Skidmore earns recognition for community engagement

Skidmore College is one of 115 U.S. colleges and universities nationwide to be selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for the foundation's 2010 Community Engagement Classification. Skidmore and the other schools in the group join the 196 institutions previously identified in the 2006 and 2008 Carnegie selection process. 

Colleges and universities with an institutional focus on community engagement were invited to apply for the classification, first offered in 2006. To be selected, institutions had to provide descriptions and examples of institutionalized practices of community engagement that showed alignment among mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices.

"Community engagement and service have been key elements of Skidmore's mission since its beginnings in 1903 as the Young Women's Industrial Club, founded by Lucy Skidmore Scribner to improve the lives of local women," said Acting President Susan Kress. "As the institution grew to become Skidmore College in 1922, that mission held fast, and community engagement remains a core value of the college today."

Skidmore's current Strategic Plan (2005-2015) has among its key goals an emphasis on community engagement and responsible citizenship. As the plan states, Skidmore strives to be an institution that"empowers and inspires all of our students to make the choices required of informed, responsible citizens throughout their lives, and that itself acts as a responsible corporate citizen." The plan further states that Skidmore seeks to "develop, broaden, and deepen the College's connections to the local community" and to educate students in broader terms to "function effectively not only as a citizen of our country but also as a citizen of our increasingly interconnected world."

Among the characteristics that distinguished Skidmore in the Carnegie classification process were its active program of volunteerism in the community, much of it orchestrated by the college's Office of Community Service Programs; the large number of courses with service-learning components; programs and community partnerships that enhance life in the region; community-based research and co-curricular programs that reinforce civic engagement; and college leadership that is fully supportive of these initiatives.

"The Carnegie Classification has become one of the most coveted indicators of institutional commitment to civic engagement," said David Karp, associate dean of student affairs at Skidmore and co-chair of the college's Responsible Citizenship Task Force. "It is an honor to be recognized and a testament to the work by our faculty and students who apply their education to solving the complicated local and global issues we face."

Sixty-six schools within the new group are public institutions and 49 are private. They represent campuses in 34 states. Skidmore is one of 10 New York State institutions making the list this year. Other New York schools include Adelphi University, Cornell University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Jefferson Community College, St. John's University, State University of New York at Oswego, Stony Brook University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and SUNY Oneonta.

Said Carnegie President Anthony Bryk in a news release from the foundation, "Through a classification that acknowledges significant commitment to and demonstration of community engagement, the Carnegie Foundation encourages colleges and universities to become more deeply engaged, to improve teaching and learning, and to generate socially responsive knowledge to benefit communities. We are very pleased with the movement we are seeing in this direction."

A listing of the institutions in the Community Engagement Classification can be found on the Carnegie web site.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center that supports change 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. The Foundation is located in Stanford, Calif. More information may be found on the Web site at www.carnegiefoundation.org.