Princeton, NJ, November 15, 2024: A new group of three 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 three presidents joining the initiative lead diverse campuses:

President Elizabeth Paul, Nazareth University

President Patricia Prelock, University of Vermont

President William Dudley, Washington and Lee University

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

Nazareth University

University of Vermont

Washington and Lee University