HECNewsDecember2007

New Competitively Awarded Contract Adds Fleet Vehicle Solutions to E&I’s Portfolio
JERICHO, N.Y. – Higher education institutions now can save on all of their fleet vehicle management services with a new competitively awarded contract from E&I Cooperative Purchasing. The nation’s largest buying cooperative for higher education, E&I, is offering a fleet services contract to its members for the first time. The contract is provided through GE Capitol Solutions Fleet Services (GEFS), and allows members to take advantage of unsurpassed flexibility and choices by having no limitations or pre-determined vehicle selections. Members can take advantage of GEFS’s purchasing power to order vehicles on-line with customized options and specifications, building each individual vehicle to meet their unique needs. The contract includes incentive programs with Ford, Chrysler and Toyota , adding to the realized savings of the program.

E&I members will enjoy significant savings available through the new contract and can take advantage of the following benefits: Discounts – Fleet-level reductions off the manufacturer’s invoice price of the vehicle. Maintenance and Management Program – Total control of vehicle maintenance and repairs in over 100,000 national locations. Electronic Fuel Card Program – Makes it simpler for drivers to purchase fuel, in addition to making it easier to monitor fuel purchases. Flexible Service Options – Customized service plan meets the individual institution’s specific goals and objectives. “Your Office @ Fleet” – State of the art on-line ordering, expense tracking, and reporting systems.

“We understand our members’ needs in terms of fleet management services, and we are excited to offer a reliable and comprehensive solution that provides customized choices and incredible discounts,” explained Tom Fitzgerald, CEO of E&I Cooperative. GEFS offers E&I members options to purchase or lease vehicles, in addition to an entire suite of vehicle services such as maintenance, fuel, accident services, and other ways to reduce overall annual fleet costs. Management reports are delivered on-line, providing consolidated fleet information in real time.

Although GEFS maintains relationships with thousands of dealers across the United States , members who have relationships with local dealers will still have the benefit of working with their established contacts, making preparation of the fleet and vehicle pick-up even more convenient.

About E&I
As the nation’s largest buying cooperative for higher education, E&I Cooperative Purchasing uses the combined purchasing power of more than 1,500 colleges, universities, prep schools, K-12 schools and other educationally focused institutions to deliver lower costs on a wide range of competitively solicited and negotiated contracts from national and regional suppliers across the U.S. Established in 1934 by members of the National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP), E&I meets the needs of its members by continually pursuing high-quality supplier contracts and developing new initiatives in the areas of strategic sourcing, compliance, e-commerce, supplier diversity and competitive bidding. E&I’s competitive RFP process is validated by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) as meeting generally accepted procurement standards across the nation. For more information, please go to: www.eandi.org.

The Calgary Recommendations for North American Collaboration
The Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) Canada, Mexico and the United States have shared many historical, cultural, and linguistic bonds, and since the signing of NAFTA, our countries have become inextricably linked by growing economic ties. Local and regional prosperity depends largely on the global competencies of our future professionals who are today's students and education leaders acknowledge that higher education must take a more aggressive role in offering students opportunities to gain international expertise, particularly in our North American regional context.

Beginning in 1992, two landmark meetings, “Wingspread” and “Vancouver” helped steer the direction of higher education collaboration in North America. CONAHEC, the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration, and its members recognize that the need for North American higher education collaboration is greater than ever, and in conjunction with its 8th North American Higher Education Conference held in 2002, CONAHEC and its host institution, Mount Royal College, convened a Priorities Committee of recognized higher education experts in North America.

Prior to the event, committee members conducted a study of issues and trends in North American higher education collaboration since the movement began in 1992 with Wingspread. From the study, the committee drafted ten recommendations to further this important regional collaborative agenda. The committee then solicited that North American higher education stakeholders rank the recommendations according to priority, as well as to suggest additional recommendations.

Based on the document produced, CONAHEC adopted the following recommendations as the basis for our working agenda: A proposal to the three federal governments (Mexico, Canada and the U.S.) that they establish a permanent North American Trilateral Commission to provide sustaining infrastructure, strategic direction, and funding for a variety of programmatic initiatives that foster North American higher education collaboration. Further development of the existing Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education to facilitate and fund student and faculty movement at much higher levels and with greater flexibility. The program is funded by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) of the U.S.

Department of Education, and the Mexican Ministry of Education (SEP). It was also recommended that the program expand its scope to offer exchange opportunities for faculty and administrators. Develop a mechanism that promotes quality assurance of institutions and the recognition of course and program equivalencies in a trinational context.

Create an incentive fund or collaborative financial mechanisms to encourage and support collaborative research in North America. Develop guidelines and infrastructure to strengthen and expand collaboration and partnerships between the colleges and universities and the business sector. Reinforce the importance of acquiring a second and third language for all students in North America.

Develop a mechanism for promoting quality assurance and recognition of certification of skills for the professions and technical occupations in support of North American professional mobility. Review post-September 11th immigration regulations in the three countries and determine the impact on the future of North American mobility for faculty and students.

Develop a trilateral proposal for the establishment and growth of centers for North American studies to advance scholarship and research on relations between Canada, Mexico and the United States. Find high levels of financial support to enable CONAHEC to sustain and expand the electronic information base and clearinghouse.

CONAHEC members and related organizations are encouraged to advocate "The Calgary Recommendations".

The National Consortium for Continuous Improvements in Higher Education
Named the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and Brigham Young University as recipients of its first Leveraging Excellence Award, designed to honor institutions that have shared programs or policies designed to improve efficiency or effectiveness with other colleges and universities.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which includes the Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago, was honored for a collaborative effort that included a coordinated purchasing process that saved $16 million, a shared fiber network that is faster and saved $13 million, shared study abroad and course development efforts, and a leadership development program for faculty members.

Brigham Young won for a capital assets management program that other educational institutions and government agencies are now using. Honorable mentions went to the Worldwide Universities Network, the Five Colleges, Inc., the Tennessee Board of Regents, and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.

Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of Criminal Justice Services
Announcing the Availability of Federal Grant Funds
From the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program for New Projects Starting July 1, 2008. The Department of Criminal Justice Services announces the availability of federal grant funds through the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG). Grant Applications may be submitted for new projects in the following areas:

•   School and Campus Safety Projects;
•   School Resource Officers;
•   Crisis Intervention Team Pilot Projects;
•   Assessing the Impact of and Responding to the Mentally Ill in the Criminal/Juvenile Justice Systems.
•   Crime and Delinquency Prevention in Minority/Immigrant Communities;

For complete grant guidelines and instructions for preparing and submitting grant applications may be obtained from the Department’s website at www.dcjs.virginia.gov/forms/grants/byrne/p-guide-08final.pdf, or call (804) 786-5491.

USAID and Partners Discuss the Future of Information Sharing for Global Development
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), recently hosted the first-ever Global Development Commons forum in order to initiate discussions to better identify ways in which increased communication, collaboration and cooperation can benefit global development. Convened by USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore, the Forum brought together nearly 100 development specialists from both the public and private sectors to explore such questions as:

•   How can we make lessons of development experience available to the developing world?
•   How will the future of connectivity fill existing knowledge gaps?
•   What will development look like in 5, 10, or 20 years?
•   What role can USAID play?

"The Commons is a community of continuous and real-time exchange, collaboration, partnership and action between public and private donors, agencies, NGOs, host governments, and civil society - all operating as equals," said Fore. The keynote address was given by Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress. The Library of Congress, through their World Digital Library Initiative, has made monumental advancements in information sharing to the developing world.

Other speakers included Mark Fleeton from The Development Gateway Foundation and Helga Leifsdottir from ReliefWeb. Each gave their perspective on the advancements and challenges in making development information available on-line, while Corey Griffin of the Microsoft Corporation spoke of efforts to expand connectivity to the developing world and reconfirmed Microsoft's goal to "broaden Internet access to the next 5 billion people." Dr. John Steffens of the Infopoverty Institute and William Reese of the International Youth Foundation spoke of trends currently taking place in development and ways in which the Global Development Commons can contribute.

For more information on the Global Development Commons and to view videotaped portions of the Forum, please visit http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/gdc.

European Union and United States Cooperation
European leaders have set an ambitious goal: the EU must become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion (European Council, Lisbon, March 2000). By 2010, Europe should be the world leader in terms of the quality of its education and training systems.

Making this happen will mean a fundamental transformation of education and training throughout Europe. Under the "Bologna Process," which now extends far beyond EU borders, more than 40 countries are working toward convergence of their higher education systems.

Transatlantic cooperation on education is considered to be an important component in stimulating economic growth and prosperity. The EU-US Cooperation Program in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training jointly funds cooperative activities between educational institutions in the EU and the United States. The new program, launched in 2006, pursues the ambitious aim of implementing joint or dual transatlantic undergraduate degrees. The European Commission and the US Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) provide support to multilateral consortia with a minimum configuration of 2 EU higher education institutions located in different Member States and 1 US institution. The partner institutions have to create an integrated joint study program, with students from the 2 sides spending a period of study both in the EU and in the US institutions and getting either a joint degree or a double degree encompassing the whole period of study. At the core of the program is the enhancement of student mobility, innovation and joint curriculum development and academic recognition between the EU and the US.

NIH program to create academic research consortium
The National Institutes of Health is injecting $100 million into a new project to create a consortium of universities that will cooperate on research projects. By 2012, the government plans to bring funding up to $500 million a year and expects to have 60 academic research centers involved, working cooperatively on advancing medical research.

The goal is to push cooperation as medicine gets increasingly specialized and new genomic data is gathered. The NIH wants to end the days when lone researchers plugged away in isolated labs and herald a new era that will advance new therapies and speed investigative work. Among the first group to be involved: Columbia University; Rockefeller University; Mayo Clinic College of Medicine; Oregon Health & Science University; University of California, Davis; University of Pennsylvania; University of Rochester; University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Yale University.

E&I LAUNCHES RE-DESIGNED MEMBER WEBSITE
Enhancements Include Improved Navigation, Easier Access to Contract and Pricing Information
JERICHO, N.Y. — Higher education purchasing professionals can now take advantage of improved navigation, a high-powered search engine and a number of exciting new features on the re-designed E&I Cooperative Purchasing website.
E&I, the nation’s largest buying cooperative for higher education, has upgraded its website, www.eandi.org to provide members with quick and easy access to all of the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions.

The many new features include streamlined access to E&I’s contract and pricing information, translating into fewer layers and less clicking for viewers. An easy-to-use, high-powered search engine will allow members to search for pricing directly on the website across multiple suppliers. And a unified login means that, in some cases, members will only need to log in once at E&I to access purchasing functions from supplier sites. A number of suppliers currently offer online ordering, and the Cooperative is continuing to work on increasing online accessibility of contracts.

“Throughout the redesign process, we have remained committed to ensuring that the new site incorporates the functionality and features that are most valuable to our membership,” explained Tom Fitzgerald, CEO of E&I Cooperative. “With direct access to contract and pricing information, improved e-commerce capabilities and seamless logins, we believe the site effectively improves the overall online experience for our members. We will continue to analyze member feedback to ensure the site remains as effective as possible.”