Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement

UCF invests in the people and the communities where we live and work. We believe that faculty, staff, and community members working together will enable us to shape the future, uplift lives and communities, and solve the world’s most challenging problems.

Community and culture is one of the university’s strategic priority. One of the goals is to earn the prestigious 2024 Elective Classification for Community Engagement classification.

The Carnegie Foundation’s Elective Classification for Community Engagement is a way for colleges and universities in the U.S. to gain recognition for institutionalizing community engagement. Campuses must apply for the classification, which is offered every two years starting 2024.

The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student can live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. The American Council on Education (ACE) is the administrative and research home of the classification.

The Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement is not an award. It is an evidence-based documentation of institutional policy and practices focusing on 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.

Becoming a classified institution requires the investment of substantial effort by the participating institution to provide evidence of the commitment to community engagement, demonstrated with precision across the breadth of the institution. This Classification is an institutional recognition given to an individual campus and as such requires that the self-study process consider and document many aspects of the institutional life of a campus. Classification is thus given to successful campuses, not programs, centers, or systems of campuses.