We have a few guidelines for participation in the Getting Carnegie Classified Community of Practice and this online forum. 1. Civility: We are all working toward the same goals. We can support each other and we can disagree while still respecting each other’s opinions and approaches. Anyone who can’t be supportive of their colleagues is invited to read without posting comments or replies. 2. Accessibility: Once available only to campuses using the Getting Carnegie Classified method to apply, the community of practice was missing out on the wisdom of campuses that were applying with no extra budget to spend on application guidance. So, the community has opened its doors and windows to invite in all campuses. This space is yours. Feel free to lurk, post answers to prompts, pose your own questions, request the features you want, whatever you like. You’ll have to sign up (for free) with your Google or Facebook account in order to post, so we can be sure no spammers get in, and you can read entries without any account at all. 3. Topical: Please stay on topic. This is your space to discuss the Carnegie CE Classification application experience with others going through the same thing. You can ask questions, you can seek guidance from peers, you can vent (if you don’t mind the whole internet reading about your frustration), you can offer your peers encouragement, but this is not a catch-all for community engagement talk. Please use another outlet for topics outside the scope of the Carnegie application. Others? Are there any other ground rules you believe would expand the usefulness of this forum? That would help you open up? Is there anything else that can be done to increase the 3 existing guidelines of civility, accessibility, and staying topical?

Welcome to the new and improved Getting Carnegie Classified TM Community of Practice! We are a community of higher education campuses thinking together about the 2020 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification and the application process. As Mathew Johnson of the Brown University Swearer Center said in closing the IUPUI Carnegie Assessment Institute in October 2017, all the preparation and strategizing we do when seeking the classification is “insufficient” if we aren’t doing so alongside a community of peers on the same journey. This forum is available to every campus or community member looking to discuss the Carnegie application experience, including making sense of application topics, grappling with resistant campus stakeholders, and checking in for support when the process seems unwieldy, which it will from time to time. Enjoy your forum and remember, we’re all in this together!