THE NEW JERSEY COASTAL COMMUNIVERSITY: ACCESS THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS

The New Jersey Coastal Communiversity, led by Brookdale Community College, is a partnership of colleges and universities that provides local access to postassociate degree education. In operation for six years, the partnership exemplifies the strength of a collaborative model of higher education institutions to address statewide needs. Alan Deutschman's research on organizational change (Deutschman, 2007) posits that the three factors of a successful change process are Relationships, Repeating, and Reframing, from which a threatening Change or Die challenge can be transformed into a Change and Thrive scenario. The Communiversity received the 2008 Bellwether Award in the area of Planning, Governance, and Finance. This article presents the development of the Communiversity through the Change or Die framework with a focus on planning, governance, finance, outcomes and lessons learned.