Community partnerships important for schools, says U of M Duluth’s chancellor

A university must look to build partnerships in the community in addition to educating students, says the chancellor of the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Lendley C. Black on Wednesday spoke of the importance of reaching out to the business world, creating opportunity both within the school, for its students and in helping guide economic development in the neighbouring environment.

Black, who spoke at a lunch-hour session at Thunder Bay’s Community Economic Development Commission, said his school has worked hard to build external relationships, to the point where companies come to them.

The mining industry, which is expected to grow substantially in Northwestern Ontario with the onset of the Ring of Fire, is a particularly prosperous partner for the American school, Black said.

The school was called in recently to partner with companies working the iron range in Northern Minnesota, looking at ways to make the expensive operations more efficient.

Taconite, an iron bearing rock, was costly to transport in its raw form, but through experimentation scientists figured out how to pelletize it, Black said.

“They actually cut out steps and were able to produce more pellets in a shorter period of time,” he told the audience of educators and business officials.

“We are also involved with them in monitoring some of the environmental issues with some of their plants.”

Much of the work is done through UMD’s Natural Resource Research Institute, which operates with an annual budget between $15 million and $16 million.

Only $3 million of that is provided by the university, the rest through grants and collaborations with the private sector.

There’s little recruitment needed by the school, Black explained.

“It’s mostly a situation where industry is bringing problems to us, though occasionally it works the other way,” said Black, who added later that in addition to mining UMD researchers are also working in forestry and fresh water studies.

“A lot of it now is work-of-mouth and relationships that have built up over time.”
Black, who took over the top position at the university last August, about the time Lakehead University introduced Brian Stevenson as its new president, said there is no reason schools situated north of the border can’t experience similar success.

Although Lakehead’s enrolment pales in comparison to the 11,700 students at UMD, LU’s vice-president of research said this type of entrepreneurial exercise is exactly what he’s trying to foster at both the Thunder Bay and Orillia campuses.

“I think we learn a lot from our sister universities with how they deal with industry,” Wang said.

“How do they provide service and help through education to promote local economic development … And I can see both universities treating economic development as one of the major tasks we can take.”