24 Presidents Join College Presidents for Civic Preparedness

Princeton, NJ, August 8, 2024: A new group of 24 presidents of diverse higher education institutions from across the country have joined the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, a unique consortium convened by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.

The 24 presidents joining the initiative lead diverse campuses:

Ellen Neufeldt, California State University San Marcos

David Fithian, Clark University

Douglas Hicks, Davidson College

Michael Gavin, Delta College

Barbara Altmann, Franklin & Marshall College

Rebecca Stoltzfus, Goshen College

Wendy Raymond, Haverford College

Julie Kornfeld, Kenyon College

Christina Clark, La Roche University

Robin Holmes-Sullivan, Lewis & Clark College

Frank Sanchez, Manhattanville University

Mary Grant, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

James Williams, Mount St. Joseph University

Kathleen Harring, Muhlenberg College

Sue Hasseler, Muskingum University

Ora Pescovitz, Oakland University

Melissa Baumann, Ohio Northern University

John Comerford, Otterbein University

Heidi Macpherson, SUNY Brockport

Jennifer Collins, Rhodes College

Summer McGee, Salem College

Donde Plowman, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

James Limbaugh, West Los Angeles College

Colleen Hanycz, Xavier University

The presidents join the consortium of 92 leaders of diverse institutions from across the country who are uniting to advance higher education’s pivotal role in preparing students to be engaged citizens. Participating presidents are dedicated to defending free expression, civil discourse, and critical inquiry as essential civic norms. Presidents will take campus-specific and collective action, reflecting three shared Civic Commitments:

• Educating for democracy is central to our mission.
• We will prepare our students for a vibrant, diverse, and contentious society.
• We will protect and defend free inquiry.

Taken together, these fresh commitments embrace both free speech and diversity, two values often pitted against each other, by instead emphasizing meaningful engagement and inquiry with different voices and viewpoints. The commitments stress diversity as a strength of both American democracy and campus life and affirm the truth-seeking role of higher education through curiosity and inquiry. They also enable campus leaders to take substantive action to promote democratic engagement among students, with public accountability for progress through publication of an annual impact report.

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The Institute for Citizens & Scholars cultivates talent, ideas, and networks that develop young people as effective, lifelong citizens. We unite the left, right, and center to develop breakthrough solutions that create stronger citizens in our country, and we bring these solutions to life by forming strategic partnerships with an intentionally diverse group of young people, scholars and education leaders, and civic and business leaders—including the 27,000 world-leading Fellows in our network. Together, we’re on a mission to ensure that Americans everywhere are civically well-informed, productively engaged, and committed to democracy.

Media contact: press@collegepresidents.org