Distributed June 16, 2000
For Immediate Release
News Service Contact: Kristen Cole



News Advisory


College presidents convene to mobilize campuses for civic work

Fifty college and university presidents will meet in Philadelphia June 26-27, 2000, to develop strategies for increasing civic engagement among the country’s youth and to call upon U.S. presidential candidates to put the issue on the national agenda.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Presidents from a cross section of the nation’s colleges and universities will convene in Philadelphia June 26-27 to learn about current strategies and develop new strategies to foster civic engagement on campuses. They will also draft a charge to U.S. presidential candidates to put the issue on the national agenda. Representatives of the Bush and Gore campaigns plan to attend the colloquium to respond.

Organized by Campus Compact and the University of Pennsylvania, the colloquium is a follow-up to a meeting last Fourth of July, when campus presidents issued a commitment to lead a national movement to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education.

The two-day event will include discussions about mobilizing students, faculty and institutional resources, and will end with the call to action to the nation’s next commander-in-chief.

What
Presidents Leadership Colloquium sponsored by Campus Compact, a national organization based at Brown University and dedicated to higher education’s civic mission, and the University of Pennsylvania

Who
College and university presidents, other higher education officials and representatives of service organizations such as AmeriCorps and the National Voting Rights Institute

Where
Inn at Penn, Philadelphia

When
June 26-27. For a complete agenda, contact the News Service.

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