Countdown to Coalition Series Part 3: Sustaining The Public Purpose of Higher Education
“There’s a role we can play around helping to bring people together to work together to build a common good – that’s an area that needs a lot of help and it’s an opportunity for higher education to support engaged democracy.” -David Weerts https://youtu.be/cAHwyd-4aTU In this next installment of our Countdown to Coalition series, David Weerts (University of Minnesota) and Nick Benson (University of Iowa) join IAMNCC Executive Director Rob Barron to discuss how ideas around the public good impact the principles and practices that we use to do community engagement work, what that looks like here in the Midwest,…
Civic Action Academy: Reflection by Louise Ba
Louise Ba ’24, a student at St. Catherine University in Saint Paul, was selected as a Newman Fellow in 2022. The experience of convening with the Newman Fellows in Boston, Massachusetts that year allowed Ms. Ba to meet people from across the globe who served as inspiration and a source of community – one she continues to rely on. Ms. Ba states that “The values of connection, community building, and inspiration stayed with me throughout my experience.” This also led her to continue to be involved in Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact’s offerings for students, including this year’s Civic Action…
Countdown to Coalition Series Part 2: Strengthening Education Through Community and Civic Engagement
In our countdown toward unveiling our new organizational identity and our movement towards identifying as a Coalition, we reached out to Paula O’Loughlin, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Augsburg University. Our Director of Member Services, Kara Trebil-Smith, asked Paula to help us explore the idea of how specifically civic and community engagement strengthens higher education, on a large scale and at the individual level. We share Paula’s interview below. Let’s start by getting to know you a bit. Can you share a bit about your role at Augsburg, your experience in higher education, and…
Embracing Change and Coalition Building
As many of you know, Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact is in the midst of some big and exciting changes. On July 1, 2024, Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact’s affiliate status with Campus Compact will end. While our mission and work will remain the same, we will emerge from the disaffiliation process with a new name, new brand identity, and revitalized vision for our work together. In the summer of 2022, our team began the journey of exploring a new organizational identity following Campus Compact’s decision to dissolve its affiliate-based model. As we were given a two-year timeframe to alter…
MEDIA RELEASE: Announcing 2021 Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact Award Winners
Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact Announces Recipients of 2021 President’s Awards and Selective Engaged Campus Awards April 19, 2021 (DES MOINES and MINNEAPOLIS) Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact (IAMNCC) today announced winners of the 2021 Presidents’ Awards and Engaged Campus Awards. The 2021 Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact awards honor over 90 individuals and organizations whose accomplishments exemplify and celebrate the public purpose at the heart of higher education, nominated by 32 of IAMNCC’s member campuses. Presidents’ Awards recognize outstanding contributions in civic and community engagement by students, faculty, staff, collaborative teams, and community organizations on individual member campuses. Engaged…
Constitution Day Dialogue Guide
You can now download Fulfilling the Promise of Full Citizenship: History as Foresight into the Continued Struggle for Universal Suffrage, Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact’s dialogue guide for Constitution Day this year on September 17. The 2020 Constitution Day Dialogue guide has been compiled to guide dialogue participants in reaching individual and collective understandings about the history and future of voting. The conversations these materials are designed to facilitate are not about debating or contesting the historic or current reality of voter suppression in this country. Rather, these conversations will critically examine case studies and themes in our histories of…
Critical Conversations Dialogue Series Announced
2020 has offered no shortage of opportunities for important dialogue about our nation’s future. While dialogue may be more difficult this year as we all reconsider what it means to be together and safe, it has never been more important. At Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact, we believe higher education has a key role to play in both leading the conversations and preparing students for the skills needed for them. Our Critical Conversations reflective dialogue series will support these critical efforts. Through the fall and into 2021, we will offer monthly Critical Conversations dialogue opportunities for students, staff, faculty, and…
Student Needs During COVID-19
This unprecedented time has impacted everyone across higher education in disruptive and critical ways. Students who were already among the most vulnerable have arguably been impacted the most. The COVID-19 outbreak and pivot to distance learning have exposed and exacerbated socioeconomic and racial inequities, and many students are experiencing housing, food, or other forms of basic needs insecurity. While some lack the tools and resources to effectively engage in online learning, others (as much as 30% according to this LeadMN survey) have been laid off or are otherwise struggling more financially. First generation students, DACA students, international students, and others…
News: Funding for Social Changemaker Challenge
Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact Receives Grant from Principal Foundation for Social Changemaker Challenge For immediate release (Des Moines, IA): Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact today announced a new $20,000 grant award from Principal Foundation to pilot the college-student focused Social Changemaker Challenge. The Challenge will be held in November 2020 and engage business students to solve complex social problems using emerging business skills. Students teams will have a day to propose innovations to meet challenges posed by nonprofit organizations. Working with coaches from Principal, student teams will present their ideas and one will be selected for prize funding for…
Minnesota Campus Compact Releases Annual Report
Minnesota Campus Compact today released its Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Report highlighting the accomplishments of the last year. Read and download below.
Minnesota and Iowa: Working Together
Across our campuses and within Campus Compact, we share a mission to fulfill higher education’s public purpose. That goal has never been more pressing to our communities than it is today. Increased political turmoil and questions about the value of education are forces that feel like they are bearing down on us. Too many people face seemingly insurmountable barriers to be able to flourish in their lives and careers. These are the very forces higher education has a responsibility to address through the education of our students, the quality of our research projects, and our partnerships with communities. At Campus…