GOLD-MINES, PITFALLS, AND SLAG HEAPS - A CASE-STUDY OF COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS AT THE UNIVERSITY-OF-SOUTHERN-INDIANA

Interagency collaboration may be encouraged and even required by some funding agencies. Collaborative sponsored projects can be of enormous benefit to the organizations involved, but such partnerships are not w ithout risk. Before approving a project involving interagency collabor ation, universities need to examine carefully: (a) the requirements of the funding agency, (b) the nature of the proposed collaborative acti vities, and (c) the potential advantages and disadvantages of collabor ating with other organizations. Unfortunately, many of the disadvantag es of interagency collaboration become obvious only after a collaborat ive project has begun. A case study of a series of collaborative proje cts administered by the University of Southern Indiana (USI) supports these observations. Between 1993 and 1996, USI collaborated with 15 sc hool corporations in southwestern Indiana to improve math and science instruction in the public schools. The Indiana Commission for Higher E ducation (ICHE) supported these partnerships with funds from the Eisen hower Professional Development Program. Although the partnerships resu lted in many positive outcomes, the burden of preparing proposals and implementing the projects ultimately persuaded USI not to seek continu ation funding. This paper describes the benefits (the gold), highlight s the drawbacks (the pitfalls), and speculates on the inadvertent vict ims (slag heaps) of these collaborative efforts.