The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching announced today that it was awarding its “community engagement” classification to 119 colleges as part of an effort to encourage more higher-education institutions to reach out to the world around them.

A statement issued by the foundation said 147 institutions had applied for such a designation by documenting their involvement in their communities. The 119 that qualified join 76 others awarded the “community engagement” classification in the last selection process, in 2006, when the foundation established the designation as part of a broader overhaul of the system it uses for categorizing higher-education institutions.

“We hope that by acknowledging the commitment and accomplishment of these engaged institutions, the foundation will encourage other colleges to move in this direction,” the foundation’s president, Anthony S. Bryk, said in the written statement.

Amy Driscoll, a Carnegie consultant who oversaw the selection process, expressed concern in the statement that few of the institutions applying for the elective designation described having promotion or tenure policies that recognized and rewarded scholarship associated with community engagement. She said the failure of more colleges to adopt such policies suggested “there is still work to be done.” —Peter Schmidt