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Campus-Wide Student Leadership

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Overview

Campus-wide student leadership is about building structures where many students can lead, not just a few who “always say yes.” Drawing on decades of experience from the Bonner Network and related examples, like twenty years of organizing by the Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), strong efforts share several core commitments:

• From “apathy” to opportunity and structure

  What often looks like student apathy is actually a structural problem. When students are invited into clear, well-designed roles with real responsibility, most will step up. Effective programs focus on creating pathways, not blaming students for not caring.

• Coalition of Projects model

  The strongest campus programs tend to operate like a coalition of projects, a term coined by COOL to describe:

• An umbrella organization that supports many semi‑autonomous, issue‑ or community‑focused projects.
• Each project has its own leaders, volunteers, and community partners.
• A core student leadership team provides coalition‑wide support (recruitment, training, funding, communications, evaluation).

• High quality community engagement, not just more activity

  High quality student-led service weaves together five critical elements of quality community engagement emphasized in COOL’s work and the field more broadly:

1. Community Voice – partners shape priorities and projects.
2. Orientation & Training – students understand context, skills, and expectations.
3. Meaningful Action – projects address real needs and, when possible, root causes.
4. Reflection – students regularly connect experience, learning, and justice.
5. Evaluation – teams assess impact and improve each year.
   
   

• Cascading leadership and “mini-career paths”

  Sustainable programs and cohort structures often give students a clear developmental arc:

• This progression can occur in Student Life (clubs and organizations), Academic Affairs (departments), Fellowship Programs, access programs, and other units, not just through the Bonner Program and centers for community engagement
• Students move from being a one-time or short-term volunteer to a team member → project/site leader → campus‑wide leader (e.g., BLT, Service Track Coordinator, council representative).
• This “ladder” allows students to grow skills in organizing, facilitation, project management, and partnership-building over several years.
  
  

• Campus-wide visibility, support, and resourcing

  Robust student leadership is anchored in:

• Visible campus‑wide events and opportunities (days of service, issue‑based weeks, campus calendars).
• Partnerships with student affairs, academic affairs, diversity and inclusion, athletics, residence life, and more.
• Reliable resources (funding, office space with “hang‑out” quality, technology, mini‑grants, and sometimes a dedicated community service funding board).

Taken together, these principles support a campus culture where student leadership in civic and community engagement is expected, supported, and celebrated. As a core goal of the Bonner Foundation and Bonner Program is to build fully engaged campuses, student leadership often paves the ways for campus-wide engagement.Leverage the models and examples in this section to catalyze broader and deeper engagement within your institution and community.

Institutions with Bonner Programs often see the results of these efforts in the roles that Bonner Scholars and Leaders play across the institution and within the community. These students are often the recipients of major campus awards, as well as national recognition like the Newman Fellowship. They are officers in student government. They are hired by their partners or recruited into post-graduate fellowships and VISTA leader roles. They mobilize their peers in large-scale service events and campaigns on issues. Investing in students' campus-wide leadership pays dividends. This section can help you, as staff and faculty, empower students, then get out of their way so that they can make long-lasting impacts.