Earlier this year, Buffalo State received the 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement (CE) Classification, an elective designation awarded by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that highlights an institution’s commitment to community engagement. This is a renewal of the same classification Buffalo State was granted in 2016.
The CE Classification has been the leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement in U.S. higher education for the past 19 years. The application was a multi-year effort, beginning with a process of self-study by each institution, with a focus on specific criteria from the 2023-24 academic year.
“The institutions receiving the 2026 Community Engagement Classification exemplify American higher education’s commitment to the greater good,” said ACE President Ted Mitchell. “The beneficiaries of this unflagging dedication to public purpose missions are their students, their teaching and research enterprises, and their wider communities.”
“Buffalo State has had an ongoing commitment to community engagement for a long time, and this was a reaffirmation of that,” said Alan Delmerico, director for Learning, Engagement, and Development Services (LEADS). “This really reflects our underlying nature, what’s in the DNA of this institution.”
Delmerico led Buffalo State’s 2026 Carnegie Classification application with support from the Buffalo State Community Partnership Council—a campuswide group that reflects the institution’s diversity by including representatives from Academic Affairs, Marketing and Communications, the Small Business Development Center, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
“Earning the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement is the result of an extraordinary, two-year effort by many,” said Scott Goodman, assistant vice president of graduate, research, and special programs. “It is gratifying to have an external review affirm the depth and impact of our work with the community. This process challenged us to highlight the most significant accomplishments from a wealth of meaningful examples.”
The application process involved collecting and providing information about the institution’s community engagement efforts, including institutional mission and culture; leadership priorities, vision, and strategic plan; how the institution ensures that students, faculty, staff, and community partners have equitable access and opportunity to community engagement activities; how the institution tracks and assesses engagement with communities; examples of academic-community partnerships; and more.
“Community engagement isn’t something extra for us,” Goodman said. “It’s central to who we are and how we embrace our role as an anchor institution in the urban core of Buffalo.”
As SUNY’s urban-engaged anchor institution, Buffalo State emphasizes civic and community engagement, coordinating high-quality, reciprocal partnerships with local, regional, national, and international community-based organizations that positively influence students, the university, and the broader community.