The Campus Compact website offers a wealth of resources for use by college and university faculty to connect student learning to issues and concerns beyond the classroom walls and empower students to solve the problems they face in their communities, the nation and the world. Across the country, educators and students’ hearts and minds have been captured by the police killing of the unarmed 18-year-old African American high school graduate Michael Brown, and the ensuing uprising of the people of Ferguson. We at Campus Compact are eager to share resources to support faculty with engaging students in learning, reflection, dialogue and action around the events of Ferguson and issues of racism and inequality.

Fortunately, educators in Ferguson and around the nation are rising to the challenge of engaging with the transformative purposes of education. On August 17, Dr. Marcia Chatelain, graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia and assistant professor of history at Georgetown University, tweeted a call for resources for educators to talk to young people heading back to school. Educators from around the nation began collecting and sharing articles, books, videos, and photos to aid educators in lesson ideas that engage students in a critical dialogue about the meaning of Michael Brown’s death and the mass uprising it has inspired.

Campus Compact recommends the following resources:

Un-moderated  #FergusonSyllabus twitter feed

Article with a snapshot of resources compiled via the #FergusonSyllabus twitter campaign

Background on FergusonSyllabus and an interview with Dr. Marcia Chatelain

Finally, the #FergusonSyllabus project itself seeks to engage faculty in addressing community needs. Dr. Chatelain has asked those who benefited from the #FergusonSyllabus twitter campaign to consider donating an item to an under-resourced school, prison literacy program, or community center. She has asked people to write the words “Ferguson Freedom Library” on the item being donated. The expression Freedom Library comes from the Freedom Summer Project of 1964. Civil rights activists created Freedom Schools to educate children and adults alike!

Campus Compact encourages faculty to take this further and engage students in community-engaged learning projects that support under-resourced educational institutions!