Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Participation

Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Participation

January 30, 2019

Dear Members of the A&M-San Antonio Community:

As many of you heard me discuss at Spring Convocation, Texas A&M University-San Antonio will be voluntarily applying for the Carnegie Foundation Elective Community Engagement Classification in spring 2019. The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is awarded to institutions with robust institutional community engagement. The benefits of receiving this classification are numerous: national recognition, a way to celebrate the work of engaged faculty and staff and furthering our conversations with the community. It also will assist in responding to constituencies for accountability purposes. The application process itself will allow for an institutional self-reflection process not unlike accreditation.

The application process is led by the Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement. A steering committee from across campus has been assembled to assist in the collection of data and documentation of community engagement. The committee comprises A&M-SA faculty, staff and community representatives. The goal of the committee is to compile cross-institutional evidence related to community engagement.

I firmly believe our campus is an outstanding example of an engaged institution and well deserving of the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. I encourage you to support the Mays Center in this effort. You can do that by sending scholarly engaged work, community project documentation and evidence of partnerships to carnegie@tamusa.edu. In addition, next month there will be open forums for the campus to come together to suggest feedback on the collected data. Please mark your calendars to attend either on February 7, 4-6 p.m. or February 8, noon-2 p.m. in the Vista Room.

Again, I encourage you all to support this effort to seek recognition for the meaningful community engagement that A&M-SA is already doing every day, to the benefit of both our students and our community.

Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson
President