Community forums, based on newspaper courses operating as part of the Black Hawk College (Illinois) university parallel program, were completely planned, administered, and executed by the college humanities faculty in cooperation with community co-sponsors. In most cases, the cooperative efforts represented new official ties between college and community, although in many cases the community groups were approached by faculty who were already group members. Cooperating organizations included the River Bend Library System and such special interest groups as the American Association of University Women, Churches United, and Parents without Partners, as well as social and civic, age, and labor groups. The model forums involved the following components: a discussion series based on the fall 1977 national newspaper course, "Crime and Justice in America", offered for college credit; an introductory workshop to announce the project through the news media and provide all community co-sponsors an opportunity to meet; the adoption of the "town meeting" format for discussions at which a faculty member served as moderator and was joined by citizen experts; a panel of local experts (a social worker, an attorney, and a police officer) who attended discussions, reviewed meeting results, developed a set of recommendations, and presented them in a series of television tapes. Plans for future forums are reviewed. (TR)