Case Study: Framing a Partnership Agenda Between a Regional University and a Land-Grant Institution

Goal:

Virginia Tech and Radford University both call rural Virginia’s New River Valley home.  Virginia Tech is a large land-grant institution with much expertise and many assets, and is flooded with far more applications from prospective students than can be admitted.  Radford University is a comprehensive public institution boasting seven colleges and drawing many of its declining student body from the surrounding region.  The two institutions expressed an interest in exploring a win-win set of partnering opportunities that could benefit each of the institutions as well as the region.

Challenge:

Separated by a mere 15 miles, the two institutions have long histories of working independently with little or no shared agenda of partnering with each other or collaborating to benefit the southwest Virginia region.  Top administrators from each of the institutions had never set foot on each other’s campus nor engaged in conversations about potential synergies between the two universities. 

 Solution:

The beginning of a partnership between the two universities started with exploratory conversations involving top academic and operational leadership, considering what issues and opportunities might make sense to zero-in on.  These included:

-       Identifying synergies between academic strengths in high demand fields (i.e. health)

-       Strengthening local K12 education to aid in faculty and staff recruitment

-       Scaling impact through coupled sustainability efforts

-       Pursuing large-scale regional innovation grants together

-       Aligning research institutes with online short-term credentials

-       Investigating potential synergies in other operations areas (i.e. Admissions, HR)

Outcomes and Impacts:

The initial conversations with top administrators resulted in obtaining buy-in for pursuing partnering possibilities and the identification of a common agenda of issues and opportunities.  Agreement on next steps centered around in-person meetings of top academic and operations administrators coupled with a campus tour, to be followed by discussions with each of the institution’s presidents.