Leveraging resources and building credibility through external partnershi ps

1. Leveraging resources and building credibility through external partnerships ACL Webinar July 13, 2011 Mary Frances Forcier Director

2. Drexel University George Mason University Georgia State University Hofstra University James Madison University Northeastern University Old Dominion University Towson University University of Delaware University of North Carolina at Wilmington Virginia Commonwealth University The College of William and Mary The power of 12 We compete on the athletic field and on the court… but we collaborate in the classroom, the laband the library.

3. Structure • Founded in 2002 by the presidents and commissioner of the Colonial Athletic Association • Funded by dues from the member institutions • Governed by the 12 provosts • Director appointed in 2005 • Alliance office housed at George Mason University • Activities are developed by working groups led by our provosts, composed of institutional representatives, and coordinated through the Alliance office.

4. Areas of focus and goals Our programs focus on six strategic areas: • International Programs • Undergraduate Research Programs • Assessment Programs • University Life • Institutional Advancement • Resource Sharing In each of these areas,we provide: • Sustained information sharing and benchmarking • New opportunities for students • Faculty and staff development • Sharing unique programs and facilities among the 12 CAA institutions

5. Institutional advancement Partner: The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Project: Alumni Relations Benchmarking Toolkit • CASE’s research division developed an instrument for institutions to assess their alumni relations programming • Looking for communities of practice to utilize the toolkit • CAA alumni relations directors eager to work as a pilot group to pilot CASE’s toolkit • Win-win for CASE and for CAA: we didn’t have to develop our own instrument, and CASE gained another user

6. Undergraduate Research Partner: The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Project: Proposal for Faculty Development Workshops • CUR is conducting faculty development workshops for teams of faculty from institutions or consortia on “institutionalizing undergraduate research” • CAA undergraduate research coordinators developed proposal focusing on key issues that are best addressed collaboratively • Proposal submission this month to CUR • If not funded, we will still work on the issues identified

7. Academic Leadership Development Partner: Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences Project: Department Chairs Workshops • CCAS had developed and conducted for many years its own series of department chair workshops • Offered to enroll CAA chairs at a reduced rate • “Pre-workshop” session conducted by CAA faculty development staff focused on building an Alliance-specific program that met our constituents’ particular needs and allowed us to develop our own cohort of chairs

8. Partnerships can be mutually beneficial For the Alliance For our partners More efficient to work with a consortium than with individual institutions Allows them to build a “community of users” for their programs Helps them raise the national profile of their own organization’s work and leverage their own resources • Allows us to link our institutions with national higher education agenda • Raises the profile of our members and of the consortium • Provides access to tools and resources we might not otherwise have • Helps focus work of interest groups (CUR example)

9. Challenges and lessons learned • Which is more effective: to build your own program or to partner with other organizations? • Don’t sacrifice what’s particularly strong about your own consortium to meet the partnership’s needs • Are you serving your constitutents’ needs most effectively? • Communications issues: “consortium as a go-between” can either help or hinder progress • How do you identify partners, and how do you identify which are worthwhile?