Miami selected for 2010 Community Engagement Classification by Carnegie Foundation

Miami University has been selected for the 2010 Community Engagement Classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Miami’s Oxford and Hamilton campuses are two of 115 institutions recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the voluntary classification in 2010.

The Community Engagement Classification — the first elective classification of the Carnegie Foundation — “acknowledges significant commitment to and demonstration of community engagement,” said Carnegie President Anthony Bryk. The foundation “encourages colleges and universities to become more deeply engaged, to improve teaching and learning and to generate socially responsive knowledge to benefit communities.”

Combined with those who received classifications in 2006 and 2008, Miami is among 311 colleges and universities classified as Community Engagement institutions. In 2010, 154 institutions applied to document community engagement, up from 147 in 2008.

Institutions with a focus on community engagement were invited to apply for the classification, first offered in 2006 as part of a restructuring of The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The 2010 Community Engagement institutions include 66 public and 49 private schools from 34 states.

Miami’s application “documented excellent alignment among mission, culture, leadership, resources and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement,” said Bryk.

“Miami is emerging as an institutional leader with high social accountability and responsibility to our community — locally, regionally, nationally and globally,” said Monica Ways, director of Miami’s office of community engagement and service.

Numerous campus and community partnerships exist at Miami to facilitate student community engagement, including the Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine residency program, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the Wilks Leadership Institute, among many others. Miami students can participate in many service learning courses, volunteer opportunities and social action programs.

Miami’s Middletown campus shares in the Oxford campus designation through a memorandum of agreement between the campuses’ respective offices of community engagement and service.

The Carnegie Foundation invited institutions to apply for the classification in 2006, 2008 and 2010. Elective classifications rely on voluntary participation by institutions and allow the foundation to recognize important aspects of institutional mission and action that are not available in the national data used for its all-inclusive classifications, according to the Carnegie Foundation. The next opportunity to apply for the elective Community Engagement Classification will be 2015.

A full list of institutions selected for the 2010 Community Engagement Classification, is available online.