Recent TxCC News:

First-ever TxCC Advisory Council:

Established in 2009, the purpose of the council is “To serve as mentors, guides, resources, and advocates for Texas Campus Compact, helping to implement its mission, vision, and strategic plan.”  We have grown to 12 members who meet regularly and have been indispensable in aiding our strategic plan this year.

First-ever RFP’s:

Regional Conferences
Texas Campus Compact invites proposals for member schools to conduct a two day conference in the areas of service learning, and civic engagement in their geographical area of Texas.  Each of the four regions is eligible for up to $2,000 each to complete a conference.

Summer Service Learning Website Project
As the premier, statewide, advocacy organization for service learning and civic engagement in Texas, The Compact is currently seeking students from member institutions for the purpose of re-designing the Texas Campus Compact website:  www.texascampuscompact.org. 

Free to Members-Monthly Webinar Series:

Our popular Webinar series has consisted of eight hour-long free webinars facilitated by professional service learning colleagues from Texas and nationally recognized presenters, held on the second Thursday of each month.

Topics have consisted of: Carnegie Classification, Sustaining Community Partnerships, Alternative Spring Break, VISTAs, Combating Childhood Obesity through Service Learning, Sustainability, and Constitution Day.

Students In Service (SIS):

We are excited to partner with 15 other state compacts to bring the SIS program to Texas.  If awarded, TXCC would be able to mobilize 300 currently enrolled college students to address community based issues within Texas through service learning.

  These students would be a resource similar to a VISTA, with an education award, and at fewer hours individually.  Collectively, the opportunity for impact is huge.

My Texas Helps:

Members will soon have access to MYTEXASHELPS.org  a statewide, cross-referenced database, offering a comprehensive listing of each professor and educator engaged in SL and / or CE, complete with syllabi.  This site will also offer a method of tracking student service learning hours.

Certification classes for Service Learning in Texas:

Executive Director Patricia Spencer Potyka, M.A.  has begun conversations to offer our state’s students a certification in service learning.  There are approximately 31 universities that offer a service learning certification and/or minor in civic engagement and currently, not one in Texas that offers this; TxCC would like to be responsible for ensuring that the state of Texas provides a certification in service learning for interested individuals.

Carnegie Classification Preparation:

Texas Campus Compact assisted 12 member institutions in 2010 with instructive preparation through its highly popular speaking engagement series “Welcome to the Carnegie Classification Process."  The presentation prepared, and conducted by TxCC ED Patricia Potyka, M.A., is highly popular amongst member schools planning to apply for Carnegie Classification in 2010.

Participating member institutions are:

• Blinn College
• Collin College
• Houston Community College
• Kilgore College
• Lonestar College System    
• Prairie View A&M
• San Antonio College
• University of Texas-Arlington
• University of Texas-Brownsville
• University of Texas-El Paso
• University of Houston-Victoria
• University of North Texas

First TxCC Lobby Day:

Held in March 2008, this historic Lobby Day for service resulted in TxCC asking to become a line item in the state federal budget as well as to have a portion of state work study monies allocated for service learning.  Special thanks to Representative Jim Pitts for put our first Rider in Article 11 [$100k] to begin the push for service learning as a state budget priority.

STEM-In-Action:

Stem in Action Program Model:  Last year we launched our state’s premier program model for incorporating civic engagement and service learning components into science, technology, engineering, and math curriculum at high school, community, and university and community college levels, recruiting individuals underrepresented within STEM education fields.  The premier
model raised TAKS scores by 30%.

The Compact Impact: $ 25.00, Check or Credit Card accepted: Our state’s first service learning journal, detailing best practices from TxCC member institutions of higher education. GET IT NOW !

$ 25.00 Check or Credit Card accepted please email: lynn@texascampuscompact.org)

Dr. Gregory Vincent, Vice President for Diversity & Community Engagement & The W.K. Kellog Professor and Professor of Law University of Texas at Austin Joins the TxCC Advisory Board

TxCC is delighted to welcome Dr. Gregory Vincent to our Advisory Council. Dr Vincent brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our council, and we are extremely excited that Dr. Vincent has decided to serve our Compact in such an important, and vital capacity.

Abour Dr. Vincent:

Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, vice provost for inclusion and cross-cultural effectiveness and professor at The University of Texas at Austin, has been promoted to a new position as the university’s vice president for diversity and community engagement, and has been named a faculty fellow in the university’s College of Education.

Vincent will report to the university’s president, William Powers Jr., who created the new position that becomes effective June 1. Vincent’s responsibilities will be to work with a broad range of student, faculty, staff and community constituents to help make The University of Texas at Austin a more inviting and inclusive environment and to develop strategies to connect intellectual resources of the university to communities across Texas. Similar vice president positions have been created recently at other major public universities, such as the University of Minnesota and the University of Virginia.
“This is a great moment for the university,” said Powers. “Greg Vincent brings enormous talent and energy to the task of making UT even more diverse, more inclusive and more welcoming to students, staff and faculty of all cultures. I look forward to working with him in his new leadership role.”

In his new position, Vincent will continue to participate in the Vice Presidents’ Council and the University Leadership Council. He also will continue to be on the faculty as a professor in the Department of Educational Administration in the College of Education.

Vincent came to The University of Texas at Austin last summer after having been the vice provost for institutional equity and diversity and law professor at the University of Oregon since 2003. The new position of vice provost for inclusion and cross-cultural effectiveness at The University of Texas at Austin was created by former President Larry R. Faulkner in response to recommendations by the university’s Task Force on Racial Respect and Fairness.

Before joining the University of Oregon, Vincent was vice provost for academic affairs and campus diversity at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge from 2000-03, and had been the university’s vice provost for campus diversity from 1999-2000. Vincent also was a law professor and taught graduate courses in the university’s College of Education.
He also has been assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the Equity and Diverse Resource Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Vincent’s professional experience includes having been a vice president of Bank One Cleveland in Cleveland from 1994-95; director for regional and legal affairs at the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in Cleveland, 1991-94; assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Section of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in Columbus, Ohio, 1988-91; and an associate with a law firm in Charleston, W. Va., 1987-88.

TxCC Welcomes Dr. Gilda Garcia Vice President of Institutional Equity and Diversity at the University of North Texas to our Advisory Council

Dr. Gilda Garcia from the University of Texas has joined Texas Campus Compact's Advisory Council. TxCC is excited, and very pleased to welcome Dr. Garcia as one of our trusted advisors.

About Dr. Garcia:

On October 1, 2007, Gilda Garcia became the first Vice President of Institutional Equity and Diversity at the University of North Texas,

Prior to coming to UNT, Dr. Garcia served as Director of Equity and Access at Texas State University for five years. She also has served as a diversity training consultant for Novations/J. Howard and Associates, Associate Director for the Governor's Center for Management Development at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs, and Director of Organizational Development for the Texas Worker's Compensation Commission. Garcia has conducted diversity presentations for the Texas Diversity and Leadership Council.  Dr. Garcia serves on the Board of Directors for United Way of Denton, Texas Diversity Council and Uplift Education Charter School.

Dr. Garcia holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, a Master of Arts in Educational Administration from Texas State University and a Doctorate in Human Resource Development from the University of Texas at Austin