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The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

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Institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education that wish to attract more minority and first generation college<br />

students then face the increasing problems <strong>of</strong> reduced government subsidies and increasing loan<br />

rates. <strong>The</strong>se students then may not have the opportunity to enter college. Universities, since the<br />

passage <strong>of</strong> the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s have become increasingly more committed to assisting<br />

first generation, low-income and underrepresented minority students attend college and earn<br />

undergraduate and graduate degrees. Reduced funding as proposed by the current 109th Congress<br />

(2005) and the Bush administration will make it more <strong>of</strong> a challenge for institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education<br />

meet their goals <strong>of</strong> assisting students from these target populations attends college.<br />

A second challenge brought before institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education through state and federal<br />

governments is the emphasis on collaboration between institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education, nonpr<strong>of</strong>it<br />

organizations, K-12 school districts, state agencies, faith based organizations and municipalities.<br />

This movement to encourage collaboration became institutionalized by many federal agencies in<br />

the 1990s.<br />

For example, the United States Department <strong>of</strong> Agriculture (USDA) in the late 1990s developed the<br />

slogan <strong>of</strong> the three C’s to promote various organizations to receive funding for Economic Development<br />

Empowerment and Enterprise Zones. <strong>The</strong> three C’s are Cooperation, Collaboration and<br />

Consensus. This program encouraged universities, rural development nonpr<strong>of</strong>it organizations,<br />

municipalities, businesses and school districts to be involved in a very complicated and time consuming<br />

planning activities to compete to become one <strong>of</strong> the successful recipients.<br />

Many more federal agencies now have made collaboration a focus, if not a requirement, for funding<br />

certain programs. Funding agencies as disparate as the National Institutes <strong>of</strong> Health (NIH),<br />

Department <strong>of</strong> Education (DOE), and Department <strong>of</strong> Housing and Urban Development, among<br />

others, all encourage collaboration in their Request for Proposals (RFPs) for competitive grant<br />

programs.<br />

State governments are following the federal government in calling for more collaboration for<br />

institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education with other organizations. <strong>The</strong> Illinois Board <strong>of</strong> Higher Education<br />

(IBHE) administers the Higher Education Cooperation Act Grants. <strong>The</strong> purpose <strong>of</strong> this particular<br />

grant program is “to support programs <strong>of</strong> inter-institutional cooperation in higher education<br />

that promote the efficient use <strong>of</strong> educational services, the development <strong>of</strong> innovative educational<br />

concepts that effectively deliver educational programs and involvement with the local community.”<br />

Eligible applicants are described in the RFP as including at least two public or private higher education<br />

institutions. Not-for-pr<strong>of</strong>it corporations organized to administer programs in inter-institutional<br />

cooperation <strong>of</strong> higher education and Illinois public schools also may participate in these<br />

programs” (Illinois Board <strong>of</strong> Higher Education, 2005).<br />

<strong>The</strong> increasing demands for institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education to develop collaborations or interact<br />

more with other organizations for competitive and non-competitive sources <strong>of</strong> funding means that<br />

there will be increased administrative costs. Many institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education are suspicious<br />

that the focus on collaborative programs is a strategy by federal, state and private funding agencies<br />

to shift the cost <strong>of</strong> administration from their sector to that <strong>of</strong> higher education. <strong>The</strong> increasing<br />

complexity <strong>of</strong> developing partners and collaborative programs has led to institutions <strong>of</strong> higher<br />

education being forced to spend more time in planning and relationship development with other<br />

organizations. This means that institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education bear more <strong>of</strong> the cost in developing<br />

unfunded projects than in the past.<br />

Institutions <strong>of</strong> higher education are facing the problems <strong>of</strong> (a) declining state revenues for higher<br />

education; (b) increasing student numbers, both traditional and untraditional and; (c) federal<br />

and state government and private funding agencies demand for more collaborative programs that<br />

makes it more costly and complicated for developing projects than in the past. Higher education<br />

institutions are in need <strong>of</strong> resources to manage these problems, or challenges. Within a higher<br />

154 2005 <strong>Symposium</strong> Proceedings Book

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