Compact27: Program & Call for Proposals

Roundtable	In Roundtable discussions, presenters workshop ideas, gather feedback, and work collaboratively toward solutions. Presenters will discuss an initiative, project, or program at a single round table with a maximum of 8 participants. 45 minutes, maximum of 2 presenters
Poster	Poster presentations are intended to promote exchange between presenters and attendees on civically and community-engaged projects. A physical poster must be provided that highlights the purpose, strategies utilized, and outcomes. Poster presentations have a dedicated session to promote dialogue and exchange. Poster presentations are an excellent opportunity to include student collaborators. Presented during the 1 hour poster session, maximum of 3 presenters
Author Talk	Author talks provide participants with an opportunity to engage with the author of an impactful publication (e.g., book, book chapter, special journal issue, or journal article) in the civic and community engagement field. The session should be a blend of presenting key takeaways from the publication and dialogue with attendees. 45 minutes, maximum of 6 presenters
Knowledge-to-Action Workshop	Knowledge-to-Action sessions are focused on sharing specific knowledge, theories, skills, or methods for practical application. These sessions should be interactive, and participants should leave with actionable recommendations for practice. 45 minutes, maximum of 6 presenters
Promising Practice	Promising Practice sessions highlight a civic and community engagement project, infrastructure, or approach working effectively to inform and inspire participants for potential replication and ideas. 45 minutes (35 minutes presenting & 10 minutes Q&A), maximum of 6 presenters

Proposals due January 15, 2027.

Campus Compact is now accepting proposals for the Compact27 national conference. We seek proposals that explore our theme—Hope in Motion.

We are particularly interested in proposals that explore the following key topic areas. The intention of these key areas is not to limit but to inspire and energize potential presenters around critical issues that show up in their work and the civic and community engagement field as a whole. All sessions should balance learning and exchange, represent a variety of perspectives, and meaningfully contribute to racial justice, equity, and inclusion goals.

Addressing systemic inequities and wicked societal problems

Storytelling, assessment and impact

Authentic campus-community partnerships

Sessions explore how individuals and campuses are building and sustaining community partnerships and centering community voice in decision-making. Topics may include partnership management and tracking, community advisory board structures and approaches, compensation and recognition policies and practices, or how campuses and practitioners are working collectively with K-12 schools, other higher education institutions, hospitals, government agencies, or cultural organizations to advance community priorities.

Bridge building, dialogue, and discourse to support an engaged democracy

Sessions examine how individuals and institutions engage with others to support purposeful and respectful conversation across viewpoints with a desire to learn and understand. Highlighted session topics may cover voter education and engagement efforts, models and examples of civil discourse and dialogue programming, the student learning and skill developed through bridge-building activities, ways of centering community and student voice through the use of civil discourse, and creating safe and inclusive spaces that provide opportunities for those whose viewpoints may be traditionally marginalized or silenced.

Civic learning and student success strategies

Sessions explore new and innovative practices within civic and community-engaged learning and teaching. Discussions may examine implementing innovative curriculum design and delivery and strategies that foster civic skill development, create pathways for learning and action, support the development of student civic identity, and champion majors, minors, and certificates in civic engagement and leadership. Sessions may also explore how these strategies contribute to improved recruitment, enrollment, and retention or showcase how civic and community engagement can enhance workforce development.

Institutional policy and infrastructure for community engagement

This topic area explores ways to embed community engagement into the formal structures and decision-making processes of an institution. This may include strategic plans, promotion and tenure policy, and institutional definitions of engagement. Sessions may address how to secure lasting institutional recognition, support, and legitimacy for community-engaged work, often navigating change management and governance systems. Examples include case studies of policy change, frameworks for institutionalization, or strategies aligning engagement work with broader institutional priorities.

Operational systems, tools, and resource flows that sustain community engagement

The operational infrastructure needed in higher education community engagement include practical tools, systems, and resource structures that keep the work running day to day. This includes data collection systems, funding models, cross-institutional platforms, and partnership hubs. Sessions in this category focus on the “how” of sustaining engagement work: building shared infrastructure across campuses or regions, creative approaches to funding, or designing hubs and platforms that connect partners and resources. These are the sessions that highlight the operational backbone that supports community engagement rather than the institutional policy that authorizes it.

Student-led, Student-driven engagement and leadership

Sessions highlight and uplift innovative community and civic engagement programs, initiatives, and models that center student voice and the roles students play in the development and implementation of co-curricular initiatives and community-campus partnerships. Sessions may focus on student empowerment through community and civic engagement, showcase unique models of implementing institution-wide days of service, or tell the story of student-led social action. Student presentations are encouraged.

Additional details:

Session proposals must have been submitted through our online application portal to be considered. For your convenience, you will find a preview of the session application form below.
Session topics may not be changed after the review and selection process.
Campus Compact may edit presentation titles or session descriptions for consistency and clarity.
We will notify applicants about session decisions by email in March 2027.
All presenters for accepted sessions are required to register for the Compact27 conference. Registration must be completed by April 30, 2027, to guarantee the session.

Proposal review

Proposals will be reviewed by the Conference Program Committee and peer reviewers using the following criteria:

Relevance of Topic: Does the proposal focus on contemporary questions and challenges related to the conference theme and key topics areas? Is the topic forward-looking, emphasizing novel approaches, ideas, and resources to catalyze change?
Quality of the submission: Is the proposal comprehensive in addressing each of the questions? Are the responses clear and demonstrate a strong understanding of the proposed topic?
Session Outcomes: Is there alignment between the stated session outcomes and the proposal description? Are the outcomes achievable? Based on the proposed session type, will the proposed session achieve intended audience participation, the transition of knowledge to action, etc.?

Preview: Session Proposal Form

Below you will find a preview of the questions that will be asked on the Compact27 session proposal form. All sessions must be submitted through our online application portal to be considered.

Session Information

Session Title (100 character limit)
Session abstract (175 word limit)
Full session description, including your plan to make the session interactive (750 word limit)
Select session type (learn more about Compact27 session formats)
Identify intended audience (multi-select): Community engagement professionals, community partners, faculty, senior administrators, students
Identify the focus area most closely related to your session:
- Addressing systemic inequities and wicked societal problems.
- Storytelling, assessment, and impact
- Authentic campus-community partnerships
- Bridge building, dialogue, and discourse to support an engaged democracy
- Civic learning and student success strategies
- Institutional policy and infrastructure for community engagement
- Operational systems, tools, and resource flows that sustain community engagement
- Student-led, student-driven engagement and leadership
- None of the above (please specify)
Intended session outcomes or participant learning objectives (750 word limit)
How does this session contribute to the conference theme, Hope in Motion?

Presenter Information

Name
Email address
Job title
Institution or organization name
Institution or organization type
Brief Biography (50 word limit)
Number of co-presenters
Co-presenters' personal information
Optional demographic questions

Centering Community Voice & Impact in Campus Action Planning for Civic & Community Engagement

Centering community voice and impact in Campus Action Planning for Civic & Community Engagement (CAP) can seem deceptively simple. In practice, it asks institutions to examine whose knowledge counts, who sets priorities, and who benefits. Join members of the 2026 CAP Innovation Cohort, campus and community partners, and the CAP team for a pre-conference that introduces Campus Compact’s CAP framework and takes a deep dive into putting community at the center of each planning stage. Drawing on civic and community engagement literature and practice from within and beyond higher education, participants will reckon with the historical relationships between campus and community and consider repair and authentic relationship building that involves institutional actors. They will explore engagement that is about “getting it right, rather than being right” (Brown, 2018), and examine tools and tactics for co-creating goals and measures of impact with the community. Participants will leave with practical strategies for shared decision-making and a renewed sense of collective responsibility to make civic and community engagement a central institutional function: hope, put in motion.

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From Engagement to Publication: Writing About Your Community Engagement Work

You’ve done meaningful work in and with your community partners. Now it’s time to share it in a way that honors both the partnership and the scholarship. Writing about community-engaged work calls for a different approach than traditional disciplinary writing, and this hands-on preconference session will show you how to do it with confidence.

You’ll leave with practical strategies for pairing well-established community engagement frameworks with disciplinary theories, so your manuscript speaks to both audiences. We’ll explore concrete ways to weave community voice throughout your writing, and not just in the acknowledgments. You’ll also pick up tools to sharpen your writing and productivity habits to help you move from draft to submission.

Finally, we’ll take a guided tour of the leading community engagement journals, covering what each one looks for and how to choose the best home for your manuscript.

This session welcomes all skill levels, whether you’re preparing your first manuscript or looking to publish more often. We especially encourage you to attend with members of your project team, including community partners and students. This session is a great fit for:

Faculty of all ranks and disciplines writing about course-based and/or engaged research projects
Administrators and professional staff writing about campus community engagement
Graduate students working on dissertation or thesis projects
Community partners collaborating on projects of any type, whether attending on their own or with their project team

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The Dynamics of Hope: Balancing Conflict and Change Across Civic Engagement Contexts

Conflict is an integral part of collaborative, change-making processes that can foster hope among individuals, groups, and communities. This session will focus on the following core questions:

What roles do conflict and change play in the dynamics of hope in civic engagement contexts?
How can institutions of higher education foster the knowledge, skills, and dispositions relevant to productively navigate conflict and change at multiple scales (macro, meso, micro, "me-cro") (Author, 2024)?
How can we meaningfully harness conflict in civic engagement contexts, to foster genuine dialogue, facilitate effective processes, build towards better outcomes, and cultivate hope?
How can critical intercultural communication frameworks and approaches be mobilized to transform conflict within particular linguistic and cultural contexts?
How might we conceptualize and put into practice conflict and change-informed partnerships and processes in civic engagement more broadly?

Conflict transformation is a framework focused on intentionally channeling conflict for constructive ends, highlighting the role of systems and structures in change across cultural and linguistic contexts (Lederach, 2003). This approach foregrounds the role of conflict in changes to which groups are responding, as well as changes they are building towards. Inherent to the conflict transformation paradigm is a past-present-future orientation that integrates hope for individuals, groups, and communities. Critical intercultural communication approaches provide contextualized methods for engaging meaningfully with individuals, groups, and communities. This interactive session will be focused on these forms of critical engagement designed for intentional reflection, action, and goal setting with an eye towards impact. Collectively, we will build a methodological toolkit for moving forward work at the conflict-change nexus, with collaborators at participants’ institutions and beyond.

This session is $40. It is sponsored by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation.

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The Power of Place: Leading Place-Based Community Engagement Initiatives

Over the course of the past two decades, numerous colleges and universities throughout the United States have pursued expansive place-based community engagement initiatives to deepen their students’ learning and enhance their faculties' scholarship while simultaneously addressing the significant challenges facing their wider communities.

Drawing upon the recent book (Leading Place-Based Community Engagement in Higher Education (Koth and Yamamura, 2026), this interactive session will offer tangible examples of place-based community engagement from campus leaders who represent diverse institutional types, geographic locations, leadership styles, and strategic approaches. These institutions include Grinnell College, Seattle University, the University of Mississippi, and the University of San Diego.

Through a mix of presentations and small group discussion this session will offer participants a chance to explore how they might deepen or expand place-based efforts at their institution and in their communities.

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