The University of Iowa earned its second national community engagement classification, awarded to institutions demonstrating a strong commitment to community collaborations and partnerships.

The UI was granted its first classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a U.S. education policy and research center, in 2015.

In 2026, 237 institutions earned the classification, which joined the 40 institutions classified in 2024 for a total of 277 that hold the designation, according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

The Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities is one of the major community engagement initiatives at UI that enhances collaborations with different communities across Iowa.

A few of the program’s recent projects in the community of West Branch include students within the College of Law’s Community Empowerment Law Project supporting a nonprofit school. 

According to the program, students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering capstone project are improving and replacing utilities and the functionality of their streets by designing a safer truck route.

During the course of an academic year, the program partners with different cities and towns outside of Iowa City and Johnson County to work on multiple projects at once,  Travis Kraus, the director of the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, said. 

“We have a greater impact because of all the energy and resources we invest into those communities,” Kraus said. “Not only is the community benefiting from the creativity and intelligence, and talents of students and faculty, but students get to do something really cool that contributes to their learning.”

The UI submitted a 100-page application in April 2025 after a year-and-a-half-long process of collecting stories, anecdotes, and other information for the Carnegie Reclassification Leadership Committee, which included several UI faculty and staff as members, said Nicholas Benson, executive director of the Office of Community Engagement.

“It’s a self-assessment of what we’re doing, and it helps us to recognize all of the community engagement work that we’re doing at the UI,” Benson said. “I think that helps to reinforce to all of the faculty, staff, and students who are doing this work that that work really matters and it really is meaningful to the institution.”

According to the UI Office of Community Engagement, key types of engagement include students and faculty partnering in courses to address community needs, a collaboration between researchers and community partners to contribute to the strengthening of a community’s well-being, and a Community-Engaged Scholarship that addresses community needs through teaching, service, and research in partnership with the community.

Components of the application included leadership administration, marketing, and communication efforts that incorporate community engagement.

A community-based scholarship that evaluates beneficial collaborations between higher education establishments and community partners was a major example of a community-engagement policy.

The scholarship provides guidance to faculty who are doing community-engaged work, Benson said, and are going through the promotion and tenure process.

Fifteen community partners responded to a survey sent by Carnegie, Benson said, that asked respondents to reflect on their partnership with the UI and how that partnership was mutually beneficial for the organization as well as the institution.

“Those partnership surveys were a positive reflection that there’s strong partnerships between the university and community organizations,” Benson said.

Benson said students, faculty, and staff continue to play a pivotal role in the community engagement at UI and when partnering with different communities. 

“It really highlights how the University of Iowa, as a public institution, we’re really serving the public good,” Benson said. “The work that we’re doing is benefiting not only our faculty, staff, and students, but also the public in Iowa and beyond. We’re really pleased to receive the designation.”