Posted by:
Steve Dubb
Study rates 9 U.S. and 2 Canadian universities' efforts
A little over a year ago, study commissioned by the University of Cincinnati titled “Community Interactions and Collaborations: Peer Institutional Study” was commissioned so that the University of Cincinnati could gauge the effectiveness of its own partnerships with local communities in an area known as Uptown. A copy of the entire report is available in the anchor institution section of our website (scroll down until you get to [Michael] “Romanos"] or you can download the report directly from the University of Cincinnati here (where you can also see the “grades” the study’s authors gave the University of Cincinnati’s own efforts, as well as those of comparison institutions.
As the University of Cincinnati press release makes clear, for the study’s comparison institutions, the authors chose the two Canadian universities (University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser, both based in the metro Vancouver region) and eight U.S. based programs. All institutions were selected on the basis of being larger, older, research-oriented universities, with a reputation for community involvement, and which are located in the “urban core” of large cities.
The eight U.S. based programs graded in the report (in addition to the University of Cincinnati’s own Uptown Consortium effort, are the following:
University of Akron: University Park Alliance
Duke: Durham Neighborhood Partnership
Georgia Tech: Blueprint Midtown (Midtown Alliance)
Louisiana State: LSU Community University Partnership
Ohio State: Campus Partners
University of California, Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Community Partnerships
University of Pennsylvania: West Philadelphia Initiatives
University of Southern California (USC): Civic and Community Relations
Of course, for additional examples, you may also want to check out Community-Wealth.org’s own list of university-community partnerships, as well as our report, Linking Colleges to Communities, which is available both on our home page and as part of the featured publication section of the website.