Celebrations
Congratulations to the 2026 NetVUE Grants for Reframing the Institutional Saga
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), through its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), has awarded the 2026 Grants for Reframing the Institutional Saga to eleven institutions in the total amount of $654,411, supporting these institutions in producing an updated account of their history and mission in light of their current context. CIC and NetVUE are grateful for the support of Lilly Endowment Inc., which makes this grant possible.
This is the sixth year that this NetVUE grant was awarded, bringing the total to 100 grants awarded to member institutions. These institutions are engaging in deep exploration of their institutional sagas, ranging from critical historical reckoning and the renewal of founding missions to the examination of community contexts and geographical identities.
“We are glad to offer our members this opportunity for support as they seek to better understand their ongoing institutional vocations,” said Carter Aikin, NetVUE grants director. “Amid the mounting pressures facing higher education in this challenging moment, it has perhaps never been more important to attend closely to the callings of our academic communities.”
NetVUE empowers independent colleges and universities to guide undergraduates in exploring and discerning their many callings in life. This cohort of grant recipients is advancing the conversation through diverse storytelling initiatives—including scholarly publications, digital exhibits, multimedia resources, and community convenings—that will help institutions articulate the ties between their inheritance from the past and the vocations that situate them within their current context and call them into the future. For more information about each project, visit the NetVUE grants website. The list of institutions receiving this grant in 2026 and the names of projects are included below:
Baylor University (TX)
A Critical Examination of Our Institutional Saga: Engaging Baylor’s Baptist Heritage
Butler University (IN)
Butler and Midtown: A Century of Shared Mission
Chaminade University of Honolulu (HI)
Kuleana and Charism: Articulating a Catholic Marianist Mission
Concordia College (MN)
Two Campuses, One Story: Concordia and the Language Villages
Dillard University (LA)
From Founding to Future: Reframing Dillard’s HBCU Legacy
Lee University (TN)
Institutional Calling: Vocation, Heritage, and Shared Identity
Oglethorpe University (GA)
Reexamining Two Centuries: An Inclusive Historical Reflection
St. Catherine University (MN)
Exploring our Evolving Identity
University of Mount Saint Vincent (NY)
Honoring the Sisters’ Legacy: Reframing our Founding Mission
University of Pikeville (KY)
Historical Narratives of Virtue, Vocation, and Community
University of the Incarnate Word (TX)
Embodying Mission: Stories of Charism and Catholic Identity
More about CIC and NetVUE
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is an association of over 600 nonprofit independent colleges and universities, state-based councils, and higher education affiliates that works to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public understanding of independent higher education’s contributions to society. CIC provides members with ideas, resources, and programs that help institutions improve their leadership expertise, educational programs, administrative and financial performance, and institutional visibility.
The Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) is a program of CIC with over 350 members. The purpose of NetVUE is to increase the capacity of independent colleges and universities to support their undergraduate students as they explore and discern their many callings in life. The process of vocational reflection is an interdisciplinary endeavor, bringing together theological, philosophical, ethical, historical, and affective approaches, and implementing the theoretical reflections of these fields in vocation related practices. Campuses are encouraged to support students in this work through a variety of academic departments, pre-professional programs, and campus offices. NetVUE is governed by a principle of subsidiarity: individual member institutions are encouraged to shape their work related to vocation and calling— including the vocabularies that they use to describe this work—in ways that are best suited to their own missions, teaching philosophies, student demographics, and other matters best known to those who lead and guide this work on campus.
To report a technical problem with the website, or to offer suggestions for navigation and content issues, please contact Alex Stephenson, NetVUE communications coordinator, at astephenson@cic.edu.