University-Community Partnerships: Current Practices Volume III (January 1999, 268 p.)
HUD's Office of University Partnerships released University-Community Partnerships in
America: Current Practices, Volume III, which celebrates the growing number of commitments
that colleges and universities are making to their communities. This volume of Current Practices
shows the combined strength of institutions of higher education, local governments,
community-based organizations, school districts, and public housing authorities acting in partnership.
Current Practices, Volume III includes more than twice the number of activities featured in the
first volume, published in 1995.
Colleges and universities are redirecting their economic and intellectual resources, facilities, and
other assets to benefit their communities in many innovative ways. They are working to facilitate
economic development, provide much-needed social services, support public schools, offer
technical assistance to community-based organizations, target research that provides guidance for
community problem solving, and create opportunities for faculty, students, and community residents
to learn from one another.
Current Practices is divided into seven subject categories (organized by how colleges and universities implement them) that comprise the major types of activity of university-community partnerships with local governments or organizations.
- Service Learning: University programs in which students engage in service activities for
credit as part of their coursework. Activities may consist of actual coursework or the
provision of a community service that is related to a specific course of study.
- Service Provision: Noncredit student and faculty initiatives in the form of coordinated,
sustained, long-term projects targeted to a specific community.
- Faculty Involvement: Faculty members who embody the driving force behind activities
within the community.
- Student Volunteerism: Activities driven primarily by students. These activities provide
students with worthwhile positive experiences while allowing them to fulfill noncredit
graduation requirements of volunteerism in community development.
- Community in the Classroom: Specific nondegree, noncredit courses for local residents
designed to enhance community building and community capacity.
- Applied Research: Research activities that define needs, guide program planning, assess
outcomes, or otherwise contribute to efforts to improve conditions within the community.
- Major Institutional Change: Initiatives that change the mission, promotion and tenure
criteria, awards, and course offerings of colleges and universities.
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