Mutual Awareness, Mutual Respect: The Community and the University InteractAbstractUniversity-community partnerships can encounter problems because of differences between the two sides in perception, values, goals, and available resources, among other issues. This case study examines the results of the UIC Hiring and Purchasing Program, a project with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) initiated by the UIC Neighborhoods Initiative. Its goals were to increase the employment prospects for community residents by affecting the university’s hiring practices and business contract process. This project produced meager results because of the legal and bureaucratic complexity of university policies. Top administration officials at the university learned from these results and developed a more successful hiring project working with other community groups, applying a great deal more attention. The process illuminated what policies the partnership could reasonably expect to affect and the effort necessary to have an equitable relationship.Mutual Awareness, Mutual Respect: The Community and the University Interact (*.pdf)
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