UC Receives Community Engagement Classification from Carnegie Foundation

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching names UC among 115 American colleges and universities for its 2010 Community Engagement Classification. The foundation issued the announcement today, naming UC among 35 research intensive universities to receive the classification.

Colleges and universities with an institutional focus on community engagement were invited to apply for the classification, first offered in 2006 as part of an extensive restructuring of The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning. At that time, UC was listed among an elite group of 76 colleges and universities around the country to receive the Carnegie Foundation’s classification as a “community engaged” institution for its outreach and partnerships.

The news announced today adds curricular engagement to the UC classification, acknowledging UC’s emphasis on service in improving teaching and learning, as well as its commitment to benefiting the local and global community.

“Through a classification that acknowledges significant commitment to and demonstration of community engagement, 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,” says Carnegie President Anthony Bryk. “We are very pleased with the movement we are seeing in this direction.”

In order to be selected, institutions had to provide descriptions and examples of community engagement that showed alignment in institutional mission, culture, leadership, resources and practices.

“This truly falls in line with the goals of our UC2019 academic plan and our constant review of UC’s commitment to transforming lives and making the world a better place,” says UC Provost Santa Ono.

UC has forged a collaborative partnership spanning both academic affairs and student affairs – including co-located office space and sharing of resources and contacts – that serves to create deeper, more sustainable partnerships with our community. Under student affairs, UC’s Center for Community Engagement is dedicated to connecting the University of Cincinnati and the community through service. UC’s Office for Community-Engaged Learning under academic affairs supports students, faculty and community partners to ensure that the community-engaged learning experience at UC is a benefit to all involved.

In addition to student volunteer service activities in the community and to faraway places over academic breaks, UC offered 182 service-learning courses in the past academic year, with 5,266 students taking service learning courses. Those courses blend student participation and reflection in community-based projects to achieve specific learning outcomes, providing academic college credit. Fifty-two UC academic departments offered service learning opportunities in the past academic year.

By participating in these service-learning opportunities at the local, national or international level, students not only gain a richer mastery of their course content, but also enhance their sense of civic responsibility. They ultimately develop a better understanding of the relationship between classroom theory, practice, ideas, values and community.

About the Carnegie Foundation

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center that supports needed transformations in American education through tighter connections between teaching practice, evidence of student learning, the communication and use of this evidence, and structured opportunities to build knowledge. The Foundation is located in Stanford, Calif. More information may be found on the website at www.carnegiefoundation.org.

Other UC Accolades

For two years in a row, UC has been listed among the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, with the 2009 honor roll announced last February. The honor roll is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering.

UC was recently ranked among the top 200 universities in the world by the prestigious Times Higher Education magazine. It is ranked as one of America’s top 25 public research universities by the National Science Foundation.

The Princeton Review lists UC in the 2011 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 373 Colleges.” Forbes Magazine calls UC one of the world's most beautiful campuses.