and place-based strategies.  Currently, the people who train people for jobs are not the same people who are doing, for example, affordable housing or welfare reform.  They are in separate camps.  One is accused of building a ghetto.  The other is accused of only looking out for individuals who have no sense of community. The more advanced educational organizations are trying to break down that barrier.  They are trying to do both.

Cultivating the Next Generation of Active, Community-Oriented Citizens: Successor Education

The Listening to Communities forums challenged educators with many significant questions: How do we foster in students a sense of individual and collective responsibility for pressing social, economic, and ethical issues?  How can we cultivate better communicators? How can we mobilize individuals to work cooperatively? Forum participants provided several poignant recommendations on how higher education can cultivate successors, individuals with conscience and skills.  Their suggestions, notably, involve primarily efforts in the classroom using society as text:

Teach the public relevance of each discipline: Forum participants urged higher education to make the case for public relevance in all disciplines. Some participants argued that the focus should be on undergraduate, particularly a strong liberal, education. Others, however, noted the relevance to professional programs as well. One participant stated,

We ought to be able to devise a way for students getting any kind of degree, in science, engineering, the arts, whatever, as part of the subject they are studying, to have an opportunity to spend at least a quarter or semester in a government or nonprofit setting practicing that particular field of interest. For example, in a business program, how does that area of expertise get used, play out, in the real world?   Not so that they can get a better job but so that somehow they can relate that area of study to the community and to what it means to be a member of a community.

As another example, participants in one forum considered the implications of adding a transit system to a major road.  Engineering students can learn not simply the physics of the project, but the social, economic, and political implications of the project as well.

Encourage interdisciplinary learning: Participants lamented that student learning has become too much of a series of “disconnected, overspecialized fields” to be of much relevance to larger society.  One participant reasoned, “Real solutions to problems are not specialized.  Real solutions are interdisciplinary.”  Civic leaders argued that “higher education does our country a disservice by disconnecting specialties.”  Universities might consider interdisciplinary majors such as Family Studies or Wellness as holistic approaches to student skill development. 

 Integrate themes of social justice, particularly racial diversity, and civics “across the curriculum”: Communities face many divisive issues relating to racial and ethnic diversity that need to be addressed.  One participant from a predominantly white community noted that her community offers few role models for minority youth. People of color, she noted, are frequently “one” in a room of white people.  While this is a common situation and most people of color function well, the reverse, she noted, would not be true.  White Americans lack the understanding, empathy, and exposure to feel the same level of comfort were they to be “the only” white person in a room.  Learning experiences designed to raise both conscience and comfort around diversity are essential components to quality education.

Other participants recommended that higher education consider a civics-across-the-curriculum approach.  One participant suggested that campuses select civic themes, such as the problems associated with urban poverty, to build into the curriculum across all disciplines. Such a focus should involve "more than a one-day bus trip to a poor community” and can be designed to generate deeper understanding of public life. Universities can provide all students with meaningful opportunities to “see how communities and governments work.”

 Colleges and universities can incorporate social, ethical, and economic themes across the curriculum in ways that are crosscutting and integrated rather than isolated or add-ons.  One participant said, “Universities have the intellectual base to raise and spark dialogue on issues that separate and isolate us – race, religion, ethnicity.”  This is an essential role higher education can play.

Model and teach collective problem solving skills: Innovative teaching methods can enhance the way students learn to frame, analyze, and resolve problems. Commenting on the value of the case method, one participant said:

If you are in trouble, say, with a bone or another part of your body, and you go to a university hospital, you are going to be visited by 8-10 bright young people from around the community or around the world.  They are there with a senior person.  They are not only looking at you and talking about your case.  There is a wonderful mentoring, an exchange, in that room.  Why not the same kind of approach [to reforming] our public schools with a master teacher and schools of education?     . . . If we do not have the trained, educated work force we need, [then] the challenge is for business schools to go into high schools and elementary schools [with] working teams involved on a practical level in solving problems.  This mentoring, this apprenticeship, this collaboration with the real community in addressing community holds promise.

Broadening the discussion on teaching methods, some participants suggested that colleges and universities teach students collective problem solving skills that apply in any setting to address multiple issues.  Those skills include the ability to participate in a discussion, facilitate or moderate a dialogue by asking the right questions, listen with empathy and for understanding, think critically and constructively, resolve conflict, advocate a position, and negotiate or mediate toward solutions. While these skills are best taught through experience, they can be experienced within the classroom.

Foster personal ethics: Colleges and universities can play a significant role in helping students consider how they will balance their professional, personal, and community roles while students and after graduation.  They can nurture personal inquiry and growth through dialogue and reflection. Listening to Communities participants suggested that institutions help students consider, “To what should I devote my life?” “How can I be part of a solution to a problem?” and “What do I care about passionately?” Civic leaders urged colleges and universities to make those questions “part of the culture of the institution.” One participant stated,

If 63% of our urban school children do not graduate [from high school,] it is his business. It is my business.  It belongs to every single one of us.  We have to get beyond the point of saying, “I go about my daily affairs,” or “That is not my problem.”  We have to think about working together to rebuild this community from the bottom up.

Students can be engaged in conversations and action around issues such as low graduation rates in local schools, issues that, at first glance, do not seem to be their problem. Through dialogue and engagement, institutions can provide students opportunities to ask how they as individuals can take ownership of and responsibility for community-based problems.

Encourage – Risk – Student Activism: Seeing the connection between student learning and outreach initiatives that shape public policy decisions, forum participants advised that higher education should not simply risk but encourage student activism.  One participant said:

I happen to be of a generation that believes that students ought to be activists.  Faculty ought to be engaged in that activism in such ways that it becomes a part of educational excellence . . . This is part of the history of the dynamic nature of learning and of American history and the role of education in the shaping of American democracy.

Another agreed, adding:

Institutions that want student engagement must also be willing to risk the activism that that engagement might generate, and some of the discomfort that might be associated with that activism.  But also look at the greater prize, how that activism can transform the academy and benefit the community.  If we want students involved in voter turnout, we must also face what they might vote for and against.  Or generate movements in that direction.  Engagement might not be comfortable, but education is a growth process.  It might not always be comfortable.

Creating New Models Through a Shared Community Vision

Listening to Communities participants urged colleges and universities to “explore their vision about what a community ought to be, and how that vision will translate into student learning.”  Through dialogues on campus and in communities, colleges and universities and their communities can jointly shape a vision that both addresses local concerns and institutional goals of preparing the next generation of citizens.  The dialogues can be enhanced if they include broad representation from religious and cultural organizations, community groups, nonprofit organizations, foundations, public agencies and levels of government, foundations, multiple disciplines within the institution, and students.

One participant suggested that universities and community leaders jointly compose a “memorandum of understanding” that reflects a shared philosophy on institutional and student responsibility and community engagement. This is not without precedent. In one Listening to Communities forum, the president, the college, and the community were so interconnected that forum participants could recite the civic portion of the college’s mission statement. Forum participants observed that the college takes seriously its civic mission and elevates the principles reflected in that statement to play an integral role in the academic, work, and personal lives of the faculty, staff, and students. 

Urban communities are often home to many kinds of higher education institutions.  Forum participants urged higher education institutions to work collaboratively to generate a vision with the community and to avoid duplication and disconnected but parallel initiatives. Collaboration among diverse colleges and universities “can bring enormous intellectual horsepower” to a community, said one participant, but institutions need to “focus on their comparative advantages.”  Perhaps, he continued:

Community colleges should focus on workforce development.  State undergraduate colleges should focus on teacher training and economic development.  Major research universities should focus on research and graduate education.  The independent colleges should focus on liberal arts education.

Overly prescriptive roles probably are not necessary, but campuses can increase their impact if they work from their missions and strengths. 

What would be the appropriate level of interdependence between a community and a university? One participant suggested that higher education support “a new model, that of a community-university,” where research and teaching are grounded in the local community; students come from that community; the president and faculty members reside locally; university employees run for local public offices, volunteer visibly, or serve on local public commissions; graduates would remain, and; community and university interests and concerns are shared.

Other participants rejected this image, saying it was impractical.  “Universities can create space to enable some on campus to pursue this work.  Do not think that they can reach all.”  Another participant added, “You cannot take an elite institution and try to ‘fit’ it into a poor community.  This is unrealistic.”

In shaping a shared vision, dialogues between universities and communities can be deepened well beyond this report. Designed as an exploratory listening exercise, a first step, Listening to Communities did not uncover all views nor are these findings supported by a statistical analysis.  It also did not reach the question of what can reasonably be expected of higher education. “Colleges and universities are not organized to be hard-hitting agents of social change,” one participant summarized.  “They are really just a collection of entrepreneurs.  So at some point, you have to ask what is realistic to be expected of these organizations.”  He continued,

It may be that higher education continues to do what it does well, which is hopefully educate young people and do research, and will then organize itself in the community differently to accomplish some of the [things we have discussed.] On the other hand, it may not be able to.  All of us have worked both inside and outside universities and have been both dumbfounded by the amount of good stuff that comes out and also frustrated by trying to get anything out of these places that really impacts the kinds of things that those of us who run nonprofit organizations care about.  We need to hold honest conversations about what is real and what is imagined here.

Like most exploratory exercises, Listening to Communities raises more questions than it answers.  What are the barriers to implementing the recommendations contained in this report?  What resources would higher education need to reduce class sizes, encourage small group discussions, host forums on campus, revise programs around interdisciplinary approaches, and support community-based research?  How can higher education be expected to generate civic leaders when there exists a significant salary gap between for profit and nonprofit fields?  How can communities and higher education work collaboratively to overcome these, and other, barriers?

CONCLUSION

Undoubtedly, contemporary higher education plays a significant role in shaping American society.  Colleges and universities educate the key players in civic life: leaders – in government, the clergy, philanthropy, and the professions – and teachers, who are responsible for educating the next generation of citizens.  Equally and possibly more important, higher education plays a major role in educating and shaping the values of another group of important players: parents. 

Commensurately, most colleges and universities have in place a wide range of activities – extension and adult learning programs, university-run hospitals and clinics, faculty consulting and academic outreach, partnerships with community groups, student volunteer centers, and public access to cultural or athletic events, to name a few – that fulfill their civic missions.[8]

Yet despite these appreciable activities, forum participants, exemplars of civic engagement, worried that these efforts are simply not enough.  Colleges and universities do not seem to be producing enough successors, the next generation of civic leaders and exemplary citizens.  Higher education needs what some perceive as a new approach, a shift in emphasis from graduating professionals to graduating productive citizens. Institutional leaders and faculty members can reexamine their educational programs and institutional values by asking, “Are we adequately cultivating the consciences and skills of our students so that they will choose to lead active, community oriented lives?” and “Is this campus acting as an exemplary institutional member of this community and larger society?”

Colleges and universities can develop with local communities and with each other a vision for the community that is linked to a broader perspective on American democracy. This vision can then serve as the text to shape course content and teaching methods, co-curricular programs, faculty scholarship, public access and events, and community-university partnerships. While pursuing liberal and/or professional training, students can be encouraged to consider how they will integrate their professional, personal, and civic lives and be challenged to play active roles strengthening communities.  Students can develop skills essential to both their chosen fields and to the community, skills that include the ability to apply knowledge, to consider interdisciplinary approaches to problems, to lead and participate in discussions, to solve problems collectively, and to see the public relevance in their work. 

These recommendations – create a vision of the community and broader society; support complementary outreach initiatives designed to have social impact; and educate in ways that develop students’ consciences and skills to cultivate more active and involved citizens – can be strengthened through dialogues on campus and in communities. Dialogue is the common denominator of all recommendations in this report.  It fosters more collaborative and constructive initiatives, builds trust and relationships, and deepens student learning. Dialogue can play a pivotal role in enhancing participation, collaboration, and coordination of civic education and community engagement, which, in turn, can strengthen the fabric of democracy.

Appendix: Action Strategies

     In many forums, participants with campus representatives collectively generated action strategies.  The following list reflects a synthesis of those strategies:

• Assessment: Devise ways to assess civic learning and community partnerships.

• Encourage student activism: Capitalize on the student interest that exists and is growing. Understand that student involvement does not mirror the student activism of the ’60s.  Analyze where students are now, then find ways to match student values and external community needs.
  
  
•  Reflection: Increase opportunities for students and faculty members to reflect on their community-based activities.
  
   
• Enhance service learning experiences: Ask hosting community organizations to write “job descriptions” for student interns. Collaboratively develop learning points for students doing community-based work. Collaborate with communities to conduct orientation for all newcomers (faculty, staff, students, new trustees, etc.) about the community.  Require students to complete a senior thesis or capstone with a community-based component.
  
  
• Act! Revisit these action ideas, hold focus groups and open discussions on them, prioritize them, and then act.  Ask the institution’s president to convene other presidents to compare strategies. Implement programs and then convene more discussions to assess them.

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