Bill Bates
In preparation for the Campus Compact 2026 Policy Summit, we were asked to reach out and engage key members of Congress to gauge their interest in the path forward for community and civic engagement at the federal level. As anyone who works in or around Congress knows, timing matters and calendars are fluid. Last-minute votes combined with ongoing disputes over current-year funding, prevented some members from engaging with us personally ahead of the Summit. But even with those constraints, one thing became very clear from our outreach: interest in and support for the Campus Compact agenda is high.
During the Summit, we were joined by Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth from Maryland, who offered a very personal and passionate defense of the important role higher education plays in supporting its communities and working with policy leaders at all levels. She clearly spoke from lived experience about how colleges and universities serve as anchors in their regions. Hers was a call to action to our community!
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who represents Campus Compact’s home city of Boston, shared a detailed letter outlining the many ways she hopes to partner with the organization and its members on these issues. Her message reinforced that there is a desire among policymakers from both parties to leverage the goodwill most colleges and universities have within their local communities to spur greater civic engagement and understanding among the next generation.
Texas Republican Representative Jake Ellzey, who had planned to join us at dinner the evening before the Summit, also sent a clear message of support and partnership. His interest in the Summit and subsequent outreach was an important reminder that community and civic engagement is not, and should not be, a partisan issue.
These members are not alone in wanting to work with Campus Compact and its members on how best to support civic and community engagement across the country. There is real appetite on both sides of the aisle to put in place federal policies that are complementary to the work happening on campuses and in communities every day. A critical “to do” following the Summit will be to build on these promises of engagement and expand the pool of “Civic Champions” from both sides of the aisle.
Stepping back for moment from the Summit itself, there is no question that over the past year and a half our community has been playing a lot of defense. We have spent significant time working to protect programs such as AmeriCorps and Federal Work-Study in the face of proposals to significantly cut back or even eliminate these civic programs altogether.
And yet, despite those efforts, programs like AmeriCorps continue to persist and be funded on a bipartisan basis in Congress at consistently high levels. That fact should not be overlooked. I would argue it represents a foundation of support for national service and civic engagement, even in a polarized political environment.
And there will come a time, whether it is six months from now or two years from now, when our community will not simply be defending existing programs. We will be looked to for leadership and guidance on what the next phase of community and civic engagement should look like at the federal level. We need to be ready.
The good news is that we are not starting from scratch. The ongoing bipartisan funding of civic programs, the interest expressed by members of Congress, and the long track record of impact from Campus Compact and its members all provide a strong base from which to move forward.
Our government outreach in the weeks and months ahead will focus on building on this foundation. That includes following up with the members who engaged with us around the Summit, expanding our network of congressional champions, and working collaboratively with the community to ensure that federal policy reflects and reinforces the essential role higher education plays in community and civic life.
Author Bio
Bill Bates is a Founding Partner with Washington Navigators, a DC-based government relation firm that represents Campus Compact. Bill has spent his career working at the intersection of higher education, federal research policy, and community engagement. He advises institutions and organizations on government relations strategy and is a longtime advocate for the civic mission of higher education.