Membership provides opportunities for teaching, learning, technology collaborations with many of the nation’s foremost research institutions

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers University President Robert L. Barchi today announced that the university has accepted an invitation to join the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the nation’s premier higher education consortium of top-tier research institutions. The University of Maryland was also invited to join the CIC.

The 13-member consortium includes the University of Chicago as well as Big Ten Conference members such as the University of Illinois, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Purdue. The provosts who govern the CIC voted unanimously to invite Rutgers to join the consortium.

CIC Chair and Michigan State University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kim A. Wilcox said, “We welcome Rutgers University and the University of Maryland, two top-tier public research institutions that share the academic values, aspirations and challenges of the CIC member universities.”

“Most of the schools in the consortium are, like Rutgers, large state universities that serve a similar mission,” said Barchi.  “This is where Rutgers belongs. The CIC is committed to advance its members’ academic missions, leverage campus resources, share expertise, and expand academic and research opportunities for students and faculty.”

Rutgers’ membership in the CIC becomes effective July 1, 2013.

Rutgers brings eminent faculty and cutting-edge research to the consortium. With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland, CIC institutions will engage in more than $9 billion in annual funded research. In turn, collaborations with CIC members offer Rutgers students, faculty and staff access to world-class resources and programs.

“This opens a new realm of possibilities,” said Richard L. Edwards, executive vice president for academic affairs. “Our students will have access to new courses through distance learning technology, millions more library volumes and new study abroad programs.” The CIC’s Summer Research Opportunities Program for underrepresented students provides qualified undergraduates with intensive research experiences and has created a pipeline for future graduate students, faculty and professionals, Edwards added.

Faculty and staff at CIC universities also have a wide range of collaborative opportunities to advance their research and scholarship and sharpen their professional skills. 

 

About the CIC: The CIC is the nation's premier higher education consortium of top-tier research institutions, including the Big Ten Conference members and the University of Chicago. Through collaboration CIC members save money, share assets and increase teaching, learning and research opportunities. Founded in 1958, CIC members engage in voluntary, sustained partnerships such as library collections and access collaborations; technology collaborations to build capacity at reduced costs; purchasing and licensing collaborations through economies of scale; leadership and development programs for faculty and staff; programs that allow students to take courses at other institutions; and study-abroad collaborations.  For more information, visit http://www.cic.net.

About Rutgers University: Established in 1766, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is the only university in the United States that is a colonial college, a land-grant institution, and a leading national public research university. Rutgers is America’s eighth oldest institution of higher learning. Serving nearly 60,000 students on campuses in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick, Rutgers is one of only two New Jersey institutions represented in the prestigious Association of American Universities. For more information, visit http://www.rutgers.edu.