About the Office of Engagement


Mission

Utilizing our research and creative talents locally and globally, to foster partnerships that will provide results-oriented solutions to improve the quality of life.

These initiatives cover the following areas of strategic focus:

  • Arts and Culture
  • Economic Development
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Law
  • Social Issues

top of pageCarnegie Classification

Since 2006, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has encouraged colleges and universities that have made community engagement an integral part of their institutional culture to apply for a new elective classification: community engagement.

Carnegie defines community engagement as 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. This classification allows Carnegie to take into account aspects of institutional mission and action that are not represented in national data. http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/descriptions/community_engagement.php

The Carnegie classification includes three categories, two of which are particularly relevant to FIU’s efforts:

Curricular Engagement includes institutions where teaching, learning and scholarship engage faculty, students and community in mutually beneficial and respectful collaboration. Their interactions address community-identified needs, deepen students’ civic and academic learning, enhance community well-being, and enrich the scholarship of the institution.

Outreach & Partnerships includes institutions that provide compelling evidence of one or both of two approaches to community engagement. Outreach focuses on the application and provision of institutional resources for community use with benefits to both campus and community. Partnerships focuses on collaborative interactions with community and related scholarship for the mutually beneficial exchange, exploration and application of knowledge, information and resources (research, capacity building, economic development, etc.).

top of pageFIU Engaged in finding solutions

We received the Carnegie Community Engagement classification on January 5, 2011.

http://news.fiu.edu/2011/01/fiu-engaged-in-finding-solutions/20214