Colgate University announced its official designation as a leading Research University, per the Carnegie Foundation and American Council on Education criteria on Thursday, Feb. 13.
Since the Carnegie Foundation’s first survey in 1973, the “Research University” classification has been a prestigious aspect of the American university system. As a result of a 2025 initiative to restructure survey designations, many smaller institutions have been recognized for their scholarly contributions.
Per the new criteria, institutions that spend a minimum of $2.5 million on research are now eligible for the Research College and Universities title. Among these schools is Colgate, which allocated upwards of $4 million to research initiatives in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
In a press release on the Colgate website, President Brian W. Casey attributed this twofold surge in internal research expenditures to the early fundraising successes of the Third-Century Plan.
“This new designation […] demonstrates Colgate’s effective, consistent pursuit of Third-Century Plan priorities,” Casey said.
Casey cited academic program funding, increased startup funds for new faculty researchers and an expanded network of interscholastic support as some of the recent improvements. Casey further emphasized the University’s commitment to a teacher-scholar model, wherein faculty engage deeply with their fields and bring that engagement back into their classrooms.
From these partnerships have emerged groundbreaking studies across myriad fields of research. Most recently, Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Geosciences Joe Levy collaborated with students on a trailblazing reevaluation of the role of Antarctica in global climate change projections.
In the article, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lesleigh Cushing welcomed this designation as proof of the University’s commitment to hands-on learning and its investment in teacher-scholars.
“As a faculty, we seek to create new knowledge, and we often involve our students in that creation. That we include undergraduates in what is often groundbreaking research, that they have so many opportunities to learn by doing, is a real mark of distinction for Colgate,” Cushing said.
