Campus Compact Secures Funding to Expand Student Programming

Campus Compact today announced that it has secured $372,500 from Lumina Foundation to advance student engagement. The grant funding will allow Campus Compact to build student-led, student-organized programming that is national in scale. Programming will lift up student voices, harness their abilities and passions, and empower them to address complex problems facing their communities—creating a network of catalysts and leaders who will create positive change in our country and around the world.

“Students today want to have impact and see how their education will equip them to solve the problems they see in their communities and across the country. Unfortunately, students are almost always excluded from efforts promoting higher education and civic learning,” said Terri Taylor, strategy director for innovation and discovery at Lumina Foundation. “We are thrilled to support Campus Compact’s growth to fill this gap.”

Direct student engagement will be an area of deep growth and strategic focus as Campus Compact pursues its mission of engaging higher education—at all levels—in contributing to the health and strength of our communities. The grant from Lumina Foundation will support programming and infrastructure investments to facilitate this expansion. As part of this, Campus Compact will conduct a national search for a new leadership role in the organization that will focus on student engagement.

Additionally, Lumina’s support will provide critical resources to support ongoing research and capacity building for Campus Compact’s Community College Network. With support from the grant, Campus Compact Fellow Lena Jones will guide a cohort of community college leaders in further examining and documenting promising practices for advancing civic engagement at their colleges.

“We are so grateful to Lumina Foundation for their support,” said Mary K. Grant, president of Massachusetts College of Art and Design and chair of Campus Compact’s Board of Directors. “This funding will allow Campus Compact to significantly increase its reach and impact. This expanded student work will have a resounding impact on students’ lives and on their ability to become the catalysts for change we need to address the deep systemic challenges facing our communities.”

Beginning this summer, Campus Compact will engage global, national, and local organizations that already support and engage students to partner and collaborate on moving this work forward.

Some aspects of our expanded student work, including opportunities for members, will include:

• Building a Student Design Team
  Campus Compact will recruit student leaders to serve for two years on a design team who will drive initial visioning and design for our expanded student engagement work and begin engaging additional students from across the country
• Launching a Newman Campus Innovation Fund
  Campus Compact will grant to 5 campuses $5,000 each to participate in a cohort that will review and refine our existing Newman Civic Fellowship program
• Researching the impact of civic engagement on student success
  A Campus Compact Fellow, to be determined, will lead research to improve our offerings and make the case for the positive impact of civic engagement on students. Results will be disseminated to enhance best practices in the field.

Would you like to contribute to this new body of work? Get in touch with Natalie Furlett (nfurlett {at} compact(.)org) with any questions, comments, or suggestions.