The University of Wisconsin-Parkside's effort to incorporate community involvement into their curriculum received praise earlier this month from a national teaching organization.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, an independent higher education policy and research center, granted UW-Parkside its Community Engagement classification.

Alex McCormick, senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation, said the foundation grants the award to universities across the nation who demonstrate strong dedication to their local communities and volunteer to supply the foundation with all community involvement documentation.

"Their identity as an institution that is committed to working with the community is obviously important," McCormick said. "[But] this isn't necessarily an award as much as it recognizes institutions for their involvement within their communities."

UW-Parkside was classified within both the award's Curricular Engagement Outreach and Partnerships areas.

"What we're trying to do at Parkside is connect community engagement with academic endeavors," said Dr. Thomas Schnaubelt, UW-Parkside dean for community engagement and civic learning. "So the students benefit, and the community benefits as well."

Other schools chosen for both categories include the University of Minnesota, New York University, Michigan State University and the University of California-Los Angeles.

Schnaubelt said the application process for the award was quite extensive and required the university to provide documentation for all of its involvement efforts. The school had to submit information about the kinds of activities and partnerships within the community the university takes part in, Schnaubelt added.

And the amount of documented evidence submitted, McCormick said, was somewhat of an accomplishment in itself.

"Since [Parkside] put the effort forth to obtain this classification by providing a variety of documents, … their identity as an institution that is committed to working with the community is obviously important," McCormick said.

UW-Parkside Director of Public Relations David Buchanan said the school's efforts for a more involved campus began more than a decade ago when Chancellor John Keating joined the campus.

"The university has been trying to be more active in the community … since Keating became Chancellor," Buchanan said. "And with the creation of the Center for Community Partnerships, it really gave us a place to help focus our efforts."

Because the Community Engagement classification is only in its first year, McCormick said the foundation has yet to decide how long an institution would remain classified.

"We were only able to accommodate a certain number of schools since this was our first year," McCormick said.

Without a clear way of deciding how long a school remains a part of the Community Engagement classification, Schnaubelt said he feels confident in the school's current and future efforts.