NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ (June 28, 2023)—The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) has partnered with the American Council on Education (ACE) to promote and raise awareness of the Carnegie Elective Classifications for community engagement and  leadership for public purpose  among Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) leadership.

The American Council on Education is a membership organization that mobilizes the higher education community to shape effective public policy and foster innovative, high-quality practice. Its strength lies in its diverse membership of more than 1,700 colleges and universities, related associations, and other organizations in America and abroad.

The partnership with CMSI will include raising awareness of the community engagement and leadership for public purpose electives among MSI communities and assisting with the involvement of MSIs in the broader Carnegie Elective Classifications work. The Carnegie Elective Classifications, created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, is the leading framework for recognizing U.S. higher education institutions extraordinary commitment to, investment in and accomplishment at important aspects of its public purpose mission.

“We’re so excited to be a part of this initiative to recognize institutions that are committed to community engagement and purposeful leadership. Finding ways to amplify MSIs in the higher education space is so important to us, and this partnership with ACE is allowing us to do just that,” said Marybeth Gasman, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education and CMSI Executive Director.

In addition, CMSI will sponsor various publications, webinars, and podcasts to promote the partnership and amplify the benefits of engaging in elective processes.

“We know MSIs are already engaged within their communities and leading the way in public purpose efforts. This partnership will help us build stronger relationships with these institutions and create and expand a new set of equity-centered and transformation-focused classifications of and by the field. We are excited about the possibilities,” said Marisol Morales, executive director, Carnegie Elective Classifications.

The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) brings together researchers and practitioners from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions. CMSI’s goals include: elevating the educational contributions of MSIs; ensuring that they are a part of national conversations; bringing awareness to the vital role MSIs play in the nation’s economic development; increasing the rigorous scholarship of MSIs; connecting MSIs’ academic and administrative leadership to promote reform initiatives; and strengthening efforts to close educational achievement gaps among disadvantaged communities. The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions is part of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity and Justice (Proctor Institute) at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. For further information about CMSI, please visit http://cmsi.gse.rutgers.edu/.

ACE is a membership organization that mobilizes the higher education community to shape effective public policy and foster innovative, high-quality practice. As the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities, our strength lies in our diverse membership of more than 1,700 colleges and universities, related associations, and other organizations in America and abroad. ACE is the only major higher education association to represent all types of U.S. accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities, public and private. In 2022, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and ACE partnered to re-envision the future of the Carnegie Classifications. As part of that agreement, the Universal and Elective Classifications have been brought together under a single organizational home at ACE. The two organizations are now working together to develop new and refined versions of the Classifications to better reflect the public purpose, mission, focus, and impact of higher education. For more information, please visit www.acenet.edu or follow ACE on Twitter @ACEducation.

The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Education Testing Service, the GRE, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education. The Foundation was also instrumental in the formation of the U.S. Department of Education and Pell Grants, and mostly recently in the use of networked improvement science to redress systemic inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes.