Collaborations Among Non-Profit Organizations, Schools and Colleges
New York Campus Compact at Pace University
Monday, March 13, 2006
Thank you for inviting me to speak about collaboration. It is particularly exciting to be speaking here at Pace University, one of our three New York City Periclean institutions.
(Pace, The New School, and Wagner College). Thank you especially to Dean Hermann and the Pace University Project Pericles Program Director Mary Ann Murphy for hosting this event.
Let me begin, a bit, to describe Project Pericles, for those of you who don't know that much about us. Project Pericles began 5 years ago when Eugene Lang, the educational philanthropist conceived of this idea to counter the growing political cynicism and civic disengagement of young Americans.
We seek to engage college students in social and civic enterprise as a systemic feature of the college experience (in the classroom, on the campus and in the community.) As Mr. Lang says: "Our goal is to transform Higher Education." We aim to renew the historic mission of educating students for citizenship and a responsibility to their community. We do this by advocating, facilitating and inspiring. Collaboration being the main aspect of facilitating.
We are a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential part of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.
We now have 22 diverse Periclean institutions throughout the country. What makes Project Pericles so vital is the organizational commitment that is given by member institutions.
First is a Presidents' Council currently chaired by President David Caputo of Pace.
The Presidents' Council members are the Presidents of each member of Project Pericles.
They meet to share projects, ideas and concerns AND to learn from each other.
Second, each college has a resolution from the Board of Trustees and an ongoing Project Pericles subcommittee of their Board of Directors. Each school has a commitment to work with various constituencies (students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and members of the community – in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community). They each have a centrally-administered Program with a dedicated Program Director—the life blood of Project Pericles. AND we have evaluation criteria. This constitutes a systemic, all-encompassing commitment YET that is where the similarities and requirements end. Our policies are necessary, but not sufficient.
Under Project Pericles, 22 diverse institutions have formally resolved to make education for responsible citizenship an essential part of their institutional missions.
Our collaboration is unique in a number of ways, and illustrates what I feel is one of the benchmarks for good working relationships. Each institution has developed an individual program, befitting their own institutional culture, characteristics, and resources AND that pushes their agenda and the agenda of Project Pericles forward.
POINT ONE: In order for a collaborative relationship to be effective, you need to be partners. The organizations working together are able to produce something that neither could on its own. Whether it is meeting the needs of diverse constituencies, funding projects, expanding the number of people reached, collaborating on particular programs, or building on another organization's staffing and technological infrastructure, to name a few examples.
Project Pericles, in a sense, is all about collaboration. We spend our time helping to build an exchange of information that will ultimately help make each individual institution and the whole program much stronger. We do this through our newsletter (which is full of replicable ideas and resources). We also look to collaborate with other organizations (for example, Campus Compact) to help us reach our goals.
POINT TWO: I have often said that a collaboration works best if treated like a contract between the collaborating organizations -- sharing goals and expectations in advance, as well as a discussion of what to do if the relationship is not meeting the needs of one, or more of the organizations involved. What are your expectations of me and what are my expectations of you?
There should be regular meetings to check up to make sure that things are proceeding as expected AND an ability to change course to improve the relationship. Set a plan, try it, see if it works and change what doesn't.
As I often heard at the United Nations: "No country can solve its problems on its own." We need many organizations to solve global problems. To try to deal with the issues that are on our agendas we need collaborations. This leads me to Point Three.
POINT THREE: Figure out what you do best and where another organization is stronger.
Figure out where you can use help.
Make sure that you bring something to the table that will lighten their load AND vice versa. Figure out who out there would be an ideal organization to collaborate with. Look out for and identify potential collaborators. Celebrate others' successes!
POINT FOUR: It is vital to share information. It is important to hear about things from your partners before you hear about them from another source: media, etc. And since your collaborators are very familiar with your organization they can help to critique and communicate feedback not just to improve your collaboration, but also to help your organization meet its goals.
POINT FIVE: For a Periclean collaboration to really work, it needs to be top down, bottom-up, and yes, sideways. It is important to have the various constituencies of the college or university see the benefit of participating in this unique alliance.
POINT SIX: As you add collaborators, the situation gets exponentially more complicated. Make sure that each new addition brings something that adds to the whole.
Project Pericles has been measured as we build our infrastructure to be able to offer more to a greater number of institutions. We want to make sure that as we grow we continue to add to the diversity of our Periclean schools – by size of student body, geography, historically black colleges, single sex, new or with a long history, urban or rural, small college or large university.
I am particularly pleased to be asked to speak at this Campus Compact event. In a sense what we are doing together can be viewed as a collaboration. We share similar goals and working together can, I think, speed up the process to where our goals become reality.
POINT SEVEN: This, in a sense, could be the lead-in to the Q & A. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Even dumb ones. Frankly, if people at Enron had asked questions, and gotten answers, things would now, I expect, be very different. Get your information from many sources (This is another benefit of a collaboration).
POINT EIGHT: You should always, think outside the box (except if you are a cat). Look forward, look backwards.
POINT NINE: It is important to learn from your successes and failures. Make sure that you share, so that you aren't reinventing the wheel. We are developing a list of "best practices" to circulate.
With my last few minutes I want to highlight what two of our Periclean institutions are doing to make a difference.
At Pace University (I see Mary Ann Murphy) the institution's commitment is characterized by the establishment of a central office that coordinates activities across the university's multi-campus operations, with a focus on curricular redesign and innovation. They have focused on the development of civic engagement coursers AND the institutionalization evaluation strategies. Mary Ann and I collaborated on this talk.
As did Lori Weintrob from Wagner.
Pace is dedicated to promoting and developing an understanding of citizenship in its various forms. Their goal is to facilitate conversations and actions that lead to an engaged campus.
Unlike the other Periclean institutions, it is a multi-campus university. Its various parts must collaborate with each other across campuses, departments, colleges, and constituencies.
Pace established a Project Pericles Faculty Fellowship Grants Program to encourage and support development of courses for the Civic Engagement and Public Values component of their Core Curriculum. Every student at Pace has a community based
Learning experience. These courses develop the concept of citizenship and social responsibility by connecting content learned in the classroom to community needs. Pace has, so far, funded and developed 20 courses. Including: Aging in America, the Role of Media in a Democracy, and Anthropology and Urban Societies.
Pace instituted a Project Pericles Leadership Certificate. This program cultivates leadership in the student body. Students work with the Project Pericles office to develop co-curricular programming in one of three areas: Democracy in Action, Global Citizenship, and Human Rights. Students collaborate with groups to program co-curricular forums, debates and workshops. Issues covered include NAFTA, The Wall in Palestine, HIV-AIDS, and Genocide in Rwanda.
Finally, Pace collaborates with community organizations to ensure that Pace is "of" the community, not just in it.
Wagner College on Staten Island now has more students from California than Staten Island. An example of one of their Periclean activities includes this month's panel presentation and roundtable "From Tourist to Global Citizen: Bangladesh, El Salvador and New Orleans".
Co-sponsored by Wagner's Academic and Cultural Enrichment department and Project Pericles to showcase the volunteer efforts of students and faculty who traveled to Bangladesh, El Salvador and New Orleans in January. What made this Periclean is that they linked these trips to policy-making and advocacy on this issues—federal funding for health and welfare and foreign aid. The audience of students, faculty and community debated topics ranging from race, housing, and health care in New Orleans to global civic responsibility for water pollution and the legacy of US intervention in El Salvador.
Attendance was increased by collaboration with the local newspaper, The Staten Island Advance which publicized the roundtable in advance.
One final innovative program that Wagner developed and we hope to have other colleges replicate is their Project Pericles Senior Award for "social responsibility and participatory citizenship" This award is divided between a Wagner senior AND a civic group or agency that they designate.
POINT TEN: My final point -- Do something, publicize it and replicate it.
