Why College Presidents Need a Coalition for Civic Preparedness

Civic preparedness in higher education can no longer be treated as an assumed byproduct of a college education. In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Raj Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, about how colleges and universities can rebuild the civic skills students need to navigate disagreement, evaluate credible information, and solve problems across difference.

Drawing on his work with college presidents, faculty, employers, and Gen Z leaders, Vinnakota explains why higher education has drifted too far toward a private-good narrative focused almost entirely on jobs and individual outcomes. He makes the case that institutions must also reclaim their public-good responsibility by preparing students to participate productively in civic life.

The conversation also explores College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, or CP², a coalition of 135 college and university presidents working together to lower the political and institutional risk of leading civic preparedness work alone. Vinnakota explains why opt-in programming is not enough, why faculty need support to teach contentious issues, and why shared measurement is needed to move civic preparedness from rhetoric to campus-wide culture change.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, boards, provosts, faculty leaders, and institutional teams working to strengthen civic learning, rebuild public trust, and prepare graduates for a more polarized and information-saturated world.

Topics Covered:

• Why civic preparedness can no longer be assumed as a byproduct of college
• How higher education’s public-good mission has been crowded out by short-term job-focused framing
• Why presidents who lead civic preparedness alone often face stakeholder pushback
• How CP² lowers institutional risk through a coalition of 135 college and university presidents
• The three civic skills every graduate needs: productive conversation, credible information use, and collaborative problem-solving
• Why opt-in civic programming fails to reach most students
• How institutions are embedding civic skills into orientation, general education, curriculum, residential life, and campus culture
• Why faculty need training and peer support to teach contentious issues effectively
• How shared measurement helps institutions assess whether civic preparedness work is changing campus culture
• Why local trust remains one of higher education’s strongest strategic assets

Real-World Examples Discussed:

• A diverse group of college presidents who identified the same public-good challenge across very different institutions
• The growth of CP² from 14 founding presidents to 135 institutional leaders
• Forty-two institutions moving from opt-in civic programming toward campus-wide culture change
• Faculty institutes that have trained more than 155 faculty members from over 60 institutions
• Campus-based faculty cohorts designed to build enough internal capacity for institution-wide change
• Shared measures tied to productive conversation, credible information, and collaborative problem-solving

Three Key Takeaways for Leadership:

1. Civic preparedness should not be led in isolation. Presidents have more leverage when they work through coalitions, peer networks, and shared institutional practice.
2. Local trust is one of higher education’s most durable assets. Colleges and universities can strengthen public legitimacy by engaging their surrounding communities through visible, substantive civic work.
3. Student voice should be built into planning and governance. Students provide a different read on whether institutional efforts are producing real impact.

This episode offers a practical look at how higher education can move civic preparedness from isolated programming to institution-wide practice, and why presidents, boards, faculty, and students all have a role in rebuilding the civic capacity colleges were once assumed to produce.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/civic-preparedness-in-higher-ed-coalition-of-college-presidents/

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