University & Community Partnerships

SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS

The Alliance for Equity in Higher Education
www.msi-alliance.org
AEHE brings together three groups representing Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). All told, these colleges educate more than one-third of all American Indian, Hispanic, and African American students in the United States on 340 campuses. The association's BEAMS (Building Engagement and Attainment of Minority Students) project assists these colleges, through the use of surveys and other means, to develop action plans to increase student learning.

American Association of Colleges and Universities,
“Civic Engagement”
www.aacu.org/resources/civicengagement/index.cfm
AAC&U is a membership organization of over 1,000 universities across the country. This website has links to descriptions of AAC&U's main civic engagement initiatives and programs, as well as to a number of publications regarding the role of universities in promoting civic engagement by students and faculty.

American Association of State Colleges and Universities,
“American Democracy Project”
www.aascu.org/programs/adp/index.htm
The American Democracy Project is a multi-campus initiative that seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates enrolled at institutions that are members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The project web site includes a number of presentations regarding the theory behind the program, as well as a listing of participating colleges.

American Indian Higher Education Consortium
www.aihec.org
AIHEC was founded in 1972 by the presidents of the nation's first six Tribal Colleges as an informal collaboration among member colleges. Today, the group has grown to represent 34 colleges in the United States and one Canadian institution. AIHEC aims to support the work of these colleges, encourage the development of new tribal colleges, and encourage the participation of American Indians in the development of higher education policy.

Association of Public and Land Grant Universities , “Kellogg Commission”
www.nasulgc.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=305&srcid=236
Founded in 1887, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. (NASULGC) is the nation's oldest higher education association, with over 250 members, about a third of which are land grant colleges while the remainder are state university systems and state comprehensive colleges. The Kellogg Commission report, issued in 2000 and available on line, identified renewed community engagement as the critical land grant mission of the 21st century. The web site also has many supporting publications and reports

Campaign for Environmental Literacy
www.fundee.org
Working to organize and mobilize the collective tools and assets of the environmental education community, the Campaign for Environmental Literacy’s mission is to secure federal support and encouragement for innovated environmental education programs across the nation. In addition to lobbying for increased federal funds, the Campaign works to increase the quantity and quality of environmental education across the country, focusing on the environmental education field and raising the awareness of the general public.

Campus Compact
www.compact.org
Founded in 1985, Campus Compact has grown to represent 950 college presidents. The focus of the organization is on advancing higher education's civic mission. The organization has been a leader in the promotion of service learning (learning outside the classroom) and university-community partnerships.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching:
Community Engagement
www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications/
index.asp?key=1213
The Carnegie Foundation defines community engagement as “the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.” When Carnegie launched its elective community engagement rating in December 2006, 76 schools met the standards set by the foundation's advisory committee, including Penn, UCLA, Minnesota, Arizona State, Emory, Tufts, Michigan State, DePaul, NYU, North Carolina, Portland State, and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Coalition of Urban Serving Universities
www.usucoalition.org
The Coalition of Urban Serving Universities is a group of urban research universities in metropolitan areas with populations of 450,000 or more that have come together to develop a common urban university agenda. The Coalition’s work focuses in three areas: building partnerships with K-12 schools, working with community groups to reduce urban health disparities, and supporting partnerships in community economic development and wealth building. In its work, the Coalition also aims to identify and expand innovative models of university-community partnerships across U.S. cities.

Commission on the Urban Agenda
www.aplu.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=266
The Commission on the Urban Agenda (CUA) works in cooperation with the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) to promote urban issues and programs on behalf of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (formerly the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges). Over the years, the group has encouraged and promoted strong partnerships among its member institutions and federal departments and agencies in areas of mutual interest, including the HUD Office of University Partnerships and urban extension programs.

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health
www.ccph.info
CCPH is a nonprofit membership organization that promotes health through partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions. CCPH has members throughout the United States and increasingly the world who are collaborating to promote health through service-learning, community-based participatory research, broad-based coalitions and other community-academic partnership strategies. CCPH advances its mission primarily by disseminating information, providing training and technical assistance, conducting research and evaluation, advocating for supportive policies, and building coalitions.

Corporation for National & Community Service
www.nationalservice.org
This federal government program provides opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve their communities and country through three programs: Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. Members and volunteers serve with national and community nonprofit organizations, faith-based groups, schools, and local agencies to help meet community needs.

Higher Education Network for Community Engagement
www.henceonline.org
The Higher Education Network for Community Engagement (HENCE) aims to deepen, consolidate, and advance the literature, research, practice, policy, and advocacy for community engagement as a core element of higher education's role in society. Through its work, the group hopes to encourage and consolidate efforts that connect academic work to public purposes by transforming academic culture and better linking faculty and students with communities.

Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities
www.hacu.net
Established in 1986, HACU today represents more than 450 colleges and universities committed to Hispanic higher education success in the United States, Puerto Rico, Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Although its U.S. member institutions represent less than 10% of higher education institutions nationwide, together they are home to more than two-thirds of all Hispanic college students.

Imagining America
www.imaginingamerica.org/TTI/TTI.html
Established in 1999, Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life is a consortium of over 80 colleges and universities based at the Syracuse University, whose mission is to strengthen the public role and democratic purposes of the humanities, arts, and design through a combination of projects, publications, and conferences.

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
www.nafeo.org
Founded in 1969 by presidents and chancellors of the nation's historically and predominantly black colleges and universities. NAFEO today represents approximately 500,000 students and their families. NAFEO member institutions are public and private, 2- and 4-year, community, regional, national and interna-tional comprehensive research institutions, located in twenty-five states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Brazil.

National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
www.naicu.edu
Formed in 1976, NAICU represents nearly a thousand private independent colleges on policy issues with the federal government.

National Center for the Study of University Engagement
http://csue.msu.edu
National Center for the Study of University Engagement, based at Michigan State University, seeks to develop a greater understanding of how university engagement enhances faculty scholarship and community progress by coordinating national efforts and bringing together Center staff with tenured faculty and community fellows who wish to write and present on their scholarship and engagement work.

National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good
www.thenationalforum.org
The National Forum on Higher Education, founded in 2001 to extend the work of the Kellogg Commission, has as its aim to “increase awareness, understanding, commitment and action” of the public service role of higher education. Their web site outlines current projects and also contains numerous publications on university-community partnerships.

Scholarship of Engagement online
www.scholarshipofengagement.org
This website aims to serve as a clearinghouse of information on the scholarship of engagement, with a focus on faculty peer review and training. A particularly informative section of the website, titled “benchmarking engaged universities” has links to a number of campus efforts to define and evaluate university-community engagement and partnership efforts.

U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development, “Office of University Partnerships”
www.oup.org
The U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has a number of grant programs that support community engagement efforts. This website lists the grant award winners and provides brief descriptions of the intended use of the grant funds, and also makes available a large number of publications on university-community partnership efforts.

University Leaders for a Sustainable Future
www.ulsf.org
ULSF's mission is to make sustainability a major focus of teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities worldwide. ULSF pursues this mission through advocacy, education, research, assessment, membership support, and international partnerships to advance education for sustainability. ULSF also serves as the Secretariat for signatories of the Talloires Declaration, a ten-point action plan committing institutions to sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching and practice. Over 300 university presidents and chancellors in more than 40 countries have signed the Declaration.