10 Presidents Join College Presidents for Civic Preparedness

A new group of ten 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 ten presidents joining the initiative lead diverse campuses:

Michael Davis, Fairmont State University

Andrew Martin, Washington University in St. Louis

Scott Miller, Virginia Wesleyan University

Milton Moreland, Centre College

Judy Olian, Quinnipiac University

Susan Parish, Mercy University

Paul Pribbenow, Augsburg University

Christopher Roellke, Stetson University

Jenifer Ward, Luther College

Dwaun Warmack, Claflin University

The presidents join the consortium of 71 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.