The WAICU Collaboration Project is a comprehensive initiative to perform administrative support (back office) functions of Wisconsin’s 20 private nonprofit colleges and universities on a collaborative basis. The objectives are to save money, to improve the quality of services to students, faculty, and staff, and to serve as a national model for controlling college costs.
In its 1998 report, the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education was highly critical of the way higher education operates and recommended that colleges and universities “…conduct efficiency self-reviews to identify cost-saving steps that are relevant to institutional mission and quality improvement… The commission [also] recommends greater institutional and regional cooperation.”
The WAICU Collaboration Project has been identified by the U.S. Congress as the national model for advancing this Congressional objective. Never before in history have private, or independent, colleges and universities considered as extensive a consolidation of functions short of an actual merger. This project moves beyond incrementalism. It sends a message to the entire nation that something transformative has taken place. The project is modeled on the consolidation of back office functions which has taken place in the banking and other industries. Back office operations include functions such as health care plans, purchasing, and information technology.
The WAICU Collaboration Project will secure the financial status of participating institutions. Working more closely together to reduce paperwork and consolidate back office functions will enhance the independence of these institutions by freeing them to concentrate on their primary mission of teaching and learning. It will free additional funds for students in financial need and for improvements in education. Finally, it will provide the country with a model that can help keep higher education affordable.
The presidents constituting the WAICU Board launched the first cost-saving collaborations in 1992 and the more comprehensive effort in 2002. Already WAICU members are saving millions of dollars annually.
