RAISE YOUR VOICE IN THE NEWS

Endorsement Quotes

“The Raise Your Voice campaign is an important national effort to promote student involvement in public life. I believe there is a genuine interest among today's college students to speak and act on issues they care about. I commend the students involved in the campaign for seizing this opportunity and acknowledging their responsibility to become more active, vocal citizens in our communities. As a nation, we stand to benefit substantially from their efforts.”
- Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

“The Raise Your Voice campaign is an impressive national effort to encourage college students to become active and informed members of their communities. The campaign emphasizes the important role that college students can have in dealing with the major challenges facing the nation today and in the years ahead. It also provides a new national platform for students to focus attention on what they see as today's pressing issues. I commend the many students involved in this nationwide campaign for their commitment to making America a stronger, better, and fairer democracy.”
- Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)

"At a time when our nation is facing unprecedented challenges, the need to encourage an ethic of public service in our youth has never been greater. President Bush has issued a call for all Americans to devote themselves to serving others, and I applaud those efforts, like Campus Compact's Raise Your Voice campaign, that are answering the call."
- Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH)

“Study after study documents that young Americans are increasingly disengaged from many forms of political participation such as voting and collective efforts to address public problems. At the same time, individual volunteerism is at record high levels among this generation. The "Raise Your Voice" initiative is an innovative and promising way to bridge the gap between college students' clear desire to become engaged in public life through service and their antipathy towards political and policy solutions to the issues they care about.”
- Michael X. Delli Carpini, Director, Public Policy Program, The Pew Charitable Trusts

“I would like to endorse the Raise Your Voice campaign. It is now more essential than at any time in recent history for young people to be invited to be active citizens, to make their education count for something in the world, beyond the orthodox notions of ‘success.’”
- Howard Zinn, Author of “A People’s History of the United States”

“Too often, commentators dismiss the current student generation as apathetic and uncaring. But when given an opportunity to engage the critical issues of our time, students respond. It's the job of the rest of us to give students the opportunities to define their own paths of involvement, in their own voices. They won't necessarily all agree on particular issues. That's fine. But efforts like the Raise Your Voice campaign give them a chance to learn the critical skills that will ensure they remain active citizens throughout their lives.”
- Paul Loeb, Author of “Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time”
and “Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus”

“Without voice a people can only imagine what a democracy might be. For an authentic democracy to be sustained, it demands that each of us become knowledgeable advocates for the common good. It is only right that university should be one of those places, where a person can find their voice.”
- Juliet V. Garcia, President, The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College

“Campus Compact's Raise Your Voice Campaign provides a desperately needed resource to nurture and sustain college students' involvement in the civic life of American democracy. This is a huge challenge, and the country has to do better. The systematic way this campaign is put together and the steps it lays out -- from curiosity to action -- should be a great fit for students around the country.”
- David Skaggs, Executive Director, Center for Democracy and Citizenship Program at the Council for Excellence in Government and former U.S. Representative from the 2nd Congressional District of Colorado

“The Raise Your Voice campaign is an important effort on college and university campuses to encourage students to address issues they care about-- from raising awareness of human rights to getting their peers more engaged in the U.S. political process. It's a campaign with real potential to transform the way college students think about civic engagement. It's an effort that reinforces that college students today have both the right and the responsibility to express themselves on issues that have consequences for our communities and our world.”
- David Ward, President, American Council on Education

“I fully endorse and support ‘Raise Your Voice - A Week of Action.’ With the challenges and opportunities before us in the 21st century, it is critical to increase and deepen student civic engagement efforts on college campuses. We must reach out to all students on our campuses to spread the message that change starts with each of us doing our share to make a difference. I encourage all students, faculty and staff to participate in the various campus activities planned for this important week, and to follow the Campus Compact adage: ‘Act today to create the world you want to live in tomorrow.’”
- Mark D. Gearan, President , Hobart and William Smith Colleges and former Director of the Peace Corps

“This is the right idea at the right time. The ‘Raise Your Voice’ campaign builds on the patriotism and idealism of young people at a moment when our national politics is raising issues of immediate and profound relevance for young people. I'm hopeful that this campaign will help close the gap between the concerns that young people have and our official political institutions and processes as vehicles for effectively expressing those concerns.”
- William A. Galston, Professor, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland and
Director, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE)

“Civic engagement is the seed corn of democracy. With it, students learn the basics of democratic participation. Without it, they become the armchair quarterbacks of the future.”
- Peter Smith, President, California State University Monterey Bay

“A few years ago, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend urged the San Francisco State University graduating class to remember that 'politics is community service writ large.' That's very much the point of the Raise Your Voice campaign. Our nation's campuses are alive with caring, generous students who can see themselves as agents for change on the community level, but who tend to define political engagement narrowly and negatively. Now we're giving students themselves a chance to lead the effort to tear down that artificial barrier and to raise their voices on the issues that are most important to them. Our democracy will need all the talents, all the involvement of this new generation in the decades ahead. We need to draw them in now."
- Robert A. Corrigan, President, San Francisco State University

“The Raise Your Voice campaign presents an exciting opportunity for students, campuses, and organizations across the nation who are actively working to improve communities to make their voices stronger, clearer, and more dynamic. We’re impressed that the Campus Compact involves its partners, including COOL, in forging power for student voice and engagement at many levels. Through these efforts, young people will be recognized for the vital roles they are playing in strengthening communities and the nation.”
- Ariane Hoy, Executive Director, COOL (Campus Outreach Opportunity League)