Community Engagement
Community Engagement Institutional Definition
Community engagement is “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”.
Citation: Adapted from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Elective Classification for Community Engagement. Carnegie Community Engagement Classification
At KU, this definition provides a consistent framework to support faculty, staff, and students across disciplines and areas of work, offering guidelines that foster sustainable, respectful, and impactful partnerships in Kansas and around the world. By adopting the Carnegie Foundation’s definition of community engagement as an institution, KU may establish clarity and shared expectations across the University of Kansas.
Community Engagement Sections
Community engagement brokers 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.
Citation: Adapted from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Elective Classification for Community Engagement. Carnegie Community Engagement Classification
- Ensure activities are undertaken with community members;
- Facilitate reciprocal partnerships that support collaborative community and campus participation in identifying problems, solutions, and shared outcomes of success;
- Recognize, respect, and value the knowledge, perspectives, and resources of community partners;
- Serve a public purpose;
- Build the capacity of individuals, groups, and organizations involved to understand and collaboratively address issues of public concern; and,
- Assist campuses in fulfilling their civic purpose through socially useful knowledge creation and dissemination, and through the cultivation of democratic values, skills, and habits - democratic practice.
Citation: Adapted from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Elective Classification for Community Engagement. Carnegie Community Engagement Classification
- Grounded in the qualities of reciprocity, mutual respect, shared authority, and co-creation of goals and outcomes;
- Trans-disciplinary (knowledge transcending the disciplines and the college or university); and,
- Asset-based where the strengths, skills, and knowledge of those in the community are validated and legitimized.
Citation: Adapted from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Elective Classification for Community Engagement. Carnegie Community Engagement Classification
The University of Kansas is an active holder of the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, an elective designation that indicates institutional commitment to community engagement.
The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification has been the leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement in U.S. higher education since 2006. KU first received this designation in 2010 and was re-designated in 2020.