Resources > Bibliography > M - P

"In most cities in the United States and Canada, the local college or university is the largest employer. The role of the university and its relationship to the community has been a highly debated topic among educators, administrators, and local business leaders. David Maurasse, through an in-depth study of four example schools, University of Pennsylvania; San Francisco State University; Xavier University and Hostos Community College in New York, offers a passionate appeal for community partnerships. The book offers a roadmap for the university as well as the local business to work together for the good of their community. Maurasse shows success stories of schools and communities that are forming positive partnerships in the community." (Forward by Angela Glover Blackwell)

  • Mazey, M.E.  A Contemporary Perspective on University-Community Partnerships.  Fannie Mae Foundation Research Roundtable, University-Community Partnerships in Housing. Washington, DC:  Fannie Mae Foundation, 1998.
  • Metropolitan Universities: An International Forum.  “Community Outreach”.  Vol. 8, No. 4.  Towson, MD:  Towson University, 1998. http://muj.uc.iupui.edu/abstracts/v8_n4.htm (use this link to order articles - see titles, authors and abstracts below)

"Cluster Analysis: A New Tool for Understanding the Role of the Inner City in a Regional Economy"
Rob Melnik, Mary Jo Waits, and Tom Rex
Research in two inner city areas of Phoenix and surrounding suburbs documents the importance of analyzing a metropolitan area's economy from the perspective of industry clusters before determining economic development policies and strategies for urban revitalization. In addition, the project reveals lessons about the role of universities in urban economic revitalization.

"Evaluating Community Outreach Partnership Centers as Complex Systems: In Search of the 'COPC Effect' "
Victor Rubin, James J. Fleming, and Judith Innes
Inherent in the philosophy behind COPC programs and university-community collaboration is flexibility in instituting models, strategies, and solutions for those partnerships. Evaluating collaborative efforts, however, is difficult because each collaborative project differs according to university/community need, resources, and goals. One view of the challenge of evaluating such diverse programs is discussed.

"Positioning a University Outreach Center: Strategies for Support and Continuation"
Kristen D. Skivington
A strong case can be made for supporting outreach as a value-added function in a university. The author describes specific strategies for positioning outreach through developing a power base. From this base of power outreach activities can be designed to assist relevant constituents in meeting their needs.

"Education for Empowerment: Creating a Community Action Scholars Program"
Daniel Folkman, Stephen L. Percy, and Kalyani Rai
The Community Action Scholars Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee provides education and training in organizational design and leadership to grassroots organizations and neighborhood residents. Insights drawn from lessons learned about university-community collaboratives during this experience have an ultimate goal of empowering community residents.

"Memphis Maps"
Stanley Hyland, David Cox, and Cindy Martin
The Memphis Maps program trains local students in Geographic Information Systems technology, and also provides the community with valuable community demographic and assessment information. The collaboration is symbiotic in that through a program of information, training, education, and collaborative use of resources, beneficial and sustainable interdependencies have been developed for both the neighborhood and the university. This article describes the program and identifies factors that contributed to its effectiveness as a neighborhood/university collaborative.

"Level of Partnership"
Hugh Sockett
Partnerships can be described as having four levels based on a philosophical analysis of trust. The analysis of two major partnership projects in this article leads to rules and principles of procedure as ways of building coherent partnership.

"The Importance of Changing Our Universities through COPC Project"
Paige Mulhollan
Dr. Mulhollan spoke about university institutionalization of the COPC type of work. However, we also wish to note that he was a key academic administrator/leader responsible for creating the metropolitan universities movement and founded, along with Ernest Lynton and Charles Hathaway, the Metropolitan Universities journal.

"Expanding and Sustaining Partnership"
Judith A. Ramaley
The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program requires adaptations in the university environment. We must examine and reinterpret (1) the roles and responsibilities of faculty; (2) the design of the undergraduate curriculum; (3) the structure of the university that creates the capacity and support to sustain different working relationships with the community; and (4) our definitions of success and quality.

"This report addresses a leadership crisis in grassroots community organizations. It suggests that universities can play a critical role in preparing young people to enter this field, or in providing mid-career education for people on the front lines as community organizers, social change activists, or leaders in the process of community change.  (In addition, it) reviews the current status of university-based education on community organizing and social change, and recommends a series of steps to strengthen the role of universities in providing the combination of classroom teaching, field experience and reflection which community change leaders need."

"This handbook reviews two model processes for developing successful partnerships. Under the first model, the university's goal is to enhance or strengthen existing CDCs by providing board and staff training, leadership development, administrative support, and financial resources. However, CDCs do not exist in all communities, particularly those located near Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions. The second model shows colleges and universities in these areas how to develop their own CDCs as separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. The appendix of the handbook provides detailed information on forming and incorporating a CDC, as well as the responsibilities of the CDC's Board of Directors."

"This annual report describes the activities of the Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) program during its first four funding rounds (1994-97). This federal program supports university-community partnerships in urban communities. Part 1 examines the federal role in such partnerships. Part 2 explains how COPC works, noting that the program has resulted in 60 grants to 77 higher education institutions in 27 states and the District of Columbia. Part 3 identifies a broad range of COPC activities at specific institutions. Highlighted programs include: providing a vision and a plan to enable high school students to create computerized neighborhood maps; building on the university’s tradition of assisting community schools; offering computer training programs that allow local communities to compete for jobs in the new information economy; offering resources to assist small business entrepreneurs; providing better housing opportunities; creating health, safety, and environmental programs; building community capacity and leadership; and fostering institutional change."

There are 3 volumes of this: Volume I: no link; Volume II (1996) http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/23/56/41.pdf; Volume III (1999) http://www.oup.org/files/pubs/currentpractices3.pdf

  • Office of University Partnerships.  College and Communities:  Gateway to the American Dream.  Washington, DC:  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research, 2000
    http://www.oup.org/files/pubs/copc_annual2000.pdf

"This annual report was prepared by the University Partnerships Clearinghouse, the information service sponsored by HUD’s Office of University Partnerships (OUP). The annual report highlights the contributions of universities and colleges to local community revitalization efforts."

"This article compares civic engagement on five campuses. The following four key findings emerged: (a) shifting and varying emphases in main components of engagement; (b) local factors that facilitate and present barriers to engagement; (c) intellectual rationales and projects to drive new knowledge, involve faculty, and institutionalize and sustain engagement; and (d) new organizational structures to link the campus and community and share power and resources. The argument is made for a dynamic and developmental framework that acknowledges multiplicity and flow. The article concludes with an initial mapping of changing relationships between local factors and civic-engagement program emphases and an articulation of three main current theories of engagement that a developmental framework would take into account."

"This monograph draws upon the experience of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Neighborhood Improvement Initiative in East Palo Alto and West Oakland which formed multiyear partnerships with the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University and the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at UC Berkeley, respectively. These partnerships focus on technical assistance and support. The stories and examples throughout this monograph convey the challenges and opportunities of the partnerships. The lessons learned should be of value to community initiatives, universities, and the funders of such partnerships, whether foundations or government."

  • Peters, S.J., Jordan, N.R., Adamek, M., and Alter, T.R.  Engaging Campus and Community:  The Practice of Public Scholarship in the State and Land-Grant University System.  Dayton, OH:  Charles F. Kettering Foundation, 2005.

"Engaging Campus and Community examines the practice of public scholarship as a promising means for academic professionals and students to join with external partners in addressing our most pressing public problems. Based on four years of collaborative research by a team of scholars from six different institutions in the national state and land-grant university system, Engaging Campus and Community is the first in-depth qualitative study of the civic dimensions of public scholarship in American higher education. The book presents and analyzes eight case studies of public scholarship involving close community-university engagement in public work initiatives that address the economic, social, and environmental challenges of pursuing agricultural and food systems sustainability. The authors draw lessons from these cases that have broad relevance for the larger movement to renew higher education’s civic mission and work."

"These nine essays were written by leaders in the field of higher education and community development, including a review essay about assessment and evaluation based on interviews with officials at three colleges and universities. These multiple perspectives produce a clear picture of the importance of civic engagement in higher education, describe the state of engagement efforts at several institutions, and suggest ways in which to foster the civic mission of colleges and universities for the betterment of students, institutions, and communities. The final essay identifies some of the key lessons of the volume and offers recommendations for scholars and practitioners committed to enhancing the civic role of colleges and universities."

  • Powell, L.N.  “Some Unexpected Ways Universities can Prime the Community Economic Engine:  Asset Building for the Working Poor and the University Back Office.”  Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement.  Vol. 10, No. 2.  Athens, GA:  Institute of Higher Education, and the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach of the University of Georgia, 2005. http://www.uga.edu/ihe/jheoe/con10_2.htm

"This article demonstrates how the university back office can enable ambitious implementation partnerships between institutions of higher education and community-based organizations. It examines the Individual Development Account Collaborative of Louisiana, a $4 million asset-building program operated by the National Center for the Urban Community at Tulane and Xavier Universities, which produced more than six hundred graduates in less than two years, most of them first-time home owners. The bookkeeping and administrative requirements imposed by governmental granting agencies often tax the capacity of even the largest nonprofits, which lack the sponsored research infrastructure that the Cold War university has developed in consequence of processing hundreds of grants and contracts annually. Small nonprofits are best at delivering services to local communities; Research-1 universities are practiced at managing large grants and contracts. The article concludes that the administrative side of such university-community partnerships deserves as much attention as their programmatic side."