Like many organizations, Campus Compact has been challenged by the pandemic and its economic impacts. We have also been reminded of the profound importance of our work in supporting colleges and universities as they contribute to the wellbeing of their communities, our country, and our world.
Over the past eight months, we have asked ourselves how we should change to ensure that every resource available to us is maximally effective in supporting our members, advancing our mission, and moving us closer to achieving the more just, more inclusive, more participatory, and more sustainable America we seek. I want to share the key elements of our answer to that question.
Campus Compact will be reorganizing our staff to better support members’ substantive needs for tools, resources, professional development, and peer engagement. We are redefining staff roles to ensure that all of our members have easy and consistent access to the deep expertise of our people. Specifically, senior staff will be focused on faculty and staff development, student civic development, institutional planning and change, and AmeriCorps programs.
One key purpose in this reorganization is to enable us to facilitate connections among campuses and professionals based on the affinities, identities, and roles that matter most to you. In the coming months and beyond, you will see new opportunities to engage in learning and action with people from institutions that are similar based on institution type or community setting. You will also see new opportunities to learn together with people in a similar professional role—or who simply share a specific interest with you.
For the first time, we will also have a single point person to ensure that all Campus Compact members directly supported by the national office can find the information and resources they need. Natalie Furlett, an experienced leader in the Campus Compact network with a history as a campus-based professional, will assume the role of Director of Partnerships and Member Engagement.
Campus Compact members located in states with affiliated state and regional Compacts will continue to be supported by our marvelous affiliates across the country. These changes enable us to look forward toward a growing and invigorated coalition that is increasingly consistent with our shared values. That means reaching out to categories of institutions that have historically been under-represented in the Campus Compact network—community colleges and Minority Serving Institutions, including HBCUs, HSIs, and Tribal Colleges—learning from them, and changing what we do and how we do it so that our work meets the needs of colleges and universities serving the broad diversity of students and communities across the United States. We believe a more nimble team, driven by programmatic expertise, will enable us to make that commitment real.
We are still in the midst of a national challenge of historic dimensions, and none of us knows when it will end. At Campus Compact, we concluded we could not wait for the dust to settle to make decisions about how we would move forward, gather our strength, and increase our effectiveness in supporting our members’ efforts to build the communities and the country we seek through civic and community engagement.
You should always feel free to reach out to me or Natalie Furlett with any questions or thoughts—or if you want to know how to get more involved in Campus Compact. My colleagues and I appreciate the commitment of all of our members to the common good, and we look forward to continuing its pursuit together.