Early in 2013, Northrop Grumman, another longtime partner with the college, also decided to be more strategic in its approach to university grantmaking and recruiting. Previously, it had designated 15 or so universities nationwide as Core University Partners—well-known institutions renowned for producing high-caliber students and for conducting cutting-edge research, according to Charles Volk, vice president and chief technologist for Northrop Grumman Navigation Systems, and a member of the college’s Industry Advisory Board. But a number of people in the company, including Volk, had been lobbying to expand the list to include “backyard” schools like CSUN—universities that are near Northrop Grumman campuses and are a source of employees and collaborations.
“It’s a natural place to recruit from, and it’s a key school to me because it’s a large contributor to the employee base here—both new hires and people looking to advance their careers,” Volk says. “A number of Northrop Grumman employees with bachelor’s degrees go to CSUN to get their master’s degrees.”
When the revised list of Core University Partners came out a few months later, the number had expanded to 53, and CSUN had made the grade.
“Northrop Grumman has four sectors and does business in 50 states, plus internationally,” says Peggy Nelson (MS ’91), vice president of engineering and global product development in the company’s Aerospace Systems Sector and a member of the Industry Advisory Board as well. “Often we will find ourselves approaching a university multiple times from different sectors. What the company decided in order to focus money for grants and recruiting was to create a set of core universities so it could approach the gifting of money and recruiting of employees in a more integrated way across the company.”
The new Core University Partners were selected by a panel that looked at 1) whether the university was ABET accredited; 2) the university’s rating in Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report, etc.; 3) what its STEM outreach program was like (an especially important factor to Northrop Grumman, which wanted to see institutions working with high schools to promote the importance of engineering); 4) the diversity of the university; 5) its strengths in the disciplines that Northrop Grumman does business in, especially electrical and mechanical engineering and software; 6) the company’s history of hiring and retaining students from the university; and 7) whether the university’s research aligned with Northrop Grumman’s R&D.
CSUN’s engineering program rated well, according to Nelson; its STEM program is good, and the employees who come to Northrop Grumman from CECS tend to do very well. Moreover, with the number of women in technical fields declining, the college’s history of innovative programs in diversity was a decided plus.
“We’re hoping that by establishing a set of partner schools, we can approach them in a consolidated way across business units and hire the best and brightest,” says Nelson. “We’re also hoping the universities will try to align their senior projects with experiences that will help facilitate students’ growing skills in our business base.”
Moving forward, Northrop Grumman will continue to partner with the university. Volk doesn’t anticipate major changes in how he deals with the college. He already has a longstanding relationship with CSUN, donating equipment and time and helping the university prosper so that Northrop Grumman has a well-educated workforce that is ready to go to work quickly. He also actively tries to sponsor projects in areas of interest to him.
“By working closely with the university and having students understand what they are doing before they come to work, it reduces the learning curve,” he says. “People who have worked on projects of interest to us will be contributing faster than those hired out of some other school without that relationship.”
Whether it’s internships or research collaborations, student project sponsorships or donations of equipment, it’s clear that industry partnerships are critical for the college and for the corporate partners. And in the end, everyone wins—students, faculty and the companies themselves.