NERCHE and the Kettering Foundation have sponsored two forums to encourage discussion about the challenges to and opportunities for promoting community engagement and democratic citizenship as key institutional priorities for American colleges and universities.  The first component of this project was an Invitational Colloquium involving a representative and diverse group of 33 academic and community leaders. The group met at the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio, on February 26-27, 2008, to identify problems and issues associated with reforming higher education for community engagement and democratic citizenship and to suggest ways for cultivating the next generation of engaged scholars in American higher education.

Recognizing that countless individuals have played leadership roles, both nationally and on their campuses, over the past two decades, NERCHE established a web blog for this wider audience.  This blog comprises the project’s second component, which is an expanded version of a Virtual Forum established in late January. Read more...

Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement

As a founding member of NERCHE, Ernest Lynton contributed powerfully to reshaping the role of the metropolitan university.  Dr. Lynton's work championed a concept of service that embraced collective responsibility and a vision of colleges and universities as catalysts not only in the discovery of new knowledge but also in its application throughout society.  This annual award pays tribute to the memory of Ernest Lynton and his tenacity in the pursuit of his vision. Read more...

Evaluation of the Community College Transfer Initiative

NERCHE is partnering with Brandeis University’s Center for Youth and Communities at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, on a five-year project funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to evaluate the Community College Transfer Initiative: Improving Access for Community College Transfers to Selective Four-Year Schools (CCTI). The Foundation is providing funding to eight campuses—Amherst College, Bucknell University, Cornell University, Mount Holyoke College, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the University of Southern California—that have formed partnerships with community colleges to facilitate the transfer of low- to moderate-income community college transfer students to their campuses. NERCHE’s Senior Program and Research Associate Sharon Singleton is working with the Heller School’s Senior Research Associate Cathy Burack, Senior Research Associate Susan Lanspery, and Research Associate Ginger Fitzhugh from Brandeis on the evaluation.

Leadership Speaker Series

Sponsored by NERCHE on behalf of the doctoral program in higher education administration at UMass Boston, the Leadership Speaker Series is a chance for doctoral program students, alumni, and faculty to meet in an informal, invitation-only environment with state, regional, and national leaders, acknowledged for their vision and ability to make substantive change in higher education.  Read more...

Mapping Opportunities for Structural and
Cultural Change within Four-Year Public Institutions

Funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, NERCHE's "Mapping Opportunities" project was formed to convene a select group of individuals from New England's four-year public colleges and universities in an effort to identify the cultural and structural changes needed to facilitate the success of low-income students, students of color, and students who are first in their families to attend college. The one-day meeting, held in mid-January 2009, in Providence, Rhode Island, brought together 25 participants who, along with their respective institutions, have demonstrated commitment to ongoing institutional transformation to better match the assets of underserved students.  Individuals attending the meeting represented a cross-section of campus life, including Presidents, senior leaders in academic affairs, student affairs, administration and fiscal management, institutional research and institutional advancement as well as deans, multicultural center directors, and faculty.  Read more...

Next Generation Engagement Project

The Next Generation Engagement project is a collaboration between NERCHE, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), and Imagining America and is led by a group of recognized scholars and practitioners to develop and implement civic engagement initiatives aimed at the next generation of students, faculty, and scholars in higher education.  Read more...