WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. — Leaders from some of the top universities in the nation gathered this week for a conference focusing on strengthening support systems for student service members and veterans.
The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Military and Veteran Services Peer Group Conference took place Oct. 2-3 at Purdue University. The CIC is the nation's premier higher education consortium of top-tier research institutions, including the Big Ten Conference members, Rutgers University 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 wwwelopment programs for faculty and staff; programs that allow students to take courses at other institutions; and study-abroad collaborations. It is also focusing on ways to help student service members and veterans.
“We were very excited that Purdue University was able to host this inaugural conference,” said Jamie Richards, senior assistant director and coordinator of Military and Veteran Nontraditional Student Programs. “Not only are we are geographically centered, we have worked hard over the past year to really move the military and veteran needle forward. This conference was a great opportunity to share experiences and learn from others, and really to take our programming and services to the next level of support.”
The idea for the peer group, and then the conference, was created out of informal CIC conversations about to how best to serve student service members and veterans.
“It seemed that the conversation continually turned to the value of us all getting together in order to share our programming goals, our wins, and our frustrations,” said Richards. “The intent for this inaugural conference was to create a stronger network of support among each institution. This will in turn create a better environment for our military and veteran students.”
Sharing experiences with other CIC institutions was one of the main benefits of the conference, according to Stephen Abel, director of military and veteran programs at Rutgers.
“We all face similar environments and challenges, and it will be nice to get fresh perspectives and ideas on how to tackle and overcome them,” he said. “Committees like this Big Ten CIC peer group allow us to share information about our services and programs and in so doing, each of our schools will be able to better provide top-notch services for our veterans to match the top-notch academics already provided.”
Michael Carrell, assistant provost at The Ohio State University, called the conference a “vital” knowledge-sharing opportunity, “not only for the betterment of all of the CIC military and veteran services offices across the 15 universities, but more so for the benefit of our students.”
“We are all committed to seeing these students succeed academically and graduate,” he said. “This conference helped to enable that end.”
Related Websites:
Committee on Institutional Cooperation, www.cic.net
Veterans Success Center, Purdue University http://www.purdue.edu/studentsuccess/specialized/veterans/index.html
Military Family Research Institute, www.mfri.purdue.edu