University among 240 institutions
nationwide on 2015 list
MURFREESBORO — Middle Tennessee State University has been
recognized nationally for its community engagement efforts by a higher
education research center.
MTSU is among 240 colleges and
universities across the country to receive the 2015 Community Engagement
Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
MTSU is also among 157 of those
institutions that was re-classified for the designation after having first
achieved it in either 2006 or 2008. Meanwhile, 83 institutions received the
classification for the first time for 2015, according to the Carnegie
Foundation.
Colleges and universities that
focus on community engagement were invited to apply for the classification,
first offered in 2006 as part of a restructuring of The Carnegie Classification
of Institutions of Higher Education. MTSU was first recognized for its
community engagement efforts in 2008.
For the latest classification,
MTSU submitted examples and outcomes of more than a dozen projects in recent
years that involved strong community engagement from a variety of academic
disciplines. Among them:
- In 2012, students and faculty in the College of Mass
Communication’s Department of Electronic Media Communication were deeply
involved in filming, producing and directing the Capitol Street Party, a
free public event that drew some 25,000 people to downtown Nashville.
Students worked alongside Capitol Records executives and technicians to stage
the show.
- In 2012, the School of Agribusiness and Agriscience in the
College of Basic and Applied Sciences held its annual Field Day in which
the university celebrated the 100th anniversary of agriculture
at MTSU as well as the grand opening of the state-of-the-art MTSU Dairy in
Lascassas. The event, which drew roughly 350 attendees from the
community, involved partnerships with numerous organizations and
businesses.
- MTSU’s Division of Academic Affairs continues its partnership
with Murfreesboro City Schools for the Club MARVEL program. The Saturday
academy targets at-risk students and exposes them to a college campus. The
academy includes tours of MTSU facilities and interaction with faculty.
“MTSU prides itself in fostering
relationships beyond our campus that allow our students, faculty and staff to
participate in projects and educational initiatives that advance our academic
mission,” MTSU Provost Brad Bartel said. “This classification by the Carnegie
Foundation is motivation for the university to continue these efforts and
expand them.”
According to Carnegie, unlike its
other classifications that rely on national data, community engagement is an
“elective” classification — institutions participate voluntarily by submitting
required materials describing the nature and extent of their engagement with
the community, be it local or beyond. This approach enabled the foundation to
address elements of institutional mission and distinctiveness that are not
represented in the national data on colleges and universities.
The New England Resource
Center for Higher Education, or NERCHE, at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston and the Carnegie Foundation partner to administer the
classification. The Carnegie Foundation is an independent policy and
research center that “supports needed transformations in American
education through tighter connections between teaching practice, evidence of
student learning, the communication and use of this evidence, and structured
opportunities to build knowledge,” according to www.nerche.org.
“The importance of this elective
classification is borne out by the response of so many campuses that have
demonstrated their deep engagement with local, regional, national, and global
communities,” said John Saltmarsh, director of NERCHE. “These are campuses that
are improving teaching and learning, producing research that makes a difference
in communities, and revitalizing their civic and academic missions.”
A listing of the institutions that
hold the Community Engagement Classification can be found at www.nerche.org.
“This is the first time that there
has been a re-classification process,” noted Amy Driscoll, consulting scholar
for the Community Engagement Classification. “And we are seeing renewed
institutional commitment, advanced curricular and assessment practices, and
deeper community partnerships, all sustained through changes in campus
leadership, and within the context of a devastating economic recession.”
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