By Marisol Morales
As part of the broader efforts to reimagine the Carnegie Classifications announced in 2022, the Universal and Elective Classifications were also brought together in the same organizational home at the American Council on Education to help further show the breadth and range of the missions and purposes of American higher education. That transition has also prompted the exploration of how we can further modernize the Universal Classifications to better reflect in contemporary terms the broad public purpose, mission, focus and impact of our nation’s colleges and universities. As shared in the Frequently Asked Questions related to the recent announcement of changes to the 2025 Carnegie Classifications, we plan to also expand the number and types of Elective Classifications as well. The Elective classifications, too, must be adaptive, and the forthcoming changes are intended to ensure that the frameworks created to describe postsecondary institutions remain relevant and useful.
Currently, the Elective Classifications comprises two categories: Community Engagement, which was introduced in 2006, and Leadership for Public Purpose, which is now completing its inaugural cycle and will announce its first set of classified institutions in June. As we began to examine our data and participation rates and consider feedback from participating colleges and universities, it became clear that we needed to think more broadly and boldly about the Elective Classifications and revise the policies and practices surrounding application and participation. The result is reimagined Elective classifications centered on people and focused on transformation. That led us to develop four goals for the future of the Elective classifications and its applications:
Balanced rigor
It’s critical that the application process simultaneously maintain rigor while also being a reasonable lift for campuses. In talking with institutions, we realized that parts of the existing Elective classification applications were repetitive and unnecessarily complicated and that we should allow applicants to tell fuller stories. We acknowledge that the process should be more inclusive of community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other institutions with low rates of applying to these Classifications. Lastly, we thought deeply about how to integrate continuous improvement into reclassification processes for institutions that might be applying for a third time.
Of and by the field
We are involving practitioners in the review, development, and training around these electives, inviting them to serve in our new three-tier review system, and asking them to provide feedback on the costs and benefits of the process and ways in which we can more intentionally include democracy within our frameworks. The application process is a comprehensive campus-wide endeavor. It requires collecting and analyzing data from disparate parts of an institution. It involves examining the community engagement or leadership embedded in an institution’s teaching, research, and service functions. And it represents a powerful moment of institutional self-reflection and transformation. Now, those closest to this work will have more opportunities to participate in shaping the Elective Classification. In addition, we have expanded and diversified our National Advisory Committee and created a Presidential Advisory Council with membership from a diverse set of institutions to ensure we are hearing their voices and creating champions for our work.
Reflective of today’s learners and the institutions that serve them
It is vitally important that the institutions included in the Elective Classifications represent diversity within higher education. Over the past year we have reached out to community colleges and Minority Serving Institutions, especially HBCUs, that educate significant numbers of students yet are underrepresented both in applications and participation in this classification. To enhance our outreach efforts, we have held application workshops specifically for community colleges and HBCUs and partnered with the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. We worked with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) to offer a webinar for Hispanic-Serving Institutions and explore new partnerships that will help us increase outreach and build capacity among a diverse range of postsecondary institutions.
Collective action
Because the Elective classifications are neither a ranking nor a competition, we value the power of collaboration. They exist in part to highlight exemplary applications and projects as a tool for learning, which is why we will create a community of practice following the January announcement of the 2024 Classified campuses to support continuous improvement. To further our commitment, we will offer direct feedback to institutions by way of a report on their applications whether they are classified or not. We also are creating research co-labs that will use the data we have collected since 2005 to develop a research agenda focused on understanding and disseminating the trends in community engagement and leadership for public purpose. These co-labs will invite scholar-practitioners to participate in creating catalyst papers, blogs, and a book project to connect higher education more strongly to its public mission. We hope this collective action will drive transformation and continuous improvement at both the institutional and field levels.
In the future, we plan to create a suite of electives that speak to some of our most pressing national and global challenges. We have begun a feasibility study to explore four public good areas that have the potential to move institutions forward to better serve students, communities, and society. Those areas are Sustainability, Indigenous-Serving Institutions, Military-Connected Students and Justice-Impacted Students. For the past eight months, we have worked with postsecondary institutions, organizations, field practitioners, and individuals in these areas to collect their expertise, insight, and experience as we decide which of these themes we will launch as our new elective(s). We hope this work, along with the forthcoming changes to the Universal Classifications, will provide a more holistic view of the higher education landscape and better equip our nation’s colleges and universities to contribute to the solutions to real-world problems.
What’s next
We plan for the next iteration of the Community Engagement elective classification to incorporate this new vision and goals. The application period will open on January 26, with a deadline for submissions of April 1, 2025. Institutions that are classified will be announced in January 2026. Starting with that application, the Community Engagement cycle will occur every three years with the following cycle in 2029. Institutions that obtain classification will retain it for six years. Institutions classified in 2024 will have the option to reclassify in 2029 or 2032.
While not yet reflective of these changes, the 2024 Community Engagement classified campuses will be announced in early January 2024. For more information about the changes, please visit the website.
The 2024 Leadership for Public Purpose elective classification is set to be announced in June 2024. The application deadline is fast approaching on December 15, 2023. More information on the timeline for this classification can be found here.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Electives please attend our interactive Year in Review taking place virtually on January 9, 2024 at 3PM-4:30PM EST. You can register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIlceuvpj4sE9BuXDye_5vEM1zJKgM9h2MT
Marisol Morales is the executive director of the Carnegie Elective Classifications