Writing as Engagement – Student News at UIUC
Fostering an independent student news source is one of the most visible contributions to civic engagement education that a college or university can make. An individual’s ability to keep current with news and access a public forum to lend their voice to discourse is vital to inclusive civic engagement. While attending an institution of higher education, students have a unique opportunity to learn how to act as a stakeholder of a community. For many, campus life is the first taste of truly having a vested interest in the development of their community. And yet, for most the campus experience is…
Civic Technology – A Community Asset to Build Upon
You can read/download the research done by MySociety referenced in this blog post here. On Tuesday, The Chicago Community Trust held its annual On the Table event, which shines a spotlight on issues of community interest and provides a platform for collaborative analysis. The conversation was led by community organizations around Chicago including the YMCA, the Chicago Public Library and many others. Over the course of the day, thousands of civic-minded problem solvers met to discuss unique problems our society faces, and how to address them through civic action. Civic Technology as a Community Asset We attended Microsoft’s On the…
ILCC Welcomes University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign
We are proud to announce that the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign has joined with Illinois Campus Compact to advance the public purpose of higher education. UIUC’s support is vital as we continue to cultivate a culture of civic engagement on campuses across Illinois. As the largest campus in Illinois, UIUC will prove a useful knowledge resource for all of our member institutions. With such strong ties to the Urbana-Champaign community and such a broad array of civic-minded programming, UIUC’s accumulated civic experience will be invaluable to our collaborative efforts. Uniting Sister Cities Although UIUC is a new member of…
Building an Inclusive Knowledge Structure for Community Engagement – Nadinne Cruz
On April 11th, Illinois Campus Compact hosted Nadinne Cruz, former director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, at University of Chicago for a workshop on engaging the diverse communities that surround colleges and universities. Throughout the day attendees learned more of Cruz’s unique background as a proponent of greater equality and civil rights in the Philippines during Ferdinand Marcos’ time in power. After contending with political repression in the Philippines, Cruz brought her unique perspective on civic engagement to higher education in the United States. Although we enjoy a culture of broad political acceptance in the…
Reflections on the Thomas Ehrlich Award by Andrew Furco
The following letter is a guest post by Andrew Furco, Associate Vice-President for Public Engagement and Professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota. Andrew Furco is the 2012 recipient of the Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award. By Andrew Furco Receiving the Thomas Ehrlich Award in 2012 was truly an honor. This award, in particular, has meant a great deal to me. I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Ehrlich in 1992, while a graduate student at UC Berkeley working on my dissertation on service-learning. And meeting him was a turning point for me — one that changed the course of…
STEM Highlight – Illinois Institute of Technology’s Global Leaders Program
This past weekend, Illinois Institute of Technology held the annual Community Innovation Project (CI Project) presentations for their Global Leaders Program. IIT’s Global Leaders Program lends the institute’s considerable tech resources and renown to influence talented young Chicagoans to aspire towards a future made better through skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Meet Illinois’ 2017 Newman Civic Fellows!
Five students from across Illinois were nominated by their College and University Presidents for the 2017 Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellows Award for their outstanding work in civic engagement leadership. These students are among 273 nominees from Campus Compacts across the nation. Illinois’ Future Leaders This year, Illinois is represented by five incredible student-leaders. These students were nominated by their University President because their contributions to campus and community life stood out. To learn more about these outstanding students and to read excerpts of their nomination letters, click their names below: Bianca Mena of Dominican University Lindsey Earl of Illinois…
ILCC is hiring a full-time Assistant Director!
Illinois Campus Compact (ILCC) is looking for a full time Assistant Director. This position will work closely with our AmeriCorps VISTA program, ILCC member programming, and provide administrative support for the organization. The Assistant Director provides leadership in the development and implementation of programs, events, and member services as well as monitors progress toward the organization’s mission and strategic objectives. Other essential responsibilities include writing communications, evaluative reporting, providing technical assistance to member campuses, supervising additional staff and interns, and developing partnerships with other organizations. For more information and to apply click here and search for Job Code 2573. Feel free…
Illinois Campus Compact is now hiring team members for our 2017-2018 VISTA service year.
VISTA members with Illinois Campus Compact work to advance the public purpose of higher education by connecting campus and community in Illinois. They create opportunities for service based experiential learning and civic engagement, interrupt the cycle of poverty by supporting low income and first generation college students, and create college readiness in underserved communities by working with tutoring centers.
Winter Book Club Selection
Ken Moffett & Laurie Rice, SIUE In a book just released by Lexington Books, Web 2.0 and the Political Mobilization of College Students, we find that simple online political activities (such as liking candidates, and posting one’s thoughts about politics online) yields higher levels of civic activities away from the internet. We also find that differing forms of online participation are connected with higher levels of other routes of civic engagement online. These newer forms of engagement make political participation more accessible to young people. They both draw in a broader swathe of young adults than might ordinarily participate and…
Fall Book Club Selection
The next ILCC Book Club selection is “Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery & the Troubled History of American Universities” by Craig Steven Wilder of MIT. Craig spent 10 years in the archives of institutions of higher education in our country and tells a powerful narrative of how colleges were created to promote colonialism and slavery, destruction of native communities, and eventually the science of race that “proved” Africans were innately built for servitude and abuse.