Northwestern University's Evanston campus. Photo: Edudellapiazza / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The City of Evanston and Northwestern University announced a joint workforce program on Feb. 27, 2014, aimed at steering Evanston residents toward jobs and apprenticeships on university construction, renovation and maintenance projects. Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Northwestern President Morton Schapiro led a news conference that afternoon in the Wildcat Room of the Norris University Center.
What the program set out to do
According to Northwestern’s announcement, the program targeted employment and apprenticeship opportunities for up to 25 Evanston residents, with the possibility of more later. The university’s Facilities Management Division pledged to spend at least $1 million a year with local businesses. It also committed, for the first time, to have its contractors and subcontractors hire qualified Evanston residents where possible.
A pilot phase was scheduled to begin in summer or fall 2014, when major campus construction projects started.
The Daily Northwestern described the effort as an initiative to provide campus construction jobs to Evanston residents, and the news conference was held at the university rather than at City Hall.
How residents would get in
The process put the city in the screening role. City staff planned to issue an open call, collect applications and check eligibility, then hand Northwestern a pool of qualified residents. Those candidates would still go through the hiring procedures of the university and its contractors, so the program did not guarantee jobs. Northwestern said it would report each year on how many Evanston residents it employed. The city and the university also said they would cooperate on a periodic job fair for residents.
Tisdahl said the program connects Evanston residents with employment opportunities within the community, and Schapiro said the university was strongly committed to being a good neighbor, according to Northwestern.
What came after
The announcement came as Northwestern was already planning heavy construction, and the city’s own year-in-review had counted about $188 million in university building activity in 2013. In April 2015 the university launched a separate Northwestern/Evanston Skilled Trades Training Program, which committed it to hiring six Evanston residents a year for a one-year paid training role in Facilities Management. The Daily Northwestern later reported that the first six participants all finished with full-time jobs, four of them with the university.
Program details are from Northwestern’s Feb. 27, 2014 announcement.
Margaret Whitfield is the editor of The Evanston Edge and covers local government, development and neighborhoods.
