WASHINGTON, D.C. — At a time when college is increasingly being cast as the means to a good-paying job or career, leaders of colleges and universities must reclaim their civic mission to make sure their institutions are places where students are prepared for engaged citizenship.
That was the heart of the message delivered to 2,000 higher education leaders who gathered in Washington, D.C., Thursday for the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges & Universities.
Echoing a report her organization released earlier this year, AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider said educators at all levels need to “vigorously, actively and noisily reclaim our civic mission.”
That mission, she said, is to promote higher education not just as a public good, but as a “distinct and needed resource for democracy.”
“We need to face the unhappy reality that higher education’s democracy mission and the democracy mission of schools that laid the foundation for higher learning has entirely been pushed to the sidelines,” Schneider said, lamenting that for the past generation or so, higher education has been primarily spoken of from the standpoint of its role in the economy.
College can’t be seen only for its connection to careers or through the lens of completion but also must be viewed in light of its connection to a “third C” that Schneider said is often overlooked.
“It’s college, it’s careers, and it is citizenship,” Schneider said.
Schneider made her remarks at the opening plenary session titled “Opening a Democratic Front: Confronting Disparate Conceptions of What Matters in College.”
