The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has named Lawrence Technological University among the 361 U.S. colleges and universities to receive its 2015 Community Engagement Classification, which recognizes institutional focus on community engagement.
The institutions that have qualified for this classification represent less than 8 percent of the total number of colleges and universities in the country.
“These are campuses that are improving teaching and learning, producing research that makes a difference in communities, and revitalizing their civic and academic missions,” said John Saltmarsh, director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education, which administered the selection process.
Lawrence Tech’s was first added to the list in 2008. The current designation was based on a comprehensive 65-page application that demonstrated the nature and extent of its engagement in the community. “We are seeing renewed institutional commitment, advanced curricular and assessment practices, and deeper community partnerships,” said Amy Driscoll, consulting scholar for the Community Engagement Classification.
Lawrence Tech has distinguished itself as one of the first universities in the country providing leadership education for all of its undergraduates. Lawrence Tech’s Leadership Program covers all four years and includes a commitment to community service and volunteering.
“We work to ensure all students develop their leadership skills and community service experience with an emphasis on character, integrity, and professionalism,” said LTU Assistant Provost Jim Jolly.
This spring Lawrence Tech will open its Detroit Design + Technology Center on Woodward Avenue. LTU’s College of Architecture and Design will consolidate four programs that it already has in Detroit and introduce additional outreach programs.
Lawrence Tech continues to maintain strong academic programming in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as the STEM subjects. The university has developed and supported a number of programs designed to encourage middle school and high school students to pursue these subjects in college, and last year organized and hosted the first national championships for the World Robot Olympiad.
“LTU is a private university serving a public purpose, and our students, faculty and staff live that credo every day,” said Lawrence Tech President Virinder Moudgil.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, through the work of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, developed the first typology of American colleges and universities in 1970 as a research tool to describe and represent the diversity of U.S. higher education.
A listing of the institutions that hold the Community Engagement Classification can be found at nerche.org, the website of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education.
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 100 universities for the salaries of its graduates, and U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.