Sporadic government initiatives and successful individual demonstration university community partnership projects are of limited value unless they are incorporated into self-maintaining institutional arrangements. This article is based on San Francisco State University's experience with the HUD-funded Bay Area Community Outreach Partnership Center and the academic literature on institutionalization of reforms within public sector bureaucracies. It argues that universities are well suited for certain partnership roles -- convener, planner, and capacity builder -- and not for others.  

True partnerships between universities and their communities must be built on mutual respect, equal status, and mutual give and take. Institutionalization of federally funded university­community partnerships must progress simultaneously at the federal and local levels. It must respond to the interests of community, university, and governmental stakeholders. At the local level, change in both the internal structure and the operating procedures of universities and their neighborhood partners is essential.

Richard T. Legates, Gib Robinson
September 1998  |  14 pages

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