The "Community Engagement Classification" is an elective and institutional classification granted by the Carnegie Foundation. The process of application requires a voluntary but substantial effort. Oregon State University (like other aspirational peer institutions) engaged in an institutional self-reflection process to collect community engagement data and document engaged work across all aspects of our mission:

1. Teaching and learning
2. Research and scholarship
3. Outreach and engagement

The outcome of this process is an "evidence-based" documentation of community engaged practices statewide. This documentation serves as a self-assessment tool and a catalyst for improvements in community engaged work on campus, attending to reciprocity, mutual benefit, and shared knowledge creation among institutional and community partners.

Carnegie Definition of Community Engagement

There are a variety of ways that higher educational institutions like OSU, individuals within these institutions, and community partners can define “Community Engagement." The Carnegie Foundation provides a definition for the elective community engagement classification that consists of two parts:

What it is/how it is done: “Community engagement describes the 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.”

What it actually does/purpose: “The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of 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”.

Relevant Links

Learn about 2020 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification

List of relevant resources from the American Council on Education

Why is it important for OSU?

OSU first received the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification in 2010 and was reclassified in 2020. This is a prestigious recognition of community engagement. The reapplication process offers an opportunity for institutional self-assessment and identification of community engagement efforts across campus that can be made visible, shared and celebrated, including efforts across all three aspects of our mission:

• Teaching and learning
• Research and scholarship
• Outreach and engagement

The classification provides public recognition and visibility for the many community engagement efforts faculty, staff and students are involved with and underscores the university's commitment to:

• Engaging in a self-study of community engaged practices that can celebrate successful approaches, identify promising practices, highlight challenges and initiate pathways for addressing gaps in engagement efforts
• Continuing to foster alignment of community engagement practices across teaching and learning, research, and outreach
• Continuing to build a community-engaged institutional identity that distinguishes OSU from peer institutions and is not necessarily represented in national data informing assessments of colleges and universities

Lynn Dierking

Carnegie Reclassification Project Leader
Lynn Dierking, Sea Grant Professor, Free-Choice Learning, College of Education, has been deeply committed to community engagement and diversity and inclusion throughout her career; she was on the 2010 Engaged University Classification Committee. Lynn currently directs SYNERGIES, a 9-year partnership project based in Parkrose, a diverse, low income neighborhood of Portland. Funded by the US-National Science Foundation, this Research in Service to Practice project focuses on a community-wide effort to support middle school youth’s interest and participation in STEM, in and outside of school.

Statement of Value: The Carnegie classification recognizes engaged scholarship, teaching and learning, and outreach, critical to the mission of a Land Grant, Sea Grant, Sun Grant and Space Grant University such as OSU.

Julie Greenwood

Carnegie Reclassification Project Leader
Julie Greenwood is deeply motivated to advance diversity and inclusion in higher education, improve and equalize degree completion, and create a personalized transformative experience for each student. As former Associate Provost for Transformative Learning at Oregon State, Julie oversaw implementation of Adaptive and Personalized Learning, Undergraduate Research, ROTC, and Curricular Initiatives and Programs to support teaching excellence and inclusion.

Statement of Value: Recognition for and opportunity to share the impact that Oregon State has on the local, state, national, and international communities.

Susan Rowe

Carnegie Reclassification Project Manager
Susan Rowe is a social scientist focused on conservation education research and practice in informal learning settings such as zoos and aquariums. She is interested in conservation education from a critical environmental literacy standpoint and via community engaged research that focus on a values-based approach to understanding and promoting conservation talk. She started her career as a K12 science teacher in her home country, Brazil, where she obtained degrees in both biology and education. She shifted careers from the natural sciences to human dimensions and environmental education research, completing a master’s degree at Iowa State University where she conducted environmental literacy research. Susan completed her doctoral program in Environmental Sciences and Environmental Education at Oregon State University in fall 2018. She served as OSU Carnegie Community Engagement Reclassification Project Manager, helping collect, analyze and document important aspects of OSU’s institutional mission, identity and commitments to outreach and engagement, engaged scholarship, teaching and service.

Statement of Value: The Carnegie reclassification process is an opportunity for self-reflection and, therefore, an opportunity for OSU to learn more about how to continue fostering institutional transformation and building our community engaged identity in impactful ways.

Raven Waldron

Carnegie Reclassification Project Student Assistant
Raven Waldron is a pharmacy student with a passion for reaching underserved communities. She strives to increase cultural competence in the pharmacy profession and serve as a trusted healthcare professional in Native communities, incorporating a knowledge of and respect for traditional medicine in addition to Western therapeutics. This is her sixth year at OSU, during which time she participated in many of the transformative learning experiences OSU offers outside the classroom. She has worked as a Community Relations Facilitator through UHDS, a Leadership Liaison with Diversity and Cultural Engagement, and now as a Student Program Assistant on the OSU Carnegie Community Engagement Reclassification Committee. She is very passionate about social justice issues and is incredibly involved in campus organizations and activism. Through her work with the committee, she hopes to share her experience engaging in so much of what OSU has to offer.

Statement of Value: The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is important because it is a reflective process that allows us to analyze how we can improve the breadth and impact of opportunities offered to students and our community partners to build more meaningful and mutually impactful relationships.

Allison Davis-White Eyes

Carnegie Reclassification Project Committee Member
Dr. Allison Davis-White Eyes currently serves as the Director of Community Diversity Relations within the President’s Office of Institutional Diversity at Oregon State University. The focus of the position is to align the work of Oregon State University with the goals of external community organizations, business and industry partners, school districts, and tribal agencies on behalf of advancing student access and success. The position works with communities in identifying areas of reciprocal relationship through shared research, technical expertise, grants and human capital that enhance the state of Oregon. Dr. Davis-White Eyes earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in American History, and her Master of Arts from UCLA in American Indian Studies with a specific focus on history and law. In addition, Dr. Davis-White Eyes earned her Ph.D. from Oregon State University in Adult Higher Education with an emphasis on International Education. Dr. Davis-White Eyes was the recipient of the President’s Oregon State University Beaver Champion Award 2016 for her commitment to advancing the work of Oregon State University across the state of Oregon and beyond.

Statement of Value: The state of Oregon is a rich tapestry of communities, peoples and experiences—through community engagement both the university and community partners can build mutual trusting relationships fueled by passion to actively confront the world’s imperfections and build for a more just and equitable Oregon.

Jeff Sherman

Carnegie Reclassification Project Committee Member
Jeff Sherman leads strategic innovation for Extension and serves as program leader for OSU Extension's Open Campus program, which intentionally collaborates and coordinates with school districts and community colleges to serve the most underserved students.

Statement of Value: The Carnegie classification for community engagement provides documented proof that OSU is committed to community-engaged learning, discovery and outreach.

Emily Bowling

Carnegie Reclassification Project Committee Member
Emily Bowling serves as an Assistant Director of Student Leadership & Involvement and manages OSU’s Center for Civic Engagement, the hub for co-curricular community service and service-learning programming. Emily’s professional interests are sustainability education, civic engagement, critical community-engaged learning, experiential education, and transformative learning. She has worked in Student Affairs since 2006 and has held positions in the areas of residence life, first year programs, civic engagement/service-learning, and sustainability. She has managed the Center for Civic Engagement at OSU since 2011. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Susquehanna University and her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership & Policy (Leadership for Sustainability Education) from Portland State University. As an ardent supporter of experiential, place-based education, Emily's work is centered on facilitating student’s leadership development for working toward a more just, humane, and sustainable world.

Statement of Value: The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is important because it represents an institutional value and commitment to integrating a public purpose into all that we do. It is a way to document and benchmark that our outreach, learning, and research endeavors meet community identified needs and prepare OSU students to utilize their unique skills, passions, and talents toward healing some of the world’s most pressing needs.

SueAnn Bottoms

Carnegie Reclassification Project Committee Member
Dr. SueAnn I. Bottoms has been at OSU since 2000 and is the Director of Precollege Programs. The Office of Precollege Programs supports and oversees a wide range of youth outreach activities designed to increase college access and academic preparation for Oregon’s youth. Academic programs and youth camps provide pathways to higher education and offer opportunities to enhance college readiness and STEM career awareness for K-12 students across the state of Oregon.

Statement of Value: The Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement demonstrates the commitment of faculty, staff, and institutional leadership to creating accessible, inclusive, and equitable STEM opportunities for children and families across the Oregon landscape. Community partnerships can help reshape and reframe how STEM is defined, who has access to STEM and who participates in STEM.

Wiley Thompson

Carnegie Reclassification Project Committee Member
Wiley is the Regional Director for Extension in Oregon State University’s Division of Outreach and Engagement. He is responsible for providing leadership to Extension faculty and staff in six counties and providing connective leadership across the region.

Statement of Value: Pursuit of the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement demonstrates the commitment of faculty, staff, and institutional leadership to the reciprocal and collaborative processes that improve our lives and add real value to what and how we share.

JoAnne Bunnage

Carnegie Reclassification Project Committee Member
JoAnne Bunnage has served as the Director of University Accreditation at Oregon State University since October 2017. In this role she leads efforts to document OSU’s reaccreditation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCC). As Director of Accreditation and Assessment for the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU, she helped to guide OSU in becoming the first institution in Oregon to be accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.

Statement of Value: The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification process aligns well with our NWCCU re-accreditation process and the university’s most recent strategic planning initiatives. Combined, these efforts show OSU’s commitment to the assessment of our mission, which includes community engaged teaching, research, and outreach.

Committee charge

Read the charge from Scott Reed, Vice Provost University Outreach and Engagement and Alix Gitelman, Vice Provost Office of Undergraduate Education. View support letter.

Click to read the full submitted application (PDF, April 15, 2019).

Thanks to all who have participated in this process. The Carnegie reclassification team appreciates your time, efforts and community engagement excellence.

As we prepare for the 2025 application deadline, please report your engaged scholarship efforts in Faculty Success.