Democracy Re/Designed
Download the framework and discussion guide to use in your campus and community.
Pursuing Lumina’s mission of a better-educated nation means taking stock of a rapidly changing world. We believe the value and purpose of education and training after high school should reflect the urgent need for greater cohesiveness and problem-solving that strengthen and support a free and open society. In this way, we can ensure that individuals and local communities grow stronger and more united by making opportunities to build common ground and adapting to dire threats, such as the emergent consequences of a rapidly warming world.
Within the past few years, we have worked with partners from different economic, political, and social sectors, including organizations supporting stronger democracy, more and better local news and information, and thoughtful responses to global climate change. Education and training exist to build economic security and prosperity and to help us tackle difficult challenges. Lumina’s efforts to redesign higher learning should complement the important work of others by making education—and people with education and training—essential elements of the solutions.
We are aligning with new partners to build communities that work for everyone as the planet grows hotter, straining resources and relationships and exposing the weaknesses in our country’s unique form of self-governance. This interdisciplinary approach informs Lumina’s broad vision for learning systems that serve today’s college students, American society, and the national economy.
What is the leadership role of colleges in their local communities? How must higher learning change to acknowledge the emerging interests and experiences of the next generation? What will the rise of artificial intelligence mean for how they live and work? These are among the questions we are asking.
Our exploration includes:
- Analyzing global trends and potential risks relevant to Lumina’s mission of ensuring people are prepared for informed citizenship and success in a global economy.
- Identifying emerging issues that higher education can help address or resolve, and providing early-stage funding to support these ideas and interventions.
- Sharing our unique higher learning perspective, leadership networks, and nonprofit financing to help big ideas achieve broader societal impact.
Strengthening democracy
Since 2021, Lumina has focused on strengthening democracy and promoting civic engagement. We’ve built on existing civic movements in higher education and Lumina’s mission, which includes “active citizenship” as a core goal. Graduates should not only vote but be active in their communities, know how to work across difference, and be able to tell good information from bad. Though most colleges offer opportunities for this kind of learning, their efforts are often isolated, only available to students who seek them out, and not connected to a national strategy.
Our work on strengthening democracy includes:
- Supporting democratic renewal, including the academic independence of colleges and universities, through education and our involvement in nonpartisan and bipartisan coalitions aimed at diminishing polarization and the prospect of political violence.
- Exploring how colleges and universities can prepare people better for active participation in decisions affecting diverse communities beyond the acts of voting or signing petitions.
- Supporting the national Press Forward initiative to strengthen communities through more and better local news and information, focusing on the role colleges can play in providing news that helps people interact meaningfully with one another and local governments.
Learn More
Strengthening Democracy Resources
Building Resilient & Inclusive Communities of Knowledge
Strategies to curb extremism and polarization
By building healthier, more inclusive spaces, we make our colleges and universities more resilient to hate and discrimination, and prepare the next generation of leaders to bring those skills into the world around them.
American Democracy Project
An Initiative to Help Higher Education Lead for a More Equitable and Just Society by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Launches
Global warming
Our work on global warming includes:
- Supporting efforts to highlight the role higher education can play in addressing climate change, including through academic and training programs, research, and efforts to minimize or eliminate campuses’ carbon footprints.
- Connecting climate adaptation to successfully figuring out how to live on a hotter planet by appealing to a wide array of students and faculties across disciplines ranging from xxxx to xxxx.
- Emphasizing the need to prepare people for more green jobs, even amid skepticism about climate change, which is already wreaking havoc in the form of catastrophic weather events.
Learn More
Global warming resources
Climate Wayfinding
A deep learning program for people seeking clarity, courage, and community on their climate journeys
Higher Ed Climate Action Plan
The Higher Ed Climate Action Plan provides a roadmap to support comprehensive action across higher education and outlines recommendations for different stakeholders to catalyze and scale these efforts across the country.
New Green Learning Agenda
Transformative Approaches for a New Green Learning Agenda