With the center’s ambitious goal of 100% undergraduate participation in a high-quality community-engaged learning (CEL) experience, our work includes a robust campuswide data-tracking effort to accurately assess progress toward our goal — broadly across the university and by college and school for more granular analysis.
The adoption of university-wide engagement criteria and the creation of a university-level course tag (CU-CEL) in 2015 enables us to highlight the reach of CEL courses. For example, curricular offerings have increased by over 100 courses offered in an academic year (+74.2%) since 2015, with corresponding student enrollments in these courses increasing by almost 3000 students in an academic year (+142.9%) at Cornell.
With the 2024 graduating class, 66% of seniors have participated in at least one high-quality CEL experience across curricular and co-curricular offerings*. For example, 37% of the class of 2024 participated solely in CEL coursework, 10% participated in co-curricular experiences and 19% participated in a mix of the two. These data showcase the tremendous growth since curricular tracking began in earnest in 2015, (graduating class of 2016), with a +273% increase in curricular participation and additional increases to co-curricular involvement.
*Co-curricular data unavailable prior to 2021.
Since its launch in 2015, the Faculty Fellowship program has supported and learned from emerging and campus leaders in community-engaged learning. This essential network has helped to infuse CEL in all aspects of university life — teaching, research and engagement.
