Frequently Asked Questions

The selection process for the Canadian Carnegie Host is occurring in two stages. The first stage was an open call to submit of an Expression of Interest (EOI), which ended on June 17, 2022. It was intended to gather interest from principal-applicant organizations that wished to take a leadership role and provide resources to the inaugural CCCEC.  This stage was also meant to enable collaboration between institutions and organizations who might be interested in a partnership model for hosting.

The second stage is a Request for Proposals (RFP). Proposals will be considered only from principal-applicant organizations who submitted an EOI.  Collaborating, partnering and supporting organizations that were not named in the EOI stage can be named in the RFP stage.

The Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement has been the leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement in US higher education for the past 15 years. As of 2020, there were 361 campuses with the elective Community Engagement Classification in the US.

The classification is designed to gather information about how institutions are aligning their institutional infrastructure to enable and facilitate community-engaged work across the institution, and how they are gathering information and assessing the quality and outcomes from this work. 

The classification involves data collection and documentation of important aspects of institutional mission, identity and commitments, and requires substantial effort invested by participating institutions. It is less interested in the specific results of the assessment and more interested in the question of whether or not outcomes and impacts are being attended to, and if so, how? 

The Canadian Pilot Cohort (CPC) began as a group of sixteen Canadian post-secondary institutions who agreed to undertake the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification to reflect on its fit in Canadian community engagement contexts. From 2019 to 2022, the CPC has worked together as a learning community to explore the existing Classification, and in June of 2021, the twelve institutions that were available during the vote declared with unanimous assent that it was desirable to found and develop a Canadian version of the Classification. The few that were unable to attend the vote expressed their continuing commitment to the values that underpin the purpose of the Classification.

• The CCCEC is anchored by the Carnegie definition of citizen engagement and, most particularly, endorses the principle of reciprocity.

• The CCCEC is fundamentally committed to reconciliation and decolonization with Indigenous Peoples.

• All public material related to the CCCEC shall be available in both Official Languages.

• The CCCEC reflects a deep commitment to public purpose at the institutional level. The CCCEC is a holistic assessment wherein an institution produces many forms of evidence from many aspects of institutional life to illustrate the depth and pervasiveness of the institutional commitment to community engagement. Accreditation and its related standards, by contrast, reflect programmatic assessments and may inform a classification but are not the same level of analysis.

• Canadian post-secondary institutions holding the CCCEC must embody values of integrity, diversity, inclusion, transparency, accountability, equity, and confidentiality in their design and administration, and remain faithful to the goal to be exceptional in their integration of particular modes of public purpose into their teaching, learning, and scholarly missions.

• Canadian post-secondary institutions holding the CCCEC must abide by the Tri-Council Policy Statement on the Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS-2) including its provisions for ethical research involving First Nations, Inuit and Metis Peoples (TCPS-2, Chapter 9).

• In consultation with the Canadian Carnegie Advisory Committee and the Carnegie Canadian Host, the Carnegie Foundation may modify any aspect of this document at any time.

The Framework for Governance of the Canadian Carnegie Classification is intended to reflect the CPC’s commitment to reconciliation and to underpin our collective responsibility to respect the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the four principles for a new relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada set out by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples twenty-five years ago: recognition, respect, sharing and responsibility.

Adaptation of the Governance Framework may evolve over time according to changing circumstances and needs. An initial formal review is recommended three years after it is put in place.

Governance of the Canadian Carnegie Classification has four principal elements:

• The Canadian Carnegie Host (CCH) is designated as the official research and administrative home of the CCCEC. The CCH will be responsible for working with the ACE and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching representatives to move the Canadian Carnegie Classification to the next stage of implementation.

• The Canadian Carnegie Management Team (CCMT) is responsible for the on-going operation of the Canadian Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement.

• The Canadian Carnegie Classification Advisory Committee (CCCAC), provides strategic and policy guidance to the Canadian Carnegie Host and the Canadian Carnegie Management Team on any matter related to the Canadian Carnegie Classification.

• The Canadian Carnegie Review Panel (CCRP) is the adjudicating body with the authority to decide the classification status of applicant institutions.

Other responsibilities of the CCH include:

• final selection of the CCAC and CCRP

• managing the first and subsequent rounds of formal applications for CCCEC designation

• engaging with the full range of post-secondary institutions in Canada to raise awareness of the CCCEC and broaden the pool of potential applicants

• ensuring the on-going integrity of the CCCEC

• soliciting and managing the funds required to support the CCCEC

The selected host will become the authorized agent of the American Council on Education (ACE) and by extension and in a limited fashion the agent of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Canada. ACE is the Administrative and Research home of the Carnegie Basic and Elective Classifications in the United States. The ACE engages in initiatives that explore the public purpose of higher education, stewards the internationalization of the Carnegie Elective Classifications, and serves as the authorized agent of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Staffing:

The CCH is responsible for supporting the necessary personnel costs for the operation of the CCCEC. This is expected to be equivalent to 2 FTE: 

1. a senior-level Executive Director analogous to an Academic Dean with the gravitas and expertise necessary to represent the CCCEC at the senior academic level in participating PSIs and sufficient to represent the CCCEC at provincial and national PSE policy and sector meetings; 

2. a mid-level project manager who can build and manage the systems and communications infrastructure necessary to administer the CCE, store and grant access to the application data for researchers; maintain the participation of advisory boards and; coordinate the relationship with the ACE. 

These positions may be stand-alone positions or may be clearly defined parts of positions that are already present in the host institution. However, it is highly recommended that the aggregate constellation of assigned time be roughly equivalent to 2 FTE as articulated above.

Programmatic Costs:

The CCH is responsible for the programmatic costs to support the CCCEC including but not limited to: printing, mailing, web administration, travel, phone, office supplies, etc. Additionally, the Carnegie Foundation expects the following costs to be built into the budget of all international Classifications: 

1. Moderate travel costs for an ACE representative to attend in-person CAC meetings and/or the CCH annually, if required;

2. Once the CCCEC is established, a mutually agreed upon modest annual or cyclical cost share fee to the ACE which may be tied to a percentage of revenue generation.  It is expected that this fee might be first implemented in the third year of operation of the CCH in 2025 provided there is evidence that the CCCEC is viable.

Funding:

The CCH is encouraged to solicit grants and gifts to support the CCCEC, and encouraged to develop a revenue model in collaboration with the CCAC that can sustain the CCCEC over time. The ACE and the Carnegie Foundation will assist in grant applications and may from time to time include the CCCEC in grant funding it applies for. However, the Carnegie Foundation and the ACE cannot guarantee any funding to the host at this time. The CCH may develop revenue-generating aspects of the administration role, such as training, application fees, and registration fees. These will require pre-approval of the ACE before implementation. 

After the EOI process and the RFP process both complete, proposals will be evaluated based on criteria including:

• Comprehension of the task at hand, plans to manage application processes, communications plans, and other aspects of developing and establishing the Classification
• Financial and operational plans, including plans to develop a sustainable financial model, staff development and quality assurance
• Commitment to principles of community engagement and experience operationalizing these principles.

You can, but please note: only those institutions who submitted an Expression of Interest are invited to submit proposals to become the Canadian Carnegie Host. If you are interested in suggesting a partnership, please contact any or all of the institutions who submitted EOIs, directly.

At this time, proposals for the CCH will be asked to include a financial plan to sustain the first three years of operation. This level of detail is not required for the Expression of Interest (EOI) phase. While the exact length of term for the CCH contract with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is still in discussion it is expected to be five years with the possibility of review at the three year mark.