In November 2015, Chancellor Rebecca Blank signed the Campus Compact 30th Anniversary Action Statement, which is a commitment to the public purposes of higher education. Campus Compact is a national organization that advances “the public purposes of over 1,000 colleges and universities by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility.”
Their anniversary action statement concluded with a pledge to develop a Campus Civic Action Plan by March 20, 2017. The Chancellor’s office identified the Morgridge Center for Public Service as the lead unit for developing this plan for the UW-Madison campus. Our goal with creating the civic action plan was to identify ways to better support this work, eliminate barriers to it, and encourage new and inventive ways to conduct civic action and community engagement. The Morgridge Center recruited a committee of 16 campus and community members to put together this Action Plan over a 6 month period. These committee members generously gave their time, energy and insight to this process.