Massachusetts is home to 121 institutions of higher education, a number of which consistently rank as some of the best colleges/universities in the United States. Especially prominent is its University of Massachusetts program which features five campuses around the state. Many of these top schools are centered in and around Boston and the Eastern seaboard area. Massachusetts should view the presence of so many higher education institutions in the state as a valuable resource to advance civic health. Many universities, such as Harvard University located in Cambridge, promote civic engagement among the student body and/or among the community at large. For example, Harvard College hosts its own student-run CIVICS program, dedicated to promoting civic education in the community.(28) Such programs advance civic health in area schools and have met with relative success. Many of these programs also focus on disparities in engagement along racial and economic lines by targeting financially depressed areas such as the Dorchester and Roxbury areas.

Another example of an initiative which addresses the critical role that higher education plays in advancing civic health is the American Democracy Project, which began in 2003 as an initiative within the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The purpose of the project is to “produce graduates who are committed to being active, involved citizens in their communities.”(29) This program includes a series of national initiatives supported by groups of campuses and national partners. For example, one initiative, Civic Agency, is devoted to encouraging citizens to work collaboratively across differences like partisan ideology, faith traditions, income, geography, and ethnicity to address common challenges, solve problems, and create common ground. National initiatives such as the American Democracy Project, Campus Compact, and others can serve as critical resources for the state of Massachusetts as it leverages its many institutions of higher education to promote civic health.