The Office for Public Engagement is pleased to announce that the University of Minnesota has been selected from a competitive pool of applicants for Campus Compact's 2026 Campus Action Planning (CAP) Innovation Cohort. CAP is a strategic planning framework that helps colleges and universities advance civic and community engagement across all institutional functions, complementing and aligning with existing institutional processes.
UMN was selected as a model initiative demonstrating how the CAP framework can be effectively implemented across a multi-campus university system. Led by the University of Minnesota Rochester as the lead campus—home to a distinctive requirement that all Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences students complete community-engaged learning as part of their degree—the project is co-led by Dr. Elizabeth Dunens, Assistant Professor and Civic Engagement Scholar at UMR, and Vice Provost for Public Engagement Laurie Van Egeren. Together they will engage all five campuses in developing coordinated community engagement action plans aligned with the University's systemwide strategic plan, Elevate Extraordinary 2030.
Building on recent University-wide engagement alignment efforts and Carnegie Community Engagement Classification self-studies, the initiative will establish shared goals, measurable outcomes, and sustainable implementation strategies that strengthen civic and community engagement, experiential learning, and student-community partnerships across the Twin Cities, Crookston, Duluth, Morris and Rochester campuses. The project period runs from June 8, 2026, through January 15, 2027.