Activation Plan

Below is an overview of some campus activities: 

1. 1. Presidential speaker series – Colgate’s Road to the White House election speaker series, sponsored by the President’s office in fall 2024, brought prominent voices to campus. Visitors included political strategist Karl Rove, former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile, and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele. Speakers gave lectures and held special sessions with the Lampert Scholars and other students as part of their visits. The goal is to provide a space for robust conversations with varying opinions.
   2. Colgate’s Statement on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression – In 2017, President Casey assembled a task force to consider issues of academic freedom and freedom of expression at Colgate. In the 2018–2019 academic year, the task force’s statement was completed and endorsed by the University faculty, the Board of Trustees, the Alumni Council, and the Student Government Association. It reaffirmed the importance of robust debate and discourse. It recognizes the central and necessary role of open debate and discussion as well as the need to preserve our sense of community.
   3. In the curriculum – Debate and discourse are prominent features of Colgate’s curriculum. The Liberal Arts Core Curriculum promotes community engagement by encouraging students to connect their academic studies with real-world issues and the local community. Through courses focused on global citizenship, ethics, and social justice, students explore diverse perspectives and the impact of their actions on society. Many core classes include service-learning components, allowing students to apply their learning in meaningful, community-centered contexts. Additionally, the core’s focus on interdisciplinary inquiry often inspires students to engage with their own local and global communities through internships, research, and public service. Advanced-level courses include environmental ethics, environmental justice, America as a democracy, theories of democracy, American elections and party power, and freedom and authority in modern political philosophy.
   4. This year, Colgate received a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations to promote open dialogue and debate in the classroom. With an eye to creating a Colgate-specific toolkit for improved classroom discussion, thirteen faculty members and administrators spent the fall semester learning about initiatives and organizations that promote discourse. This spring, the group brought Simon Greer, founder of Bridging the Gap, for two days’ worth of programs, class visits, and conversations; later this spring, the group will visit selected campuses who are doing noteworthy work around dialogue.
   5. Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs – The Institute engages students and faculty with the most pressing public policy issues shaping the world and fosters a community to analyze and discuss challenges in a balanced and rigorous way. The Lampert Scholars program provides summer research opportunities focused on helping students become engaged citizens with civic responsibility and a knowledge of how policy issues can impact communities locally and globally. 
   6. The Upstate Institute – The Upstate Institute is the home of community-based research and is centered on scholarly collaboration among faculty, students, and the community of the upstate New York region. Upstate Institute affiliated faculty, staff, and students work with community nonprofit agencies and organizations to identify research projects that further their work in the region. The institute is home to public programming, community-based research courses, and student and faculty research. All research conducted under the auspices of the Upstate Institute remains with community partners for their use.
   7. ALANA Cultural Center Programming/Social Justice Summit – The Social Justice Summit engages participants who wish to become advocates and activists, and it promotes critical questioning and relevant actions while providing avenues for addressing social, educational, and global injustice. With student leaders from schools across New York State, the summit brings together students to connect, exchange ideas, collaborate, and think about what true change looks like. The summit is part of Colgate’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Week celebration, and it is organized by Colgate’s ALANA Cultural Center.
   8. The Max A. Shacknai Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education (COVE) is home for student volunteerism, civic engagement, and service learning — including the Colgate Vote Project (CVP) and Democracy Matters volunteer organizations. The COVE houses more than 35 volunteer teams that serve in the local community with more than 30 local partners. COVE student teams tutor and mentor schoolchildren in five different school districts, visit seniors in the area, provide emergency ambulance and fire response services, and contribute to local historical societies. The COVE is also home to the CVP, which encourages civic engagement by empowering all students, regardless of party affiliation or understanding of politics, to participate in political awareness, education, and activism. The CVP was formed in 2018 with financial support from the Office of the President, as a nonpartisan initiative to help boost student voter turnout, and it has increased engagement through student-oriented educational events, campuswide voting promotion, and online and social media campaigns. Democracy Matters has worked alongside CVP to host voter registration and education events, organize brown bag discussions on important political and historical issues, and hold meetings where members discuss the importance of social activism. Thanks to these efforts, Colgate was recognized as one of the 2024 Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting by All In: Campus Democracy Challenge. 

Planned Future Initiatives: 

1. Continuation of the Presidential Speaker Series, examining a current topic each semester. These events provide the campus community with an opportunity to hear from scholars and experts across the political spectrum throughout the academic year. Next semester’s events will focus on the role of American higher education in democracy.
2. Creation of the Colgate Union, a nonpartisan center for the study and practice of open inquiry, dialogue, and debate embodied in the principles of Colgate’s Statement on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression. The Colgate Union will provide a place and programming to consider these principles and explore related tensions. Through the intentional practice of open inquiry, dialogue, and debate, we can learn to embody the principles of the statement and enrich the intellectual life of the campus.
3. Continued participation in the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which provides information on voter engagement in comparison with hundreds of other colleges and universities across the United States.
4. Carnegie Community Engagement designation. Colgate is applying for the community engagement designation for 2026. This designation is awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to recognize higher education institutions that demonstrate a deep institutional commitment to community engagement. This classification is not an award but an elective process, meaning institutions must apply for it by providing detailed evidence of their community engagement practices and the integration of those practices into institutional identity.