We are a higher education compact in action.
Like many others in higher education, we’ve spent the past few weeks learning and hearing about the Administration’s proposal for a new higher education compact. Like many other organizations (including our partners at AAC&U and the American Council on Education), we at Campus Compact are greatly concerned about the proposed conditions that threaten academic freedom, institutional independence, and higher education's ability to advance opportunity for all.
We have been operating as a higher education compact for 40 years, but our goals are different. Campus Compact was founded in 1985 by presidents from campuses across the country who agreed that collective goal-setting and action was necessary for higher education to live up to its responsibility of teaching students to be active and engaged community members and for institutions themselves to be more responsive partners in their communities.
Today, we find ourselves in another moment where collective action is vital. Higher education is in crisis. As Danielle Allen said in her April 2025 article in The Atlantic, “The future of the nation’s universities is very much at stake. This is not a challenge that can be met with purely defensive tactics. We must do what should have been done long ago: find our way to a new social contract between universities and the American people.”
The value of higher education is under question. While it is tempting to dismiss the loss of public confidence as partisan, narrow-minded, short-sighted, or just a messaging issue, we need to take it seriously. It’s a trend that has been building over years and is based on valid and wide-ranging concerns. Wealth gaps continue to widen among the richest and poorest Americans, making a college education seem out of reach to many. Polarization has led to deeper and deeper divides across campus and community spaces. Students face increasingly complex challenges, with the compounding crises of poverty, global and local conflict, mental health, social injustice, and climate change harming their well-being and influencing their desire to pursue higher education. And our sector is still reckoning with higher education’s legacy—including the ripple effects of harm caused by our histories of displacement and exclusion.
So, what do we believe an effective Compact can do to challenge the status quo?
Higher education has historically been—and must remain—a pathway for generations of Americans to expand their opportunities and develop critical thinking skills, prepare to meet the needs of our workforce and industries, and serve as leaders in our communities.
As we’ve seen over and over again in our 40-year history, colleges and universities that work together, are resolute in their public mission, and use their institutional power to create a better future for us all are well-equipped to address these challenges. That is why Campus Compact was formed, and that is the work we do to this day.
Campuses should join together for vibrant conversations that explore how higher ed can and does exist for the public benefit. We should all explore ways to establish shared goals that prioritize community needs and take action that responds to public concerns. Central to this vision is our shared, unwavering commitment to creating opportunities for everyone.
At Campus Compact, we see great work happening on this front every day. Place-based institutions that use their resources to elevate their cities, towns, and regions are powerful and essential partners in tackling local challenges and, in return, build local trust and confidence.
This work in action:
- Faculty and staff help students and community members get involved in our democracy at the local, state, and national levels, creating thriving communities where everyone has a say. At Kingsborough Community College, they hold participatory budgeting workshops that let students create proposals for how funds are used, developing student-led solutions to community needs and increasing students’ understanding of how government impacts our everyday lives.
- Faculty collaborate with local partners to teach courses that tackle real-world problems. At the University of Pittsburgh, medical students are placed in “community classrooms” to learn how to build trust and effectively communicate with patients through the Community Alliance Program. Students who participate in the program gain an understanding of how to provide patients with a positive experience, both building their skills as future physicians and leading to better patient outcomes.
- Students don't just study in classrooms; they learn directly from community organizations, helping them develop professional skills and community-mindedness. At Fairmont State University, students in the architecture program learn from the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia as part of a historic window preservation project. Students will learn practical restoration skills and help improve energy efficiency, all while preserving Appalachian heritage.
- Research agendas reflect local priorities, bringing academic expertise to address community needs. Faculty at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Center on Aging partner with the Hawai’i Public Health Institute to form the Kūpuna Collective, which collaborates with over 150 partner organizations to research elder care and ways to improve the health of older adults.
- Campuses are prioritizing dialogue and bridge-building experiences in and out of the classroom that build students’ skills in engaging with and learning from a wide range of perspectives. At Emory University, the Emory Conversation Project creates spaces for students to discuss difficult subjects with others from a variety of backgrounds in a way that builds understanding and connection.
- And beyond this, communities experience our institutions through numerous touchpoints: as pathways to public service, as partners in K-12 schools, as engines of economic opportunity through local hiring and procurement, and as cultural hubs that offer lifelong learning opportunities.
Examples like these are taking place at thousands of campuses and in every state across the country. All this work leads to high levels of trust in local colleges and universities. How do we translate this from local knowledge to nationwide understanding? The foundation already exists—now we must come together to scale our efforts for greater impact.
So what now?
Consider ways that we can pool resources, knowledge, and expertise across campuses. That’s our mission at Campus Compact, and we regularly host both in-person and virtual events and programming that aim to build staff capacity, help align priorities across campuses, build bridges across difference, and clarify ways colleges and universities can use their power to benefit communities. Consider joining us and other similar coalition-building organizations in imagining ways we can better generate opportunity for all.
Explore ways your campus can double down on your commitment to this work. Clearly articulate your mission. Share your goals in clear, accessible language to build an understanding of all that higher education contributes to local communities.
Join together as a campaign of unified voices. So many of us individually have powerful stories to share about how higher education has transformed our own lives, the lives of those closest to us, and the fabric of our communities. Be willing to share your story. Encourage students, faculty, alumni, and members of the business community who have personal relationships with your campus to share theirs. Personal stories are the most effective and persuasive forms of communication and can shift the narrative.
Center students. Not just as members of a committee, but as drivers and decision makers. The future is theirs, and we must elevate student voice and leadership in this moment in new ways. If you’re curious to learn more about how students can lead, check out Campus Compact’s new student-written report that lays out a vision for the future of higher education civic engagement.
The threats are serious, but there is hope. What was built over hundreds of years will not easily break overnight. But it can (and should) bend. We must not settle for the status quo. We must acknowledge our legacy, fight with our values and protect our foundational principles, double down on our mission, and commit to action.
for media inquires, please contact Molly Leiper, senior director of communications & events, at [email protected] or (617) 357-4115.