Common Good Character Trust Convenes through Baylor Grant

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (November 14, 2024) — In partnership with Yale University’s Center for Public Theology & Public Policy, Baylor University’s Office of Engaged Learning this week convened the Common Good Character Trust (CGCT) in Winston-Salem, NC. The CGCT is a group of ten scholars and higher education leaders supported by a grant from the Educating Character Initiative (ECI) at Wake Forest University to develop a framework called Common Good Character. The Trust also focuses on strategies to help universities form students prepared to promote the common good.

Co-directed by Andrew Hogue, Associate Dean for Engaged Learning at Baylor, and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Assistant Director of Yale’s Center for Public Theology & Public Policy, the CGCT includes:

• Leah Anderson, The University of Pennsylvania
• Jorge Burmicky, Howard University
• Larycia Hawkins, Lincoln University
• Emily Hunt-Hinojosa, Wake Forest University
• Tony Lin, Independent Scholar
• Brent Maher, Davidson University
• Alexis Carter Thomas, Furman University
• Gloria Winston, North Carolina Central University

“What a rich and meaningful gathering of thoughtful, talented higher education leaders,” reflected Hogue. “When so much of higher education focuses on individual achievement, this group has committed to forging new structures and new practices for the formation of people and institutions who will promote the common good. Never has that felt more important, and never have I been more grateful for a network in which to explore new ideas and new ways of educating.”

The Educating Character Initiative, a project of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, was founded in 2023 through the support of Lilly Endowment Inc. and aims to equip a wide range of public and private institutions of higher education—including, but not limited to, major research universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, military academies, minority-serving institutions, religiously affiliated colleges, and single-gender colleges—with the resources, funding, and support needed to integrate character education into their distinctive institutional contexts, curricula, and cultures. The broader aspiration is to foster a robust network that recognizes the value of educating character within higher education.

Founded through a grant from the Educating Character Initiative, the CGCT meets regularly via Zoom and convened at Wake Forest for two days of extended conversation.

“The Educating Character Initiative is thrilled to support the work of the CGCT,” said Dr. Jennifer Rothschild, Director of ECI. “The talented higher education leaders in this group are helping our broader network at ECI think about the many ways leadership and character are not solitary endeavors, but instead matter for the well-being of our communities, institutions, and society at large.”

“We at Baylor are honored to help lead this work,” noted Hogue, “and we look forward to all the good that will follow from these conversations.”