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“Campus to Community: Stories of Impact in Higher Education” is a series I’m writing to explore how colleges and universities show up for the world beyond their gates, and what that reveals about who we are and who we’re becoming. I will highlight higher education’s civic purpose through stories about the programs, partnerships, and people that connect campus to community.
DePauw University was founded in 1837 through the determination of a frontier community, and it has been shaped by Greencastle, Indiana, ever since. That year, residents raised $25,000 — roughly equivalent to $1 million today — to convince the Methodist Episcopal Church to establish its new college in their small town. That remarkable show of faith from a small frontier community determined to bring higher learning to Greencastle established a relationship that continues to shape the university and the city to this day.
As noted in DePauw’s official history, the university was “forever to be conducted on the most liberal principles, accessible to all denominations, and designed for the benefit of our citizens in general.” The belief that learning should strengthen individuals and communities continues to guide DePauw’s partnership with Greencastle. It now takes form through the Growing Green and Gold Together initiative, a collaborative effort to strengthen connections between campus and community. The initiative grew out of DePauw’s five-year strategic plan, Bold & Gold 2027, and is supported by a $32 million Lilly Endowment grant, as well as investments from DePauw, the City of Greencastle, and private partners.
Through the Growing Green and Gold Together initiative, DePauw and Greencastle are once again combining vision, investment, and trust to model how universities and hometowns can thrive together. In doing so, they reaffirm a truth that has defined their relationship from the beginning: the university’s future, like its past, is bound to the vitality of the community that first fought to bring it to life. “Our futures are deeply intertwined,” says President Lori S. White.
Building a Framework for Shared Growth
The question of how to focus their efforts for the greatest shared impact loomed large for university and city officials as they looked towards the future. Leaders on both sides identified ongoing needs in housing, workforce retention, and access to vibrant public spaces.
Using a Lilly Endowment Community Collaboration and Connection (CCC) planning grant, the university and city convened residents, civic leaders, and business owners to identify priorities where investment could most improve the quality of life and place. That collaborative process led to the creation of the five focus areas that now form the backbone of the Growing Green and Gold Together initiative: Seminary Square, the Cinema Project, the Green & Gold Business Accelerator, Downtown Public Space Enhancement, and the Putnam County YMCA and Aquatic Center. Each focus area addresses a distinct yet interconnected dimension of community well-being:
- Seminary Square tackles housing shortages while helping recruit and retain local talent.
- Downtown revitalization and small-business support reinforce Greencastle’s historic core as an economic and cultural hub.
- The YMCA expansion and the Cinema project invest in spaces that support health, creativity, and belonging.
The scale of this project requires strong alignment, patience, and coordination. To manage that complexity, an executive leadership team composed of senior DePauw administrators (including vice presidents), city representatives such as the mayor and city attorney, and key project leads provides strategic direction for the project. Additionally, university staff, city officials, and community stakeholders work together on implementation teams to guide progress and maintain accountability for each focus area. Finally, a dedicated project director and community liaison handles day-to-day coordination. The team hosts regular community engagement sessions, such as the Year in Review, throughout the year to invite residents into the process, and local media helps keep the broader community informed and connected to the initiative’s work.
Early Momentum and Shared Challenges
In its first year, the initiative has turned plans into visible progress across Greencastle. A request for development proposals for Seminary Square drew strong interest from private partners, and Buckingham Companies, an Indianapolis-based firm, was selected as the development partner. Nearby, the Greencastle Cinema relocation project has moved from design to action: the final plans are approved, the property at 6 East Washington has been acquired, and construction is underway. Together, these projects signal a renewed investment in Greencastle’s built environment.
Through the Small Business Incubator Fund, entrepreneurs have gained access to training, mentorship, and pitch programs, resulting in two accelerator cohorts. The first round of small-business grants will be awarded by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, the YMCA project continues to strengthen the community’s social fabric. Phase 1 was completed in March, and design plans for a new aquatic center have been finalized.
Still, progress on a project of this scale is rarely linear and never easy. Officials note that a lot of the most time-intensive work took place behind the scenes: drafting and reviewing agreements and documents that required approval from both university and city leaders. Coordinating these efforts required patience and persistence, especially as each governing body navigated its own processes and timelines.
“From the outside, it may have seemed that little visible progress occurred over the past year,” says Andrea Young, DePauw’s vice president for finance and administration. “But in reality, significant work was happening behind the scenes — negotiating agreements, identifying partners, and finalizing critical details before physical or programmatic work could begin.”
“That strong alignment between DePauw and the City has proven essential,” Young adds. “A project of this complexity could easily have been delayed or derailed without such a committed partnership.”
Measuring Progress and Building Legacy
In written responses for this story, officials noted that they are measuring early success both in relationships and in results.
Over the next decade, leaders will look to economic, educational, and civic indicators to measure success. Economically, they will measure success based on sustained downtown investment, new business growth, and the extent to which stronger local employment pathways connecting graduates and residents endure. Educationally, they will assess whether students enjoy more opportunities to learn and serve in Greencastle. Civically, they’ll examine the strength of local networks and the degree to which campus and community collaborate as true partners.
“Ultimately,” says Young, “Growing Green and Gold Together will be successful if, ten years from now, both DePauw and Greencastle are stronger because they have grown together.”
That vision also captures what leaders hope will become the initiative’s lasting legacy.
“A demonstration that when institutions invest deeply in the place and people around them, they not only strengthen their own futures but also help shape a more inclusive and thriving community for generations to come,” says Dionne Jackson, vice president for institutional equity.
If DePauw’s story began with a town that believed in a college before it existed, Growing Green and Gold Together is the next chapter in that same story – one that reaffirms that a flourishing university and a flourishing community are, and always have been, one and the same.
A Model for What’s Possible
Growing Green and Gold Together demonstrates what can happen when a university treats its hometown as a co-author of its story, rather than just the setting for it.
While public confidence in higher education has begun to recover, Gallup data reveals a lingering divide: most Americans agree that colleges contribute to innovation and better jobs, far fewer believe they foster compassion, understanding, or trust. Rebuilding trust will require visible acts of reciprocity and acknowledgment that institutional renewal and community well-being are deeply intertwined.
DePauw’s partnership with Greencastle offers one compelling example of how to do this work well. It shows that universities become part of a shared ecosystem of knowledge, trust, and possibility when they are embedded in a place rather than perched above it. Within that ecosystem lies the healing and relationship-building essential to restoring public faith in higher education.
As other colleges consider how to strengthen their own local ties, DePauw’s example invites reflection rather than replication. It raises a question worth asking everywhere: What does it mean to grow together where we’re planted?
