UMass Amherst Earns Third Community Engagement Classification
AMHERST — UMass Amherst earned the 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement (CE) Classification, a designation by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that highlights an institution’s commitment to community engagement.
The Carnegie Classifications are a ramework for categorizing and describing colleges and universities in the U.S., frequently used by policymakers, funders, and researchers as a critical benchmarking tool for post-secondary institutions. It is considered a mark of excellence for institutions that prioritize active collaboration with public, private, and nonprofit partners to address humanity’s urgent challenges and serve the public good.
“UMass Amherst’s commitment to serving the common good is a guiding principle for everything that we do: our academic programs, our research and scholarship, our partnerships and collaborations for community engagement and economic development, and our creative and entrepreneurial endeavors,” UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes said. “I am gratified that UMass Amherst has once again achieved this mark of excellence.”
This is the third time UMass Amherst has earned the classification, after receiving it in 2008 and 2015. UMass Amherst is among 157 public institutions nationwide to earn the classification for 2026.
The year-long documentation and application effort involved members of the UMass Amherst Faculty Senate Council on Public Engagement and Outreach and the office of Civic Engagement and Service-Learning, along with members of the faculty, leaders of major campus engagement initiatives, deans, and associate deans.
The university’s application focused, in part, on eight major academic-community partnerships being pursued by UMass Amherst with external partners. Exemplary community partnerships reviewed by the Carnegie Commission includet the UMass Cranberry Station’s partnership with the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Assoc., the Holyoke Community Energy Project, and the UMass Amherst Food as Medicine initiative.
