UNL has taken another step toward full alignment with the Big Ten universities, having received an invitation to join the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced the June 16 invitation in an e-mail to UNL faculty and staff.
"I am told the vote was unanimous, that all 12 CIC provosts affirmed the invitation," Perlman wrote. "This affiliation will bring many academic benefits to UNL.
"We are honored by this invitation and grateful to the CIC for its quick action."
The CIC is a consortium of the Big Ten universities plus the University of Chicago. The CIC leverages faculty, funding, facilities, investments and ideas to help the collective whole compete and succeed. Among its core projects are library collections and access; technology collaborations to build capacity at reduced costs; leveraging purchasing and licensing through economies of scale; leadership and development programs for faculty and staff; course-sharing mechanisms by which students may take courses at other consortium institutions; and study-abroad collaborations.
Watch a slide show presenting information about the CIC at http://go.unl.edu/qxk.
Perlman said UNL will formally accept the invitation. UNL's full membership in the CIC will begin July 1, 2011 - the same time the university officially joins the Big Ten Conference.
"The CIC will be working with our academic leaders and faculty during the coming year to connect UNL with the resources and networks of the CIC," Perlman wrote. "Kudos to all of you who have worked so hard over the last several years to put our academic programs in a position to be so recognized."
In the invitation letter, the Big Ten provosts wrote that UNL "will be an excellent fit with our academic values, collaborative spirit and strategic initiatives."
Perlman noted that many UNL faculty have ties to the Big Ten and CIC schools. More than 300 UNL faculty have received their highest degree from a Big Ten institution, plus 13 more from the University of Chicago. Approximately 30 percent of UNL's tenure-line faculty earned their highest degree at a CIC institution.
- University Communications
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/bpj