The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected Denison University as one of 115 U.S. colleges and universities for its 2010 Community Engagement Classification.

According to a statement released today by the Carnegie Foundation, 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 Education. Unlike the Foundation’s other classifications that rely on national data, this is an “elective” classification. To earn this recognition institutions are required to submit documentation describing the nature and extent of their engagement with the community. This approach enables the foundation to assess elements of institutional mission and distinctiveness that are not represented in the national data on colleges and universities.

In awarding this classification, the Carnegie Foundation wrote that Denison “documented excellent alignment among mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement.”

Carnegie President Anthony Bryk said, “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.”

Of the 115 schools awarded this classification, 66 are public institutions and 49 are private; and 35 are research universities, 41 are master’s colleges and universities, 25 are baccalaureate colleges, 12 are community colleges and two institutions have a specialized focus. The Community Engagement Classified Colleges represent campuses in 34 states.

“We noted strong institutional alignment across leadership, infrastructure, strategic planning, budgeting, faculty teaching and scholarship, and community partnerships,” explained Amy Driscoll, a consulting scholar with the Carnegie Foundation and with the New England Resource Center for Higher Education. “There is increased student engagement tied to the curriculum, as well as increased use of institutional measures such as the National Survey of Student Engagement for understanding student engagement in learning through community engagement.”

The Carnegie Foundation, through the work of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, developed the first typology of American colleges and universities in 1970 as a research tool to describe and represent the diversity of U.S. higher education. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education continues to be used for a wide range of purposes by academic researchers, institutional personnel, policymakers and others.