RE: Academics
Maybe this will clarify how conference academic collaboration can achieve more than individual schools can on their own.
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LOL! A publicity video. Yeah, thanks, I've already actually seen that, and read their annual report, and actually know what the CIC actually does and does not and how it programs compare to similar collaborative offerings that exist all over academia. This has been discussed on this board probably 100 times now. Yes the CIC has some nice programs...its purchasing consortium and some other nice IT best practice exchanges, distance video class exchanges for rare language classes, etc. It's new unified login system has the potential to be useful, although how useful is open to a lot of speculation because, frankly, it is limited to CIC schools. No, the CIC is not really important for doing anything substantive in higher education as far as fostering actual research collaborations (outside of its TBI consortium), nor are its exchange programs that it offers really that unique. And more towards the original point, the term "CIC" carries no more academic weight than "Big Ten" outside of its own sphere of operations. Besides appearing in its own press releases, and being one of the new favorite acronyms of conference realignment theorists, along with the AAU, since the realignment frenzy started 3 or so years ago, few in academia outside the Big Ten have even heard of it or know what it is. I know Big Ten athletic fans that love to talk about how wonderful it because of the sense of purpose it gives to the otherwise unpalatable greed of college athletics (that is why many conferences...the ACC, SEC, Colonial... have started something similar), but seldom do these fans' reading of the PR copy provide them any concept of what it actually means and what its limitations are (it doesn't share research resources and it doesn't do one iota to make any school more competitive for research awards, two of the biggest misconceptions debunked dozens of times on here). It is nice way CIC schools to collaborate on some of the limited things that they can, like leadership conferences and purchasing software. Kudos. No matter how many times a president cites it, no one is joining the Big Ten because of the CIC, I promise you that. It's a nice bonus that comes with joining the Big Ten, but it is not a primary motivating factor. BTN checks are the primary motivating factor. If what the CIC does was really important, then UVA and UNC and Texas and Notre Dame would be in the Big Ten today. Probably even more telling, if the CIC was really doing important things, it wouldn't limit its membership to Big Ten schools.
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Big Ten consortium officials tour Rutgers looking for academic partnerships
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Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
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on May 08, 2013 at 6:30 AM, updated May 08, 2013 at 6:35 AM
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rutgers-university-college-avenue.JPGMembers of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the Big Ten's academic arm, toured Rutgers University today as the state university prepares to join the athletic league. Schools in the CIC partner on academic projects and business deals.Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
NEW BRUNSWICK — Rutgers University officials spent the last three days showing off their campuses as the school prepares to join one of higher education’s most exclusive clubs.
A group of five officials from the Committee of Institutional Cooperation — the academic arm of the Big Ten athletic conference — wrapped up an in-depth visit to the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus Tuesday as the last step before Rutgers’ induction in July.
"To bring in a new institution is not an inconsequential thing," said Barbara McFadden Allen, executive director of the 13-member CIC. "What surprised all of us is how comfortable we felt from the moment we got here."
Rutgers is joining the CIC as part of the deal to move its sports teams from the Big East to the wealthier and more prestigious Big Ten. The academic consortium, which includes the University of Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and other Big Ten schools, pools its collective power to negotiate contracts, collaborate on research projects and share resources.
Rutgers students will see the benefits of membership in the CIC as early as this fall when they can begin enrolling in study abroad programs, online language classes and other programs at universities in the consortium.
Jerome Kukor, dean of Rutgers Graduate School in New Brunswick, said his students are already asking how to apply for the Traveling Scholar program that allows students to spend up to a year at other CIC universities.
"They are chomping at the bit," Kukor said. "We had people jumping the gun already who were calling CIC headquarters."
The CIC was founded in 1958 as a way to bring together universities in the Big Ten on projects outside of sports. The group includes all of the Big Ten schools as well as the University of Chicago, one of the original members of the Big Ten before it withdrew in 1946.
Rutgers and the University of Maryland are scheduled to become CIC members July 1, even though their sports teams are not scheduled to join the Big Ten until next year.
Rutgers will pay about $200,000 a year to be part of the CIC, campus officials said. That money is used to fund the consortium’s Illinois-based headquarters and staff.
The university expects to save money by taking part in some of the dozens of joint contracts CIC members negotiate for — everything from paper products to test tubes and human resources background checks. The universities, which collectively enroll nearly 600,000 students, are able to negotiate lower rates and better terms on contracts when they come together, CIC officials said.
Once Rutgers merges with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in July, the university will be among the largest in the CIC.
"The opportunity to collaborate with someone at a similar-size university was frankly not there in the Big East," said Richard Edwards, Rutgers’ executive vice president of academic affairs.
In perhaps one of the biggest changes on campus, Rutgers’ library will have access to 100 million books and other volumes at other CIC universities and take advantage of volume discounts to purchase new materials.
"The Rutgers library just grew by leaps and bounds," said Marianne Gaunt, vice president for information services and university librarian.
Rutgers will also be included in a CIC project with Google to digitize library materials and make them available on the internet. The university will probably begin by letting Google digitize its extensive jazz history collection and materials related to New Jersey history, Gaunt said.
Though Rutgers expects to save money through its membership in the CIC, it is unclear how much it will have to invest in its sports teams to compete with the well-funded Big Ten teams.
Last week, Rutgers President Robert Barchi said he expects the university’s athletic department, which runs about $18 million in the red each year, to begin breaking even in six years. That is when Rutgers is to begin fully cashing in on the Big Ten’s lucrative television contracts and other revenue.
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