The RFP process is how and where your institution plants its flag in terms of your priorities in local and diversity representation in campus construction. These are some considerations. 

Highlight expectations about Economic Opportunity Plans (EOPs) in construction RFPs

Get the information about your inclusion goals and expectations out on paper early in your planning process, whether the goals are driven by local municipal requirements or your own institutional requirements. Outlining these goals in an RFP leaves no questions about what your expectations are for a general contractor’s performance in this realm.  

Integrate locally legislated metrics into all projects 

Most cities have established minimum diversity participation requirements based on the dollar values of contracts as well as whether or not an ordinance is required to allow the construction. Be aware of these regulations, and consider adopting them as expectations for all institutional and third-party construction contracts, including the smaller projects that do not trigger legislated participation goals. This is a policy that demonstrates and deepens your institutional commitment to construction inclusion. 

Because of the way construction processes work, your institution will not have a direct relationship with construction labor, subcontractors, and suppliers: this is the general contractor’s role. So how can you be sure that a general contractor is fulfilling agreed-upon obligations for local inclusion? This is where it is useful to use a third-party firm that specializes in MBE, WBE and local-inclusion compliance monitoring.  

The firm should be tasked with reviewing and reporting on contracted purchasing amounts from local and diversity vendors and with reviewing certified payrolls for labor. There are two basic options for who arranges this auditing function: it can either be built into the scope for each individual construction project such that the general contractor is required to hire the outside auditor, or your institution may consider an ongoing relationship with a single firm that would audit each project. 

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