Northeastern recently hosted a networking session for university contractors and officials of job-training and placement programs in Boston. "We saw this as an opportunity to bring the right folks together at the right time in the right place," says Robert Gittens, the university's vice president for public affairs. The session stemmed in part from the Northeastern Stony Brook Initiative, developed under the leadership of President Joseph Aoun, which Gittens says expresses the university's belief that "we are connected in a very strong way to the communities right around our campus."

More than 15 contractors, including Pitney Bowes and Delta Glass Services among others, met with 20 local and regional agencies, including Boston Center for Youth & Families, Partners Health Care, Women in the Building Trades, Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse, Urban League of Massachusetts, and Mayor Thomas Menino's office. As Gittens explains, "The more we can do for the community, the stronger all of us will be in the end.