|
Hennepin-University Partnership
101 19th Ave. S.
330 H. H. Humphrey Center
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Fax 612-626-0273
Kathie Doty
Program Director
kdoty@umn.edu
612-625-4383
Rachel Anderson
Graduate Assistant
and03134@umn.edu
612-626-3255
Spectra Myers
Graduate Assistant
myers658@umn.edu
612-625-9885
Hennepin County
Commissioner Jan Callison, 6th District
David Hough, County Administrator
Scott Martens, Chief Innovation Officer
Lois Langer Thompson, Director of Hennepin County Libraries
University of Minnesota
Andy Furco, Associate Vice President for Public Engagement
Ed Goetz, Director of the Center for Urban & Regional Affairs
Tom Fisher, Dean of the College of Design
Laura Bloomberg, Associate Dean of the Humphrey School
|
 The Hennepin-University Partnership (HUP) is
supported by the Hennepin County Board and the University of
Minnesota. On behalf of the County Board, I serve as the Board lead, responsible
for providing guidance and monitoring the progress of this important
initiative. This update is intended to communicate within
Hennepin County government and the University of Minnesota about HUP activities
and outcomes. For additional information, please contact Kathie
Doty at kdoty@umn.edu or me at
jan.callison@hennepin.us.
- Jan Callison
|
On
September 26, 2014, the Hennepin-University Partnership hosted a tour of the University of Minnesota’s
Minneapolis campus for Hennepin County Cohort members and their
supervisors.
 Professor Megan Gunnar of the University of Minnesota
County staff attending represented 12 different departments. Tour participants visited 10 locations on campus and heard from 17 University faculty and staff members, including Megan Gunnar, Institute of Child Development; Brad Hokanson, College of Design; and Albert Tims, School of Journalism & Mass Communication.
HUP hosted a workshop on July 10, 2014 for Hennepin County employees entitled “Working with Students 101.” The workshop focused on different ways Hennepin County departments can engage with students.
Opening speakers - David Hough and Kari Boe-Schmidtz
The event featured a panel of four Hennepin County employees who have engaged with students in a variety of ways. More than 30 people attended the workshop from 10 different Hennepin County departments. Attendees reported gaining new insights at the workshop, especially about the wide variety of ways to work with students. Videos of the presentations are available here.
 On
April 7, 2014, the Hennepin-University Partnership (HUP) hosted a Diversity and Inclusion Exchange. The
Hennepin-University Partnership worked in collaboration with Hennepin County’s
Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the University of Minnesota’s Office for
Equity and Diversity. The purpose of the event was to engage County staff and
University faculty, staff, and students in a discussion of different aspects of
diversity and inclusion. The event included 10 presentations in the pecha kucha style. Several aspects of
diversity and inclusion were presented, and prompted robust conversations
during the interactive portion of the event. David Hough, County Administrator,
and Ed Goetz, Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, opened the
event. County Commissioner Jan Callison made closing remarks. Attendees
reported that they enjoyed the format of the event and appreciated the
opportunity to hear so many unique perspectives. Videos of the presentations are available here.
|
Hennepin
County's Environmental Services Department worked with a class at the University's
Law School on a capstone class titled "Climate
Change and Clean Energy," supervised by Professor Hari Osofsky. The goal was to help the County explore
options for expanding the distribution of the energy that is produced at its
waste-to-energy facility, the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC). The
HERC is located in downtown Minneapolis and burns 1,000 tons of garbage per day
to generate energy. Students in this capstone gained practical experience on
local efforts to foster climate change and clean energy while providing
valuable information to the County on legal considerations associated with energy
sales from the HERC facility.
In
December 2012, Hennepin County’s Resident
and Real Estate Services department began an internship program with University of Minnesota students. The
students were hired to help with the replacement of the County’s legacy systems
that support the department’s ability to assess the value of commercial and
residential property, determine each parcel’s total tax owed, collection of the
tax payments and the distribution of the revenue to the taxing authorities.
Student interns in the Resident and Real Estate Services department
Through this program, students gain valuable work experience and expand their network. Hennepin County has benefited from the completion of tasks that would have required hiring additional staff. The Resident and Real Estate Services department has also received new ideas and suggestions from the interns, while current employees gain supervision and leadership skills. To date, 27 interns have been hired in the department, 18 of whom are currently working in the department. In addition, 3 interns from this program have been hired into full-time positions throughout the county.
During the summer of 2014, the
Hennepin County Library hired a Ph.D. candidate from the Art History Department
to review artwork in each of the Libraries for the Stop, Look, Art! project. The art historian researched 115 library-owned art pieces and produced
brief descriptions for each piece. The existing information was incomplete or,
in some cases, unverified. The Library plans to use the descriptions generated
to update its website and enhance in-building displays.
 Hanife Cakici is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs having completed her Ph.D. in Evaluation Studies from the University of Minnesota. She is teaching Program Evaluation this fall at the Humphrey School and will lead a Capstone Seminar in spring 2015. Professor Cakici is the Founder of the Turkish Evaluation Association and serves on the board of directors of the Minnesota Evaluation Association.
Professor Cakici has designed and implemented evaluations for government agencies, nonprofits, and school districts across the United States, Europe, and Africa. One of her favorite projects was working with Hennepin County’s foster care services through the Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute (MESI). Using a participatory evaluation approach, the team of four graduate students worked alongside fifty of the program's stakeholders to analyze the data collected through the evaluation.
|
The
Hennepin County Cohort has 7 new members: Courtney Hougham from
Corrections, Halston Sleets from Environmental Services, Christy
Dording from the County Attorney’s Office, Linda Berglin from the
Health Department, Alisa Salewski from the Center of Innovation and
Excellence, Joa Carlson from Human Services, and Christy Mulligan from
the Library. We appreciate the time and
expertise they lend to the Hennepin-University Partnership.
The
Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is collaborating with the Extension School to
replicate a federally-funded Arrestee
Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) study. The purpose of the study is to collect
data on drug use and related behaviors among adults booked in jail. The study
involves a survey that includes questions about drug use, treatment, age of
first arrest, employment and housing history, and drug market activity. A team
of researchers led by Professor Mary Marczak from University Extension interviewed
and completed drug testing on a random sample of males booked into the Adult
Detention Center over a period of two weeks. The researchers analyzed the data
collected, which the Sheriff’s Office plans to use to inform decisions about
programming and the need for services.
The
University of Minnesota embarked on an ambitious plan to reinvigorate the
institution as a 21st-century land-grant research university of ambition,
innovation, and impact. The 30 member strategic planning workgroup and over 200
issue team members recently released the draft strategic plan.
The
plan sets out the vision and four overarching goals:
The
report also addresses barriers to strategic planning head on:
“It may be
harder still to convince a skeptical University audience that “strategic
planning”—that often heard about and seldom understood process—can bring actual
change. So, to begin, we reject the idea that the University cannot change. We
reject that history must repeat itself with the failure of strategic planning
efforts. In so doing, we embrace the University of Minnesota’s growth as a
dynamic, creative environment where new ideas are encouraged, incubated, and
put to the test.”
Share
your experience with strategic planning or how you see Hennepin County and the
University of Minnesota collaborating to solve the grand challenges on the HUP
Interactive Site.
Please join our interactive site to get the full
story and share your own! Join here.
|
