Even before the B1G, Rutgers will join Committee on Institutional Cooperation—on 1 July 2013

This just in: a newsflash from Richard L. Edwards, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Interim Chancellor, Rutgers–New Brunswick. This is a welcome follow-up to our recent post on the considerable academic benefits of Rutgers’ admission to the Big Ten. And read to the bottom of the post for just one of the most immediate ramifications for RU Classics…

“I am delighted to announce that Rutgers University has been admitted to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the prestigious academic consortium whose membership includes all Big Ten institutions and the University of Chicago.  Our membership is effective July 1, 2013.  See the news release here.”

Richard Edwards continues: “The CIC, which is governed by the chief academic officers/provosts of the member universities, is committed to advance its members’ academic missions, leverage campus resources such as libraries and equipment, share expertise, and expand academic and research opportunities for students and faculty. With the addition of Rutgers and the University of Maryland (which has also been admitted), the CIC universities collectively engage in $9.3 billion in funded research and own more than 100 million library volumes.”

“Our students will gain new academic opportunities because of Rutgers’ membership in the consortium.  To give one example, CIC’s CourseShare program gives students access through distance technology to more than 120 less commonly taught languages.  There are also summer research opportunities, shared study abroad programs, and reciprocal library borrowing, among other benefits.”

“CIC members collaborate in critical research areas where Rutgers is already deeply engaged, including biotechnology, transportation, cyber-security, and food safety.  Many of our faculty members already collaborate with colleagues from these outstanding research-oriented universities; CIC membership will foster many more opportunities for collaboration.  In addition, there are consortial initiatives in areas such as technology, libraries, and purchasing.”

“I am excited about the vast array of academic opportunities our membership will present for Rutgers, and equally proud of the enormous value our institution will add to the consortium.”

Here you can find a four-minute video overview of the consortium.

And here are links to the assemblage (as of July 2013) of CIC Classics programs—fifteen in all:  Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, and Wisconsin.

For graduate students, one of the great perks of institutional membership in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation is the CIC’s Traveling Scholar Program—now in its 40th year. This enables doctoral students to spend up to a full academic year pursuing specialized courses of study, researching library collections, and working in laboratories and facilities at other CIC institutions with no change in registration procedures from their home university or additional tuition. Graduate credits earned at the host university are automatically accepted by the home university. Since Rutgers already has a consortial arrangement of cross-registration at the graduate level that includes Fordham, Columbia, NYU and Princeton, that makes for a lot of cooperation and high-value exchange!

Finally, here’s the general blurb:  The CIC is the nation’s premier higher education consortium of top-tier research institutions, including the Big Ten Conference members and the University of Chicago. Through collaboration CIC members save money, share assets, and increase teaching, learning and research opportunities. Founded in 1958, CIC members engage in voluntary, sustained partnerships such as library collections and access collaborations; technology collaborations to build capacity at reduced costs; purchasing and licensing collaborations through economies of scale; leadership and development programs for faculty and staff; programs that allow students to take courses at other institutions; and study-abroad collaborations.

Rutgers’ Archibald S. Alexander Library (1956)