DREXEL UNIVERSITY
94
Jones is fully invested in the local and diverse economic impact of both the university and its partners . “ We ’ re not just checking boxes to make sure we ’ re hitting certain arbitrary goals or numbers but focusing on how we are really impacting these businesses in our community . Are the businesses prepared ? Do they have the capacity to do business with the larger institutions ? And if they don ’ t , can we give them smaller pieces , or can we put them in contact with people to help build their capacity so they ’ re ready next time ?
“ So , a lot of these programs have different goals . You have the community partnership folks that are on the relationship side of things , out in the community , hearing the problems . Then there ’ s the business side of the house , which I would consider to be procurement , facilities and HR and now we ’ re starting to engage with our internal folks as well as with our external neighborhoods . So , a big focus since the director got in has been inserting ourselves into these processes , into the community , into these conversations , talking about
FEBRUARY 2019