Belmont University receives Carnegie Classification for community engagement

Belmont University has received recognition in the form of a 2024 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, a distinction bestowed by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

According to an article on Belmont University’s website, Tim Stewart, who serves as the director of Service Learning at the university, was quoted as saying of the honor, “To be recognized with the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is a great reflection on the myriad of ways that Belmont works to be a radical champion helping people and communities flourish. Thanks to all the folks at Belmont who shared about the great work they are doing to make the world a better place, and to our community partners who contributed information about the impact of our work together. This recognition serves not only as an affirmation of what we’ve been doing, but also serves as a roadmap for helping us move forward to be even more effective in pursuing life abundant for all people.”

Carnegie Classifications, aside from being an honor to earn, are used for many important things in the world of academia, including funding benchmarks and research. For example, in order to meet the criteria of a grant, an institution might be required to possess a certain Carnegie Classification. The Classifications serve as descriptors of different institutions in order to categorize based on certain criteria.

The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, which is the classification earned this year by Belmont University, has been in existence for 19 years and is a useful tool to measure an institution’s level of community engagement.

In order to earn a Carnegie Classification, each interested institution completes a self-study that is then reviewed by a committee. The 40 institutions that received the recognition this year are either first-time recipients or have become reclassified after having earned the distinction in a past review cycle. 

Ted Mitchell, who is the president of the American Council on Education, spoke about the impact of earning a Carnegie Classification, saying, “Now is the opportune moment to pay attention to these recently classified and re-classified institutions, as they dedicate themselves to fortifying their public purpose missions. Let us draw inspiration from their remarkable contributions through community engagement, enhancing both teaching and research and simultaneously benefiting the wider community.”

Timothy Knowles, who serves as the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, praised the institutions who earned recognition, saying, “We recognize these institutions for their exceptional commitment to community engagement, and their work to transform knowledge into meaningful action. They exemplify the true spirit of the Carnegie endorsement and the power of serving the public good.”

For more information about Belmont University, visit the school’s website.