More YES to community engagement: UA earns prestigious Carnegie reclassification

The University of Akron (UA)'s excellence in community engagement efforts on campus, in the city of Akron and around Northeast Ohio has been recognized nationally with the 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement (CE) Classification, an elective designation awarded by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

CE Classification highlights commitments that higher education institutions such as UA make to building prosperity in their communities, fostering civic engagement, building usable knowledge and catalyzing real-world learning experiences for students. The University was among the first institutions in the country to achieve CE Classification in 2008.

"As a public urban institution, community engagement is a fundamental part of our mission," said Dr. Christin Seher, the director of UA's Office of Community Impact and lead writer on the reclassification application effort.

"When students choose to come to The University of Akron, they are saying 'YES' to learning alongside our community partners through real-world, hands-on, impact-focused experiences," she added. "It is an honor to have a prestigious organization like the Carnegie Foundation peer-review our academic and co-curricular programs, the scholarship of our faculty and staff, our policies and practices, and our campus outreach efforts and confirm they continue to align with national best practices."

The CE Classification, which has been the leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement in U.S. higher education for the past 19 years, is awarded following a process of self-study by each institution. Since 2022, when UA started the reclassification effort, more than 100 individuals at the University contributed to the self-study process.

"Being recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged campus is an incredible accomplishment," said Dr. Gwen Price, UA senior vice president and provost. "I am proud of the tremendous effort put forth by our faculty, staff and administration in earning this designation. It was earned not just through collecting data and submitting a report, but through true dedication to ensuring UA's presence is felt positively throughout our community. It is a testament to UA's commitment to our mission, our students, our city, and our region. I thank every individual, both on campus and off, who had a hand in this success."

Sixty-three different UA faculty and staff members were named in the report with a description of their community-engaged work, along with 22 academic departments and nine campus units. The report also named 112 different community partners with which UA is connected.

"This reclassification is the result of the work of hundreds of faculty members, staff and students who strive every day to enact our value of Social Impact," Seher said. "We are proud to work so closely with industry, government, and non-profit partners in the City of Akron, our region and beyond to provide exceptional student opportunities, scholarship that matters and service to the public good."

Many of UA's academic-related community engagement efforts are centered in the EX[L] Center for Community Engaged Learning, of which Seher is the director. The Center's mission is to support campus and community partners in co-creating mutually impactful applied, transdisciplinary learning experiences that build civic consciousness and make a tangible difference in the Akron community.

The Center offers an academic initiative known as [Un]classes, which are unscripted, transdisciplinary, community-engaged courses that provide a uniquely Akron way to investigate topics of local relevance, generate meaningful solutions and learn alongside community experts. Faculty and students work closely together to craft each class, and students have a voice in the course design, topics of study and projects.

UA is one of 237 institutions that earned the CE Classification in the 2026 cycle, joining the 40 institutions classified in 2024 for a total of 277 institutions - six of which are in Ohio - that currently hold the designation. Of the institutions recognized in 2026, 48 are receiving the classification for the first time, while 189 have previously held it. The 2026 cohort includes a range of institutions, including 157 public institutions.

Visit the Carnegie CE Classification website for more information.

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