Big Ten research invite accepted (aka CIC)

[Nexus]

 

 

LINCOLN — University of Nebraska-Lincoln teachers, students and researchers will start huddling with their Big Ten counterparts in classrooms and laboratories long before any Husker teams square off on a Big Ten athletic field.

 

The university accepted an invitation Wednesday to join the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the Big Ten's long-standing group for joint academic and research work.

 

At the same time, UNL expects to continue its working relationships with research partners in the Big 12.

 

“We're broadening and creating new ties with a new set of universities, while seeking to maintain our relationships with the Big 12,” said Prem Paul, UNL vice chancellor of research and economic development.

 

Ellen Weissinger, interim vice chancellor of academic affairs at UNL, said she hopes to visit the CIC offices in Champaign, Ill., possibly as early as next week.

 

Chancellor Harvey Perlman said in an e-mail Wednesday to staff members that about 30 percent of tenured or tenure-track faculty at UNL earned their highest degree from a CIC institution.

 

Barbara McFadden Allen, CIC director, said UNL was unanimously invited by the 11 current members of the Big Ten plus the University of Chicago, a former conference member which remains a part of the consortium.

 

Allen said her organization would begin working to include UNL in its activities, although the university will not officially join until July 1, 2011, the same day the Huskers join the Big Ten Conference.

 

She said CIC officials plan to visit UNL to get to know it better. Many details still have not been worked out.

 

UNL would be the second new member since the CIC was founded in 1958. Penn State was added in 1990.

 

Despite its new relationship, UNL expects to keep working with nearly all of its Big 12 academic partners, campus leaders said.

 

Those efforts arose from one-on-one interactions and agreements among the universities and researchers involved.

 

For example, UNL's contract with Iowa State University to provide veterinary training to Nebraska students will remain intact, Perlman said.

 

“I don't think we'll lose any collaborations on the academic side,” he said. “Those weren't run through the conference.”

 

The Big 12 does not have an organization similar to the CIC. The Big 12 coordinates some faculty exchange programs, but they involve only a handful of people each year. It is not yet clear what will happen with those.

 

Larry Rilett, director of the Mid-America Transportation Center at UNL, said he doubted that the center's working relationships with the University of Kansas and Kansas State University would be harmed. Its other partners include Big Ten schools and schools not affiliated with either conference. The center does federally funded transportation research.

 

“We're already working across conferences,” he said.

 

Paul said CIC membership will help UNL build on existing relationships with Big Ten universities.

 

“We have a number of collaborations that go both ways,' he said.

 

Some examples:

 

— English professor Ken Price is working with University of Iowa colleagues to digitally preserve the archive of poet Walt Whitman.

 

— Special education professor Reece Peterson is studying speech and communication disorders with partners at Indiana University.

 

— Geosciences professor Bob Oglesby is studying climate change with Ohio State University researchers.

 

Paul said federal agencies often seek out collaborating universities when making grant funding decisions.

 

Allen said the CIC leaders consider UNL a good fit because of its agriculture and engineering programs. She said 25 percent of the nation's agricultural doctoral degrees and 20 percent of engineering doctoral degrees come from CIC institutions.

 

As a member, Nebraska would pay a share of the consortium's $2 million annual operating budget.

 

Individual institutions also can choose from among various CIC services and programs, which carry additional costs.

 

Those include a fiber-optic network, for example, and a Google partnership that will eventually result in the complete digitization of each Big Ten university's library.

 

Weissinger, the UNL administrator, said CIC membership will benefit undergraduate students, not just graduate students and faculty researchers.

 

In recent years, UNL has increasingly emphasized undergraduate research. A CIC summer undergraduate research program gives those students a chance to study with faculty members on other campuses.

 

CIC membership also will provide undergraduates more chances to study abroad or to learn a foreign language that's not taught at UNL.

 

“The menu of possibilities for our undergraduate students just got a lot bigger,” Weissinger said.

 

LINK

 

 

 

 

 

 

[knapplc]

This is the biggest news of all. The TV money from the Big 10 Network will be nice, but the CIC money will help grow Innovation Park and bring jobs to Lincoln, and increase the academic stature of the University.

 

I'm not surprised, but very happy to see this.

[krc1995]

We're going to be the whole package: academics and athletics.