With the university set to join the Big Ten’s academic consortium this summer, officials have begun mapping out what exactly students, faculty and staff will gain as members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
The broad scope of the CIC’s benefits require that Provost Mary Ann Rankin and her staff carry out a wealth of preparation before the affiliation becomes official July 1. Though planning will be time consuming for the staff and students involved, the monetary costs are modest compared to the amount the university should save through its CIC affiliation, said Steve Fetter, academic affairs associate provost.
For example, CIC institutions save up to $2 million annually through joint licensing and purchasing agreements of necessary equipment, software and services, Fetter said, and the academic and programming collaborations will bring increased opportunities to the student body.
“Students will benefit from expanded library access, study abroad opportunities, language courses and free application for graduate study at other CIC institutions,” he said.
The CIC’s governing body, provosts from each of the Big Ten schools and the University of Chicago, create collaborative programs to serve the common good of the members, Fetter said. That type of involvement will require staff members within the provost’s office to lead the organization on specialized subjects in which the CIC may have interests.
In coming weeks, the university will appoint liaisons to manage its participation in various CIC programs and activities, including library and IT initiatives, course sharing, study abroad and leadership development.
The CIC also boasts peer groups for undergraduate and graduate education, research, student affairs, purchasing and communications, Fetter said.
Work groups composed of faculty, staff and students met for the first time last week to begin examining how the university can best benefit from each facet of the CIC, according to Linda Clement, student affairs vice president. In April, officials plan to hold a public forum to elicit feedback from staff and students on the changes they may see.
“We are very excited about joining the CIC,” said Clement, “and we’re now taking a look at how we can seize these opportunities and grab hold of all that this can offer us.”
Four members of the university’s Student Government Association were able to see those opportunities for collaboration up close at a three-day conference they attended earlier this month with members of student governments from Big Ten schools.
“It was good to see what other schools are doing,” said Matt Arnstine, SGA communications director. “We’re similar to the other schools within the Big Ten, and it was interesting to see what initiatives they were involved in and how we could bring those initiatives here.”
The SGA currently works with other student governments within the University System of Maryland; however, most other schools within USM don’t share the same issues that this university needs to focus on, from working with administrators to improving campus safety, sustainability, student advocacy and governmental affairs.
“Our issues are very different from other schools in the state; it’s hard to really exchange ideas and really get a good conversation going,” said SGA President Samantha Zwerling. “But these schools are so similar to us, it really allows us to get their ideas and spread them.”
The organization inherited ideas pertaining to campus support, cleanup, mental health campaigns and safety, among other areas, according to Landon Greer, SGA chief of staff. In particular, the other student government groups were interested in adopting a program similar to the “blue light” system that would be available to students as a smartphone app. The conference also allowed the SGA to get feedback on developing ideas, such as a new transportation option that would be more readily available than Nite Ride. Planning for that proposal has been in the works for several months, Zwerling said.
“We’ve been very welcomed [into the Big Ten] — there’s not much structure like this with the ACC schools,” Zwerling said. “I’m really, really excited for things to come.”
The various student groups at Big Ten schools hold hundreds of similar conferences and meetings each year, allowing students to swap and share concepts for programs that could help all the involved universities.
“The CIC is just fantastic,” Arnstine said. “Their success is attributed to the fact that the universities don’t look at each other as competitors, but as peers.”
The news of a conference change hit many students hard, but some are coming around to the idea of new resources on the campus.
“I think in the end that the move to the Big Ten is worth it, since it will give students who are interested in study abroad programs the opportunity to participate in something they would not have the chance to otherwise,” said Derick Ansah, a freshman chemical engineering major.
Through these collaborations within the CIC, the university’s rank should rise substantially to match member schools’ status within the national higher education community, officials said.
Already, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranked the university the fifth-best value among public universities, a jump from eighth place last year.
“Kiplinger’s specifically referenced our move to the Big Ten [and] CIC in assessing the quality of our institution,” Fetter said.
While officials do not expect any large deviations from the university’s educational programs or services before the move, there may be long-term changes as opportunities for educational and research collaboration become apparent, Fetter said.
“This move is going to be very good for us,” Clement said. “It’s going to be very beneficial for the students attending the university.”
