• “Education for a fuller realization of democracy in every phase of living.
• Education directly and explicitly for international understanding and cooperation.
• Education for the application of creative imagination and trained intelligence to the solution of social problems and to the administration of public affairs.” As noted, in 2012, the U.S. Department of Education issued A Crucible Moment, which investigated the role of higher education in democracy. The report outlines the type of education necessary to reattach us to the promise of our great nation, an education “informed by deep engagement with the values of liberty, equality, individual worth, open mindedness, and the willingness to collaborate with people of differing views and backgrounds toward common solutions for the public good” (3). As we model this type of civil discourse at Central Washington University, we must build an environment of meaningful engagement with others who have different backgrounds and world views, from all parts of the state, the nation, and even the world. As Ronald Daniels notes in his recent book, What Universities Owe Democracy , “Effective democratic citizens reason and argue and tolerate and participate—they aspire to achieve the best version of their community and engage their fellow citizens and the political realm in that project” (93). And they do so with individuals who come from different backgrounds, have different perspectives, and operate from different value systems. As we work together to embody a new vision and mission at Central Washington University, we have the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment not only to be culturally responsive, but to be culturally sustaining—to truly elevate and sustain the various cultures, languages, literacies, histories, and communities that our students, faculty, and staff bring to our university and to the broader Kittitas Valley community. This is the great work that the 21st century calls upon us to take up, and given the opportunity we have as an institution of higher education to lead this work, our responsibility is great. We will need to try new strategies and approaches as we embody our new vision and mission, and some of them may fail—but failure in building a community of equity and belonging is not an option. Too much is at stake—too many lives and too much potential. Indeed, it is through the active engagement with the world around us that we deepen our learning into wisdom and become committed to something bigger than ourselves: we see, in that act of solving an intractable problem with others, that our work matters, for it can make the world a better place to live, work, and learn.
Pillar Three: Deep Purpose and Personal Fulfillment
My desire to leave education altogether after high school was driven partly by what I perceived at the time to be a narrow focus on career preparation. All of my friends were going to college to get jobs. I wanted something different: to find a pathway into a meaningful and purposeful life. Page 6
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