Many college students face challenges that extend beyond the classroom, requiring holistic support that addresses both academic and non-academic needs. “College fluency,” which is the knowledge and a corresponding set of abilities that enable students and staff to effectively locate and use relevant college services, programs, and resources, can help students successfully engage with and self-advocate within the culture and bureaucracy of higher education institutions to achieve their goals. Through our College Fluency Capacity Building research initiative, undertaken with the Borough of Manhattan Community College and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), we have found that many departments operate in silos and that organizational divides, particularly between student and academic affairs, can impede the progress of college fluency initiatives.

To explore these dynamics, we administered a national survey of community college faculty, staff, and administrators and reported on the findings. For this blog post, we focus on the respondents who provided insights through the open-ended questions about the interdepartmental partnerships. These demonstrate the various ways departments work together and highlight the challenges they face to break existing silos.

Steps to Establish Effective Interdepartmental Partnerships

Respondents described several approaches for establishing formal and informal partnerships between college departments. They emphasized the importance of communication, departmental “willingness,” institutional culture, staff capacity, and funding.

Communication and breaking down silos play a critical role in the formation and maintenance of inter-departmental partnerships. Respondents use various communication methods, such as emails, meetings, and informal conversations, which often vary depending on the level and nature of the partnerships. These three channels of communication were the most preferred across all respondents. Regular communication is essential for building networks among staff, staying in touch, and sharing information, which can significantly impact the success of collaborations. As one respondent noted: “Relationship building. Constantly engaging in work that strengthens the relationships between the folks in those departments and our office.”

Another crucial factor is the willingness of departments to communicate and allocate their capacity to collaborate. Without a collective commitment to collaboration, even the best communication strategies may fall short. Respondents indicated that when departments are open to engaging with each other, partnerships are more likely to be productive and sustainable. The partnerships can begin when a department takes the initiative to get in touch—a role that, as one respondent noted, the library can play: “The library has taken the initiative to reach out to a new department each year to form a partnership and provide programs and advertising for each department we partner with to get their message out.”

The culture, values, and mission of an institution also heavily influence the formation and success of partnerships. Demonstrating a commitment towards collaboration at the department-level, as well as a shared institutional culture that prioritizes collaboration can drive departments to work together more effectively. Underscoring this point, one respondent noted that “the breakdown of silos to deal with real issues at the college on behalf of students is paramount. This also points to the need for a campus culture that truly puts students’ needs at the forefront of planning and operations.” Another respondent highlighted the importance of “a collective spirit”:

Establishing partnerships is pretty easy at my institution. We have a collective spirit of ‘if we see a problem, we should work on developing a solution.’ The issue we experience is a lack of communication when new initiatives are being created. Thus, we often deal with duplication of services and territorial approaches to this being ‘my work.’

Moreover, the capacity of staff and availability of funding also play a significant role. Effective partnerships require not only a commitment to collaborate but also the resources to do so; for example “money to compensate partnerships” and “budget-sharing” in addition to “freedom and time to develop relationships” were cited as key steps to collaboration. Adequate staffing and financial support are necessary to ensure that collaborative efforts are feasible and can be sustained over time. For instance, a library staff member shared,

Until recently, the library has generally been very eager to accept these partnerships, but we are finding that we are running out of staff time, focus, and flexibility and are needing to be more deliberate about where to put our efforts and put more limits in place on our involvement to ensure less mission creep.

This response highlights that when resources are scarce it’s important to ensure activities are contributing to the institution and department’s mission as it changes over time. In order to develop new or expanded partnerships, a department may need to assess their services’ contributions to student success and discontinue or decline their participation in some existing partnerships or programs.

Formal vs. Informal Partnerships

Partnerships between departments range in levels of formality. More structured ones tend to require a higher level of institutional involvement. One respondent summarized: “Informal is organic and depends on the folks who are invested. Formal partnerships often form due to strategic plans, modeling and encouragement from leaders at all levels.”

Formal Partnerships

According to respondents, formal partnerships are often characterized by a structured approach that has several requirements. For one, securing support and permission from institutional leadership is vital. One respondent described the nature of these partnerships:

I’d say the difference between formal and informal is the level of documentation and supervisor approval involved. We generally get supervisor approval when we intend to announce an event or service being offered in partnership. Often these formal partnerships come from informal partnerships that grow over time. To establish partnership, often it is the library reaching out to other departments in reaction to seeing a need that we could help meet. Occasionally there will be a need and another department will reach out to the library to see if they are willing and able to help.

Establishing clear processes and planning frameworks ensures that partnerships are aligned with institutional goals and are effectively managed: “The most critical action is to develop a process, ensure it meets the needs of both areas, and then make sure staff are trained and comfortable with following it.” Additionally, integrating partnerships into the institution’s strategic plan can help align collaboration with broader institutional priorities and secure long-term commitment. According to one respondent, “a clear strategic plan that is communicated to all” is required to begin a collaborative effort.

Assigning specific roles to staff members can help sustain the partnership, ensuring that responsibilities are clear, and that the collaboration has consistent oversight. A respondent shared, “We recently hired an Equity Librarian with the sole purpose of forging partnerships with other departments.” Similarly, Sinclair Community College, a case study participant, uses a dedicated Student Success Librarian to collaborate with multiple departments to improve awareness of student services and help integrate library resources into the work of faculty and staff. This librarian actively stays informed about campus developments and emerging student needs, serving as a key resource and primary contact point for students, staff, and faculty seeking guidance on non-curricular resources. Another survey respondent highlighted the role of “collaborative committees that bring different departments together on a regular basis.” Or, in some cases, “there could be one liaison established for each department who regularly contacts another office as needed.” Additionally, having a department representative in meetings and decision-making processes are critical for interdepartmental collaborations.

Informal Partnerships

On the other hand, informal partnerships tend to rely more on personal relationships and less structured interactions. Direct connections between staff members can initiate and sustain informal partnerships. These relationships often develop through day-to-day interactions and shared interests. According to a respondent, “It’s all typical relationship-building—emails, stopping by, scheduling meetings, etc. There’s no formal way to request partnership at our institution.” The size of the college can also dictate the type of partnerships. A respondent wrote, “We rarely make formal partnership[s] because we are a small Junior college, most everything is done through personal contact.” Being at a small institution can work to the advantage of establishing partnerships. As a survey respondent mentioned, “We are a small college, so I think that helps in that we know each other quite well and have relationships built on trust and collegiality.”

Regular, informal conversations can lay the groundwork for collaborative efforts without the need for formal agreements or processes. These discussions can lead to spontaneous and flexible partnerships that adapt to immediate needs. According to one library director,

It is fairly informal…building relationships with colleagues in those areas by having personal conversations, attending each other’s programs, engaging with students and being present to celebrate students’ success, participating in committees, etc. For example, as the Library Director, I have attended the Experience Hawkeye recruitment days and talked with prospective students and parents. I usually attend the graduation ceremonies for our HI-SET/ELL students. Some formal partnerships are being forged as there is an upcoming initiative to formally merge the tutoring center and the library in a newly refurbished learning commons. Just being present and showing support for other departments goes a long ways to help build cooperative partnerships.

Challenges in Establishing Effective Partnerships

Several survey respondents highlighted the barriers they face as they try to establish effective partnerships. These include communication, relationship, cultural, and organizational challenges.

Communication and Cultural Barriers

Some respondents cited communication barriers as a challenge to establishing partnerships. Specifically, lack of communication and transparency was highlighted as a recurring issue, with respondents noting insufficient communication about available services, poor interdepartmental communication, and limited transparency across departments as barriers to collaboration. Several responses also emphasized a general lack of comprehensive outreach efforts and limited information sharing about key student services. These gaps in communication can hinder the smooth coordination necessary for effective partnership and resource-sharing and can result in issues, such as duplication of services: “Our college needs some sort of asynchronous communication system, like Slack. Oftentimes, two departments will be working on the same sort of initiative while unaware of the other one, complicating an already difficult process.”

Additionally, some respondents do not have a clear understanding about the services offered by other departments. This lack of awareness extended to obscure organizational structures, making it difficult for staff to identify potential partners or understand the scope of services they could collaborate on. As one respondent described:

I find many people do not understand organizational structure (hierarchies, chains of command, silos, opportunities to cross silos). People who have the opportunity to learn this seem to be able to navigate both formal and informal structures and partnerships with greater ease.

Respondents also reported relationship issues and a deficit of trust as barriers to building strong partnerships. Low levels of trust in leadership and coworkers were identified as significant challenges, as a respondent wrote,

Leadership has a large role to play with how departments and even individuals work together (or don’t)… it is hard to work among ourselves in one department, let alone with other departments, when the people cannot depend on coworkers or leaders to participate. An overhaul of the leadership style and/or dynamic training would be absolutely necessary, but it has to happen with leadership first. What we need is a change in culture that starts top down.

Organizational and Structural Challenges

Some respondents cited rigid structures within their institutions as an obstacle to partnership-building. Territoriality and changes in organizational structures and leadership responsibilities created friction between departments and reduced the feasibility of collaboration. According to a respondent,

We are a federally-operated college (part of the Bureau of Indian Education, which is part of the US Department of the Interior). This leads to a very rigid, chain of command structure. We can’t actually act as a matrix organization. We reach out to other departments, but there is considerable territoriality here. This wasn’t always the case, but has depended on the college President and dictates for departments to work together.

Several respondents suggested the need for more collaborative leadership to overcome these rigid organizational structures. Leadership may also work within siloes, and supervisors can make better efforts to bridge information and relationship gaps with their department teams, with a respondent suggesting, “We need more cohesiveness as a management team. Managers need to work together to bridge the gaps between their staffs.” Another respondent noted,

We work often with the folks we know/are social with at the institution but have a hard time working with departments where we aren’t friends/have personal relationships. There aren’t many opportunities for us to get to know our colleagues in other departments. Many team building opportunities are undercut by the size/scale of the groups involved. ALL administrators on campus [are] too big of a group.

Finally, capacity and resource constraints were identified as challenges. Some respondents noted the limited staff capacity and high turnover rates among staff and librarians, which led to burnout and hindered sustained collaborative efforts. One indicated, “I work in a library department… We in the past worked with advising a lot, but as we lost librarians that went down.” Another library staff shared,

I’m the librarian at a very small two-year school, so I end up wearing a lot of hats—we’ve had a lot of turnover, so I’ve helped a lot with orientation, student placement, accreditation, etc., but there is little cohesive co-curricular activity overall at the college.

These findings collectively suggest that addressing these challenges at some institutions will require targeted efforts to improve communication, rebuild trust, and increase organizational flexibility, while also providing the necessary resources and capacity for departments to engage in meaningful partnerships.

Conclusion

The findings from the National College Fluency Survey offer valuable insights into the state of interdepartmental collaboration and college fluency needs at community colleges, particularly the strategies and challenges that contribute to fostering campus-wide college fluency through collaborative partnerships. These open-ended responses from faculty, staff, and administrators across library, academic, and student affairs departments highlight the critical role of communication, institutional culture, and resource availability in breaking down silos. Respondents emphasized that regular, transparent communication and a collective commitment to collaboration are essential for forming productive partnerships, while also noting that rigid organizational structures, territoriality, and capacity constraints often hinder progress. These findings underscore the need for actionable strategies to build stronger interdepartmental connections, such as establishing formal processes, enhancing communication tools, and addressing structural and cultural barriers, to create a more cohesive campus environment that better supports students’ success.