Monroe City Council approves fellowship partnership between the City of Monroe and ULM

Graduate students at the University of Louisiana Monroe will soon be able to fellow with the City of Monroe.

A resolution authorizing a Monroe City representative to enter into a fellowship agreement with ULM was approved Tuesday by the Monroe City Council.

The partnership will provide fellowship placement opportunities to graduate students within ULM's Masters in Public Administration program within the City's Department of Planning and Urban Development for a semester.

Monroe City Director of Urban Planning and Development Ellen Hill said the city has been working with the university to look at what opportunities they could have within the department for college students.

"This one we landed on a little while ago," Hill said. "... because one, we had students that were interested, that wanted to come in and do research, wanted to work on community development projects. These are graduate students who have shown potential. Who, hopefully, we can have them help us complete research and projects but then also entice them to stay in our community. It's a way for us to build some compacity within our city for having more of our graduates stick around and maybe start their own consulting firm or just work with us."

The university will recruit, screen, select and match candidates for the fellowship that suits the city's needs, according to the fellowship agreement. The university will award credit to participating Fellows who have met the academic requirements of their program and provide ongoing program evaluation.

Upon acceptance by the City of Monroe into the fellow program, the Fellow will be provided an overview of all applicable Planning and Urban Development aspects, including organization and management structure, technical and development issues, and major industry, labor, health, environmental, and community issues impacting the City.

The city can renew the Fellow placement for up to an additional semester.

The Fellows will be provided compensation or stipends from the university for participation in the program, according to the fellowship agreement. The City of Monroe will pay the university, from available and authorized funds, $5,000 per Fellow for each semester placement.

The partnership between the City of Monroe and the university is expected to expire May 31, 2024.

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This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: City of Monroe to enter into fellow agreement with ULM for students