10 Presidents Join College Presidents for Civic Preparedness

Princeton, NJ, October 18, 2024: A new group of 10 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 10 presidents joining the initiative lead diverse campuses:

President Tania Tetlow, Fordham University

President Ellen Granberg, George Washington University

President Susan Poser, Hofstra University

President Christopher Reber, Hudson County Community College

President Charlie King, James Madison University

President Vanessa Beasley, Trinity University

President Katherine Fell, University of Findlay

President Rebecca Cunningham, University of Minnesota

Chancellor Joanne Li, University of Nebraska at Omaha

President Michaele Whelan, Wheaton College (MA)

The presidents join the consortium of over 100 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 the 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