CU Boulder Receives the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement

The Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement recognizes colleges and universities that have made extraordinary commitments to realizing their public purpose through reciprocal and mutually beneficial engagement with the communities they serve.  

Community engagement describes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to:

• enrich scholarship, research and creative activity; 

• enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; 

• prepare educated, engaged citizens; 

• strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; 

• address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.

The Elective Classification is not an award, but rather evidence-based documentation of institutional policy and practices that center community engagement in areas such as institutional culture and mission, curricular and co-curricular programming, continuous improvement activities and the recruitment and reward of faculty, staff and students. As such, it requires a large body of evidence of meaningful and sustained institutional investment of systems and structures that support individuals, groups and communities to work with each other for mutual benefit and in a context of reciprocal partnership. 

Institutions are successful in achieving classification to the extent that they demonstrate that community engagement is enacted and supported by the institution specifically, including—but not limited to—the activity and commitment of individual faculty, staff and students. Institutional commitment and excellence are demonstrated through systems and structures that are deep, pervasive and integrated.

• Deep engagement demonstrates systems, structures, behaviors, and outcomes that appropriately positions all partners—students, faculty, staff, community members—as co-educators, co-learners, and co-generators of knowledge; and it involves professional development that builds the capacity of all partners to undertake it in high quality, contextualized, and continuously improving ways. How has an institutional commitment to community engagement helped transition its partnerships beyond transactional exchanges to generate new, transformative possibilities among partners through reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships? 

• Pervasiveness is demonstrated by the extent to which community engagement is part of the plans, activities, and outcomes across the academic institution, such as within academic units, student services, communications, business affairs, and other relevant areas. Is community engagement a far-reaching activity such that it is practiced, valued, and supported across many or all units and divisions with the potential to transform institution-wide cultures and systems? 

• Integration is demonstrated by the extent to which community engagement is embedded into the core, strategic, and academic purposes and structures of the institution. How do commitments to the principles and practices of community engagement align with, inform, and influence institutional priorities and initiatives, such as student success, faculty and staff scholarship (broadly defined), and public and community service and how they are selected, enacted, and assessed?

For more information, please see the 2026 First Time Documentation Guide to the Application.