Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement

Overview

The Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement brings together the resources, mission, and vision of two national organizations, AAC&U and Campus Compact. This partnership enhances the powerful possibilities of campus work on civic engagement and illuminates how higher education's societal obligations can be integrated into the academy's core educational mission.

Although two-thirds of college seniors did community service or volunteered during college, service does not automatically translate into understanding systemic sources of inequities. New research demonstrates that service alone does not provide clear pathways to informed action. To counter that finding, the Center seeks to underscore that knowledge and action can make a difference in the world.

A robust democracy and the public welfare absolutely depend on an engaged and informed citizenry. To articulate that purpose for the period 2003-2005, the Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement focused its grants and activities around a common theme: Journey Towards Democracy: Power, Voice, and the Public Good.