Finding Partners

Professors, administrators, and the community at large can be invaluable assets in making your commitment a reality. Below are several ideas on how to effectively engage them with your CGI U commitment. If you are interested in expanding on the work of existing CGI U commitments, you can also download our 2008 Partnership Opportunity Guide.

Professors

Start by reaching out to professors with whom you already have a relationship. Go to their office hours, or talk to them after class. Also contact other professors who teach or do research in similar fields as your commitment. Share with them your ideas and invite them to get involved. At the very least, professors could spread the word about your commitment to their other students, or give you brief feedback on your plans. Professors could also act as informal advisers, providing research expertise and professional contacts to help you move your project along. Additionally, they may be able to put you in touch with others in the field who are doing similar work, or give you the names of relevant books, articles, or organizations on the subject. If a professor seems genuinely interested, he or she could explore a formal university partnership with your project and create a study abroad program or for-credit seminar that’s related to your commitment. Professors can also act as effective liaisons to the administration and larger campus community when you’re looking to bring them to the table.

Administrators

Sit down with your campus rep, leverage your own knowledge of university operations, and decide which administrator would be a strategic person to contact first for potential support of your commitment. Is it the dean of students? The university president? Don’t automatically try to contact the president or chancellor’s office just because he or she might be the highest-ranking official at the school – they are often the most preoccupied with other urgent day-to-day issues. Once you’ve chosen a school official to contact, write a letter explaining what you’re doing and ask for a meeting. Stay in touch with your campus rep throughout this process. She or he will be an invaluable resource in building momentum and a wide range of supporters as you go. If you do decide to contact your university’s president, try to make initial inroads with one of their staff or advisers, rather than just sending an unsolicited letter to them personally. If you don’t hear within two weeks, be sure to follow up. If you can’t get a meeting right away, send your formal proposal by hard copy and over email, and be patient. You probably won’t be immediately offered a meeting with your school’s president, but he or she might refer you to someone else who can handle your proposal.

Once you get a meeting with any administrator, be professional, on time, and ready to honestly discuss the details of your potential partnership. Have concrete proposals on hand – could the university underwrite 50% of the costs of your proposed solar roof on the math library? Expand its research programs on infectious diseases in partnership with the work of your commitment?

Create a formal partnership with a university overseas? Provide seed funding or fellowships for action-oriented student research and projects such as your own? Include a budget with several different financial scenarios. Once there’s proven support from the administrator and a solid plan, aim to hold another larger meeting to flesh out the details. If an administrator is concerned with the financial ramifications of your proposal (which they very well might be), come up with creative fundraising ideas that could help partially finance the project. Show them that you’re resourceful.

Finally, once there is formal buy-in from the administration, make it official and make an announcement. Spread the good news to the local and campus media. Be prepared to be contacted by other students who will hear about what you’re doing and want to get involved. Down the road, be sure to follow up with administrators and provide detailed updates and progress reports. Track your success with specific numeric metrics. If possible, hold regular meetings with a representative of the administration to discuss what is (and isn’t) working with your project. If your commitment is a smashing success, get ready to explore potential opportunities for expansion.

Community

Whether you’re trying to reduce your campus' carbon emissions or track disease outbreaks 12,000 miles away, local residents, businesses, and politicians can be great partners in making CGI U commitments happen. Start with Google, the yellow pages, or word of mouth to find useful local contacts: are there relevant green design firms, public health agencies, anti-poverty programs, or internationally-focused non-profits in your town or neighborhood? Is there a high-tech firm that could help you get your malaria-tracking map off the ground? Local community foundations that might support your commitment financially? Volunteering organizations in the community that could provide support for your work? A wide network of local allies can help ensure that CGI U commitments have broad support and lasting reach. Get out in the community as much as possible: attend city council hearings, regional conferences, or events at the public library. When looking for local support, you could also take the more direct approach: simply put a card table out on your community’s Main Street and let others in the neighborhood know what you’re up to. There’s nothing like a little face-to-face contact to spread the word about an innovative CGI U project.