The True Power of Collaboration: From Cooperation to Partnership

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2016

Disciplines

Education | Educational Administration and Supervision | Higher Education | Higher Education Administration

Abstract

"At the College of Saint Benedict (CSB) and Saint John’s University (SJU), we have taken up [the] challenge of working together to improve the experience of our students. It began nearly fifty years ago, in the late 1960s, during a time in which many single-sex institutions were thinking about their futures. Most of these institutions either went coeducational on their own or merged with another school to form a new coeducational university. Our institutions contemplated merging then, too, but chose a different path because we believed there were significant benefits of being a college for women (CSB) and a college for men (SJU). Yet we also believed there were great benefits to our students, both women and men, of working more closely together than we had historically. Our motivations were initially to provide a better education to our students, yet in that process we found the kinds of economies many institutions are seeking today."

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