LEWISTON – The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recently selected Bates College for its new Community Engagement Classification, created to recognize colleges and universities that have institutionalized community engagement in their endeavors.

In another honor, the Corporation for National and Community Service has named Bates to the first President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for distinguished community service, a recognition of extraordinary volunteer efforts by the school and its students to serve local neighborhoods.

Bates is one of 62 schools, out of 76 recognized, to receive the Carnegie Foundation’s classification for community engagement under both “Curricular Engagement” and “Outreach and Partnerships.” Unlike the foundation’s other classifications that rely on national data, this is an “elective” classification – institutions chose to participate by submitting required documentation.

The Carnegie classification recognizes the particular strengths of Bates’ collaboration with the community: the breadth and depth of partnerships; the variety of models; the longevity and innovation of partnerships; and the variety of campus partners involved. Some of the collaborative efforts include partnerships with the Lewiston Public School System, state government, Lewiston Housing Authority, Museum L/A Oral History Project and Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary.

Led by Anna Sims Bartel, the associate director of the Bates Harward Center, the staff spent much of the summer gathering information about community projects, partnerships, volunteer programs, summer programs, work study and funding commitments.

Bates was one of 140 institutions of higher education recognized for distinguished service among the nearly 500 schools named to the President’s Honor Roll. As an honor roll recipient, Bates was also one of a handful of institutions commended for using more than 20 percent (23.19 percent) of its federal work-study funds for community service.