Press Release

Three universities partner to establish cross-sector governance consortium

The University of Arizona, University of Southern California, and University of Washington combine forces to advance research and teaching of public, private, and nonprofit management

TUCSON, Ariz. – December 19, 2007 – The School of Public Administration and Policy at The University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management has teamed with the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, and the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California for a groundbreaking joint curricular and research initiative — the Consortium on Collaborative Governance (CCG).

Governments around the world have chosen to privatize, contract out, and create networks to deliver public services through partnerships and alliances with nonprofit organizations, private firms, and other government agencies. The fundamental difference between a government providing a service, and a network of agencies, is that the network cannot rely on a chain of command to determine who will do what. In network service delivery, both governance and management must either be mutually agreed upon or based on a contract.

Capitalizing on the strengths of the three schools, the consortium will focus on collaborative governance with specific interest in nonprofit management, privatization, civic engagement, public-private partnerships, and policy formulation and implementation across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. According to H. Brinton Milward, associate dean of the Eller College and director of the School of Public Administration and Policy, the consortium will enable a breadth and depth of research that none of the schools can achieve alone. For example, the Eller College contributes its research strength in managing networks, the University of Washington adds its expertise in nonprofit management, and the University of Southern California brings significant leadership in community development and philanthropy.

“The partnership evolved out of discussions over the past six months,” said Milward, “We are all committed to encouraging the research needed to understand the impact and efficacy of public, private, and nonprofit collaborations in the development of policy and planning, as well as the management of public services. We all want to see this research used to reinvent the curriculum in schools that train managers for the public and nonprofit sectors.”

The CCG will share resources and ideas on collaborative governance-related policy, research, and teaching. Joint projects will include reforming pedagogy and curriculum, furthering research in collaborative management, developing executive programs, and sharing faculty through exchanges. In addition, the CCG plans to create a listserv to make relevant research and presentations widely available to faculty and scholars.

An annual symposium series will be the venue for the faculty exchanges. Faculty members will visit partner institutions to present cutting-edge research, and leading national and international scholars will also be invited by the consortium to present at each of the three partner schools. The symposium series is slated to begin in spring 2007.

“We are very excited about furthering research on governance and management through this partnership,” said Paul Portney, dean of the Eller College of Management. “Gathering experts of this caliber to focus on the convergence of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors will greatly benefit our students and the field of public management overall.”

The Consortium on Collaborative Governance plans to focus its collaborative governance research agenda on substantive policy areas such as health, natural resources, homeland security, and the environment.

The Eller College of Management at The University of Arizona is internationally recognized for pioneering research, innovative curriculum, distinguished faculty, excellence in entrepreneurship, and social responsibility. U.S.News & World Report ranks the Eller undergraduate program #12 among public business schools and five of its departments are among the top 25 — Entrepreneurship, MIS, Marketing, Management and Organizations, and Accounting. The MPA program in the School of Public Administration and Policy ranks in the top 50. Financial Times ranks the Eller MBA full-time program #27 in the U.S. and #57 in the world, and Forbes ranks the program among the top 50 nationwide. The College leads the nation’s business schools in generating grant funds for research. In addition to a full-time MBA program, the Eller College offers an evening MBA program, and the Eller Executive MBA. The Eller College of Management supports more than 5,100 undergraduate and 600 graduate students on the UA campus in beautiful Tucson, Arizona.

Press Contact:
Liz Warren-Pederson, Eller College of Management
520.626.9547, news@eller.arizona.edu