University Centers prove cost-effective

The Greenville News Sunday, December 13, 2009 By Fred Baus

I am pleased to point out that Greenville is at the forefront of yet another national, and even international, trend: University Centers.

As the Chair of a Higher Education Centers Task Force, I have been working within the National Association of Consortium Leadership (ACL) to connect the University Center of Greenville with more than 60 other centers across the nation. ACL convened the task force in 2008, bringing together representatives from different centers, including the Southwest Ohio Council for Higher Education, the University Center of Lake County (Illinois), and the University Center - Salt Lake City Community College.

The task force is working to accomplish several objectives: 1) to develop a comprehensive database of centers across the country, 2) to survey center directors to establish profiles of the types of centers serving higher education, and 3) to convene national conversations among center directors. Through these efforts, it has become evident that state legislatures and communities across the country are seeking cost-effective models to expand access to higher education through collaborations like the University Center of Greenville.

During the inaugural year, the task force has conducted preliminary research to understand the basic characteristics of these innovative organizations. The number of partner institutions that participate in various centers range from two to twenty-four, with an average of eight institutions. Partners include two-year and four-year public institutions as well as private institutions. Centers were developed as early as 1915 to as recently as 2007, with more than 30% developed since 2000, suggesting an increasing trend. The University Center of Greenville is comparatively one of the more established organizations, chartered in 1987, with seven four-year institutions, and a growing number of community partnerships.

Sharing this data was one of the topics for the recent ACL Fall conference in Chicago. Center directors from across the country participated in a variety of roundtable discussions and workshops, focusing on such topics as the evolving center model and the behavior of collaborative networks. Connecting these centers is important for nurturing the growth of this developing model. This trend is even garnering international attention; the University Center of Greenville recently hosted university representatives from South Korea and has been in conversations with center directors from Scandinavia and Jamaica who wish to study our operations and organizational structure.

While cost containment is a significant advantage of the university center trend, there are other considerations. The collaborative structure offers opportunities for a broad array of programming, as well as other community and business services. The University Center of Greenville currently offers more than 75 undergraduate and graduate degrees through Clemson, Furman, Lander, Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina State, University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina Upstate.

In the spirit of collaboration, we have built ongoing local partnerships with the Greenville Chamber (forming the Advanced Education Partnership), the Alliance for Quality Education, Clemson University's Institute for Family & Neighborhood Life, Graduate Greenville and many others. It takes community-wide awareness and collaboration to successfully grow Greenville to a more competitive stance educationally and to build a culture of education.

The University Center of Greenville's growth for the next year is focused on technology research and development, to expand beyond degree programs in response to the community's changing needs. Most recently, we have joined the multi-institution Carolina Virtual Worlds Consortium to further develop our virtual platform for online program delivery. The progress and/or programs we are developing will be shared with the national network, inform other centers, and in turn, we will reap the benefits of their experiences and successes.

In addition to sharing current experiences and independent developments, the network will also cohesively help identify and direct many new higher education trends, including a new level of 'openness' in the higher education field. The age of instantaneous information is challenging traditional thinking and interactions, by redefining our communities and how they can collaborate.

The University Center Task Force and the University Center of Greenville will continue to observe and adapt to the future of Higher Education to better serve our faculty, students and community.

Bio: Dr. Fred Baus is the President & CEO of the University Center of Greenville.