Evaluating the Success of CommunityUniversity Development Partnerships

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Evaluating the Success of Community/University
Development Partnerships

• Oregon State University
• The Engaged Campus Conference
• November 20, 2006

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Presentation Outline

• The current context of our work
• The growth of the movement
• The evolution of practice
• A typology of development partnerships
• Leading cases
• Emerging principles of of good practice

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Contemporary Urban Communities

• Increasing global competition
• Slow/no growth
• Industrial restructuring/income gap
• Continuing suburban sprawl
• Expanding areas of concentrated poverty
• Federal devolution/budget cuts/unfunded mandates
• Municipal overburden

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Community/University Partnerships

• Ascendancy of the partnership model
• Eds and Meds are major urban institutions
• Relative to other non-profits they are resource
  rich (people, facilities, )
• Considerable internal /external interest in
  engagement
• Need for space and tax exempt status makes them
  easy targets for partnership proposals
• Third-party support for engaged scholarship

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Evolution of the Movement

• Phase I (Early 1980s)- Student Volunteerism
• Wayne Meisel/gtCOOL
• Phase II (Mid-1980s)- Service Learning
• Big Three/Campus Compact
  (B,G,S)
• Phase III (Early-1990s)- Universities as
  Citizens
• ACHEP
• Phase IV (Current)- Universities as
  Steepled
• Places,Thompson/Evans

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Growth of the Movement
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Types of Partnerships

• Exploitative- Campuses that use service to
  reinforce their privilege
• Expert- Campuses that provide useful research on
  critical issues while paying little attention to
  capacity-building
• Empowerment- Campuses that pursue collaborative
  inquiry and action to enhance local
  problem-solving and community-building capacity

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Selecting Leading Cases

• Economically distressed communities
• Highly productive partnerships (S,M,I)
• Long-term relationships/institutionalized
• Increasingly complex projects
• Structural issues/proposed policy solutions
• Significant capacity building
• Institutional diversity
• Geographically balanced

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Methodology

• Literature review
• Interviews with key informants
• Listserve invitations
• Web-based survey
• Production of case studies
• Organization of search conference

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Trinity College - Frog Hollow

• Small liberal arts school
• Recruitment challenges - neighborhood image/city
  
• Comm/univ relations gt presidential choice

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Trinity College - Learning Corridor

• Evan Dobelle consults local residents and
  institutions
• Develops a comprehensive redevelopment plan
  focused on education,
• youth/family wellness, community development,
  and civic engagement

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Trinity College - Learning Corridor Implementation

• Trinity makes lead investment, others follow
• Creation of several new regional schools,
  performing arts center, Boys Club, Montessori
  School, new housing, and commercial development,
  and coordinated approach to primary care
• Transformative impact on TC, FH, Hartford, and SL.

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UPENN - W. Philly Initiative

• Student engagement
• Act of violence
• Honors seminar
• Focus on the transformation of public schools
• Long-term partnerships involving highest status
  faculty/struggling schools
• Mortgage guarantee/design assistance

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UPENN - Minority Business Development

• Significant campus expansion (300-500m)
• Set-aside for W. Philadelphia firms
• Establishment of minority business development
  office
• Successful in assisting W. Phil firms in securing
  UPENN and other business

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UIUC - East St. Louis, IL

• From All-American City in 1957 to Americas
  Soweto in 1986
• Victim of deindustrialization, suburbanization,
  disinvestment, and devolution

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East St. Louis Action Research Project

• Launched by a small group of church women
  inspired by Fannie Lou Hammer and led by Miss
  Ceola Davis
• Created a city-wide coalition of 40 religious
  congregations working for change
• Initiated a series of successful self-help
  projects (Shugue Park -toddlers play space)
• Decided it was time to rebuild ESLs economic,
  social, civic, spiritual, and physical
  infrastructure.

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Developmental Approach

• Participatory neighborhood plan
• Community clean-up
• Vest-pocket play spaces
• Housing Improvement
• Farmers Market

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The Parsons Place Project

• Followed two 5-year plans and dozens of projects
• Made possible by light rail
• Combination of community organizing, good
  planning, development know how, and strong
  coalition

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ESLARPs Impact

• 29 million mixed-income housing development, a
  Montessori school, public park complex,
  YouthBuild Construction Training, and a Charter
  H.S.
• Transformative impact on UIUC students and
  faculty, professional education, ESL, and
  planning profession

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Salish Kootenai - Pablo, MT

• Located north of Missoula
• Resource rich
• Tribe lost control of natural resources
• Few employment opportunities
• Women challenge local Native American high school
  teacher and business man to create a college

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The Birth of a College

• Work with local industry to develop custom
  tailored vocational programs (Heavy equipment,
  trucking, nursing, education)
• Assist tribal leaders in pursuing DOD set-aside
  opportunities
• Support tribal council efforts to regain control
  of natural resources and to manage in a
  sustainable manner
• Creation of small business assistance center to
  support Native American culturally-related
  businesses

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Overcoming Barriers

• Formation of a regional transportation system
• Initiation of school transformation project
• Creation of culturally appropriate social work
  program to address substance abuse

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Findings

• Build upon long-standing town/gown relationships
• Intensify in response to a clear threat
• All faced initial skepticism
• Advanced by presidential leadership
• Importance of bi-directional/boundary-crossers
• Enduring partnerships require clarity regarding
  institutional self interest

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Findings, continued

• Build organically/developmentally
• Survive multiple melt downs
• Reflection is central to learning
• Address the policy/planning environment
• Importance of putting some institutional
  resources on the bar
• Universitys response to resident criticism is
  critical
• No optimal strategy/contingency approach

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Contingency Approach Analysis

• Individual / institutional strengths and
  liabilities must be assessed
• Economic and community development goals
• Task environment - partners, funders, regulators,
  media, etc
• Macro context - economic resources, distribution
  of political power, race/class/gender differences

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Value of Reflective Practice

• Dewey, Lewin, Kolb, Schon, Forrester,
• -Orienting Theory
• -Concrete Action
• -Systematic Ref.
• -Active Exper.

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We Live in Challenging Times

• Disparities are deepening
• Growing skepticism of national leadership
• Significant criticism of university
• Requires more than service - commitment to
  transformative education for s. justice
• There are heroic examples
• We must act boldly!

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We must run, while others walk! J. Nyerere

• Our deepest fear is not that we are
  inadequate our deepest fear is that we are
  powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not
  our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask
  ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
  talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not
  to be? You are a child of God. Your playing
  small does not serve the world. There is nothing
  enlightened about shrinking so that other people
  wont feel insecure around you. We were born to
  make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
  It is not just in some of us it is in everyone.
  As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
  give other people permission to do the same. As
  we are liberated from our own fear, our presence
  automatically liberates others.

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Contact Information
Kenneth M. Reardon Associate Professor/Chair Depar
tment of City and Regional Planning Cornell
University Ithaca, NY 14853 607-254-5378 kmr22_at_cor
nell.edu