Nebraska Poised to Strengthen Academics with Big Ten Schools

ABC News on Campus reporter Wade Hilligoss blogs:

When Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany welcomed the University of Nebraska-Lincoln into the conference in mid-June, the talk focused on football.

And while UNL officials are anticipating the first Big Ten games, they’re just as eager to start reaping the academic benefits, which, they say, will exceed those that they currently have in the Big 12.

“This is something everyone is excited about,” said UNL Dean of Libraries Joan Giesecke. “We are about to become part of the most prestigious academic consortium in the country.”

Although not official until 2011, UNL moved closer in late June when it was unanimously accepted as the 13th member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, an academic union of the current 11 Big Ten schools plus the University of Chicago.

Established as the athletic league’s academic counterpart in 1958, the CIC, headquartered in Champaign, Ill., aims to strengthen the research programs of schools who are members of the Big Ten. For example, CIC uses its collective purchasing power to help the schools save money on paper, lab supplies and subscriptions to academic periodicals.

The monetary benefit from the CIC’s current library and subscription packages could benefit UNL “in the high hundreds of thousands,” Giesecke said.

Also, the CIC has a partnership with Google called the Google Book Search Program which would enable UNL students to loan books from other schools in the consortium for free, just days after a request is made, Giesecke said. She added that projects like this one, which is being spearheaded by the CIC, are only the beginning of what can be accomplished in UNL’s new academic setting.

“This is something everyone is excited about,” she said.

Another benefit to UNL is that federal agencies often seek out collaborating universities when making decisions on funding grants, which could afford both UNL and other CIC schools more money, said Prem Paul, UNL’s vice chancellor for research and economic development.

Other perks for UNL include more opportunities for students to study abroad and do research projects with faculty at other schools, although the extent of that collaboration is not yet known, Paul said.

Working together with other Big Ten programs will be easier because of the educational links many UNL teachers already have to CIC schools, Perlman noted. More than 300 UNL faculty members received their highest degree from Big Ten schools, and another 13 received theirs from the University of Chicago. That’s 30 percent of the degrees held by UNL professors.

While there already are projects in the works between UNL and Big Ten schools, UNL will continue the partnerships it has established with individual schools in the Big 12 even after it leaves the conference, Paul said.

In the meantime, Nebraska officials are eager to collaborate as soon as possible, Perlman said.

“The Big Ten conference is much more than an athletic conference. It’s a family of sorts that has the CIC, and we would hope to be involved in those activities as early as possible,” It doesn’t take a [athletic] season to do that.”

Paul agreed.

“This is really a win-win situation,” he said. “Academics help athletics, and athletics help academics. We hope we can attract students from all over to participate in both.”