Learning Resources

Abstract: Strategic partnerships are a smart fiscal and educational move for higher education institutions. Many of the nation’s community colleges have long explored symbiotic arrangements that benefit student, community, and school. This article examines three schools’ interactions with their host communities and explores how partnerships help deliver on their role as a true community amenity—from providing their students with state-of-the-art learning environments and working with industry leaders to enhance curricula to reaching a geographically disadvantaged demographic of potential students. Partnership opportunities are broad and plentiful and are often only limited by an institution’s imagination.

Abstract: The community colleges in the State University of New York system leveraged “systemness”—the idea that working together can greatly enhance the possibility of positive results—in creating a statewide program to retrain dislocated TAA-eligible workers and returning veterans for high-quality, high-paying jobs in the skilled manufacturing sector. By aligning with the strengths of each college, curricula in areas such as photonics, optics, advanced manufacturing and machining, and semiconductors and mechatronics were created, leading to a diploma or certification and thus to increased probability of hiring. Regional employers and government workforce agencies were also part of the leadership teams, helping to create programming that was specifically focused on the needs of these vital industries.

Abstract: While universities recognize the need for change, establishing an environment conducive to change requires time and movement through stages. In this article, I examine different tools and processes that can pave the way for innovation or change. These processes became evident in my research on the emergence of an interdisciplinary policy school jointly established on two campuses where previous models did not exist. The change came about because there was a confluence of forces that promoted it; these factors were strong enough to negate the barriers. There were key actions undertaken by the universities that promoted the change, including systematic program review, university-wide integrated planning, the appointment of an executive sponsor who had social and political capital, and the establishment of a “grassroots” working committee comprising faculty who were passionate about the initiative. However, there were equally important practices and policies that hindered the movement forward; these included institutional procedures that required multiple levels of approval in a lock-step process and the many facets of resistance to change. For universities contemplating a change agenda, the implementation of some of these processes and tools could potentially be beneficial in moving forward.

Abstract: Over the course of two years, The New School, a New York City university established in 1919 by philosopher John Dewey and other prominent Progressive Era scholars, partnered with the Stevens Institute of Technology, a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey, founded in 1870. The partnering universities entered—and were selected as one of 20 finalists of—a biannual, international competition among higher education institutions to design and build an energy-efficient house. Typically, the competition draws significant public attention because of its focus on showcasing innovative technologies to advance energy savings. (All 20 finalist houses—this time, including the New School–Stevens “Empowerhouse”—are displayed on the National Mall in Washington, DC.) As well, the competition spurs innovation among students and provides an extraordinary “real-world” educational experience. Five of us who worked on this project discuss the challenges and benefits of an inter-institutional approach that also centered on collaboration with multiple community partners including Habitat for Humanity of Washington, DC, several DC government agencies, and community-based organizations in the DC neighborhood of Deanwood, where the competition house would ultimately be relocated and reconstructed as a two-family Habitat for Humanity residence. The project involved more than 200 students over a multiyear period working on and employing their academic preparation in areas including community engagement, advocacy, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, environmental policy, sustainability management, fashion design, lighting design, organizational change management, urban policy, environmental studies, architecture, and product design.

Abstract: In February 2008, the U.S. Army and Fayetteville State University established a partnership that has changed the process of healthcare education for active duty social workers. Before this time, the army relied on public universities to be solely responsible for recruiting, evaluating, and educating active duty social workers to serve the needs of service members and their families. However, to meet an immediate need for more social workers to deal with the wounds caused by the War on Terror and to help it get the best possible return on its educational investment, the army decided to partner with a university to establish a distance education Master of Social Work program at the Army Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina was the university partner selected. This article outlines the background of the partnership and the issues other public universities should consider if they want to partner with the military or another federal agency. The article also highlights the benefits of such a partnership.

Abstract: Globalization is reshaping the relationship between U.S. universities and their host cities. U.S. universities must adjust to momentous changes in the worldwide higher education system, and U.S. cities must retool to maintain their place in the innovation economy. Institutional and civic resources are being pooled to form global-ready urban environments, giving rise to a new generation of urban settings. This article describes the historic cosmopolitan connection between cities and universities, discusses the global forces affecting that relationship today, and offers case illustrations of campus-oriented civic change in three U.S. localities.

Abstract: Large-scale crisis such as natural disasters and acts of terrorism can have a paralyzing effect on the campus community and business continuity. Campus officials in these situations face significant challenges that go beyond the immediate response including re-building the physical plant, restoring campus infrastructure, retaining displaced matriculated students and recruiting future generations of students to remain financially and academically viable. This article provides a framework to assist senior leadership to critically evaluate their institutional commitment to emergency planning functions in their respective communities. It also outlines a new “scheme” in how institutions can resolve the emerging changes in higher education in a collaborative, cost-sharing environment.

Abstract: The sustainability movement in higher education has made considerable headway in the areas of research, campus operations, and community outreach, but has been less successful in bringing about curricular reform. To promote greater thinking about sustainability in the undergraduate curriculum, this essay explores three main questions: What are the implications of sustainability for higher education? What are some noteworthy examples of institutions incorporating sustainability into the curriculum? And, what can we learn from their experiences? The author advocates implementation of a "third order" learning model, emphasizing deep learning, a participative process which takes the form of continual exploration through practice.

Abstract: Consortia, their impact on cooperating institutions, and critical factors in inter-institutional planning were the subject of a recent study for the United States Office of Education, directed by Harold L. Hodgkinson of the Center for Research and Development in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley. The critical issues, according to the study findings, are problems of reciprocity and autonomy, coordination of programs among diverse institutions, and strategies for campus involvement and leadership. The following article, by three staff members of the New Hampshire College and University Council—one of the consortia in the Hodgkinson study—is devoted to a discussion of the process of consortium decision-making, touching on the three key issues. The authors are: Lynn G. Johnson, the Council's associate director in charge of academic programs; Dr. William W. Barnard, consultant and coordinator of a two-year Cooperative Curriculum Project, and Douglas W. Lyon, coordinator of January Term Programs and communications coordinator.

Abstract: There are good reasons—educational, economic, sociological—for educational institutions to coexist on the same site or even in the same building with governmental, residential, or commercial functions. At the same time there are roadblocks to such joint-occupancy arrangements, particularly for public institutions, in the laws governing the financing of public buildings and in bureaucratic inertia. This article is a profile of one institution—the new Inner Harbor campus of the Community College of Baltimore—that tried to share its facilities with commercial interests—and failed.