President Lou Anna K. Simon has signed the Campus Compact 30th Anniversary Civic Action Statement of Presidents and Chancellors, a declaration that emphasizes a renewed commitment to prepare students for democratic citizenship, builds partnerships for change and reinvigorates higher education for the public good.
“Signing this 30th anniversary statement signifies our determination to keep MSU at the forefront of civic engagement. While our land-grant tradition remains firmly embedded in the culture of our great university, we experience continuing challenges all around us. Economic, racial, political, and educational divides remind us that higher education must renew our efforts to prepare the citizens of tomorrow,” said President Simon.
MSU has been a steadfast participant of Campus Compact, first as an instrumental supporter of the founding of the Michigan Campus Compact chapter in 1989 as one of the first state compacts. MCC was housed at MSU until the late 1990’s, when it became part of the Michigan Non-Profit Association and the Connect Michigan Alliance.
Simon has emphasized engagement as a focal point of her leadership throughout her career. She consistently promotes societal connections and university-community partnerships that promote both scholarship and action. During her tenure she has deepened and vigorously supported the Center for Service-Learning & Civic Engagement (CSLCE) mission, and MSU’s involvement with Michigan Campus Compact and the national Campus Compact.
MSU was one of the first universities to receive the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, a mechanism created for certifying an institution’s substantive commitment to engagement. Simon adheres to Campus Compact’s 1999 Presidents’ Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education, a statement that called for renewed action to magnify the impact of campus engagement.
“Our collaborations seek to include a set of people committed to thinking and having conversations about the most profound issues, and then translating them into positive action,” Simon recently said at an all-university event.
The CSLCE was established at MSU in 1968 and is the oldest, continuously operating service-learning center in the country. From its inception, the CSLCE was a university-wide initiative and they have worked closely with MSU colleges, academic departments, student affairs and services units, pre-college programs and others to offer mutually beneficial, quality service, service-learning and civic engagement opportunities linking faculty, staff, and students with community.
In signing the Campus Compact 30th Anniversary Action Statement of Presidents and Chancellors, Simon agrees to develop a renewed Campus Civic Action Plan. The Campus Compact calls for bold leadership focused on policy changes, sustained effort, and accessibility among other priorities. Simon’s current Bolder by Design plan addresses these important issues and will compliment well the action plan to be developed collaboratively by faculty, staff, students, and community members.
According to Renee Zientek, CSLCE director, “Signing the 30th anniversary action statement is not just symbolic for Lou Anna Simon. She firmly embraces the pact between higher education and the public that Campus Compact represents. Every decision we make includes consideration about preparing students to become engaged Spartans who make a lifetime service commitment for the public good.”