UI recognized for community commitment

The University of Iowa has been recognized nationally for its commitment and involvement to the community.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching selected the UI to receive its 2015 Community Engagement Classification, based on “an institutional focus on community engagement,” according to the foundation. The UI has been designated for the first time, and joins 239 other higher-education institutions across the nation for this year’s honor.

The classification is given once a decade and is the highest standard of recognition for higher-education community engagement efforts, notes Linda Snetselaar, director of the UI’s Office of Outreach and Engagement, a branch of the Provost’s office.

“Receiving this designation is a reflection of the much greater emphasis the University of Iowa is devoting to engaging students, faculty, and the entire institution in Iowa communities to help students to be better citizens and to impact important community needs,” Snetselaar says.

Colleges and universities participate voluntarily by submitting required materials describing the nature and extent of their engagement with the community, be it local or beyond. The approach enables the foundation to address elements of institutional mission and distinctiveness that are not represented in the national data on colleges and universities, according to a foundation news release.

The UI noted myriad examples of its commitment and involvement in Iowa and beyond, from research to service to teaching. Among them:

• Research: The UI dedicates about 40 percent of its $440 million in external funding to clinical or community-based human subjects research – all of which engage citizens and communities in Iowa with university core research, either by bringing them to the university or by bringing the university to them.
• Service: Programs are many and varied, cutting across the state. They include the Geriatric Mobile Unit, a dental clinic that has served Iowans since 1979; the Mobile Museum, a vehicle purchased by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development to showcase collections of the Museum of Natural History around the state; Partnering with small businesses statewide to improve their information-technology (IT) capabilities; the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, which partners with communities on civic projects selected by the community.
• Teaching: The Graduate College and the UI Obermann Center for Advanced Studies have established a one-week institute in which UI graduate students from across campus at any point in their graduate studies explore how public engagement can enhance teaching, research, and creative work.

Other Iowa college and universities recognized by the foundation are: Buena Vista University, Central College, Drake University, Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, and Wartburg College.

A listing of the institutions that hold the Community Engagement Classification can be found on New England Resource Center for Higher Educations’s website.