for
the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts
October
18 , 2002
|
MHEC praised as model of efficiency and economy for Bay State by Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff 
rom its rather humble beginnings as the Five College
Buying Group, the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium has blossomed
into a model of group purchasing that now counts 83 Bay State colleges
and universities on its membership rolls.On Oct. 3, about 280 representatives of many of those institutions gathered at the Sturbridge Host Hotel to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the MHEC and its contributions to holding down the cost of attending college. Among the guests were a number of the key players - some now retired - who helped get MHEC up and running in 1975. The idea, then and now, is simple: unite public and private colleges and universities under an umbrella organization that uses a competitive bidding process to gives its members access to low-cost, high quality products while saving on administrative expenses. Since its inception, MHEC has saved its member institutions $500 million, according to chairman Jake Bishop, who noted that the consortium is completely funded through dues. "Not one cent of taxpayer money has gone toward MHEC," he said. "Every dollar saved is instantly saved from the bottom line and that helps keep tuition down." Those achievements were formally recognized as Acting Gov. Jane Swift declared Oct. 3 Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium Day and U.S. Rep. John Olver (D-Mass.) sent a letter praising the accomplishments of MHEC and its members. Speaking at the luncheon, Sen. Stan Rosen-berg (D-Amherst) presented a Senate citation to the organization. "This is a wonderful model," said Rosenberg. "I wish we could find the will and capacity to bring this kind of efficiency to other parts of state government. ... MHEC keeps the cost of higher education down and contributes to the economy." The consortium also drew praise from Maryanne Leonard, president of R.V. Leonard Co., a furniture supplier that contracts with MHEC. According to Leonard, MHEC is the key reason why her struggling small firm was able to tap into the higher education market after the corporate sector proved too tough to crack. "Big jobs elude small businesses," said Leonard, but MHEC gives smaller firms access to member institutions, like Bridgewater State College, where R.V. Leonard was awarded the job of outfitting the Moakley Center for Technological Applications in the mid-1990s. That success helped her company build a loyal client base among Massachusetts colleges and universities, said Leonard. "It never would've been possible without the support of MHEC," she said. "I can't thank you enough from the bottom of my heart." The keynote speaker, former Chancellor David K. Scott, said the very future of higher education is tied to collaboration and cooperation like that exemplified by MHEC. According to Scott, less than one percent of the world's population holds a college degree. Just to maintain that level of education and keep pace with the growth in global population, one new university would have to open every week for the next 30 years. "It isn't going to happen," said Scott. "The only way we can begin to touch the need for learning is through collaboration or consortia on a global scale." The demand for learning is also increasing at home, said Scott, with one study predicting that within the next three decades, every working person will need the equivalent of 30 hours of college study every seven years. Playing out the numbers, Scott said that will add 20 million full-time equivalent students to the college market. Meanwhile, colleges still follow a 1,000-year-old model of four-year programs of study, he said, while knowledge increases 3.6 percent every four years. At the same time, state support for public institutions has slowed. All of those factors, said Scott, mean new approaches are needed. "The current model can't keep up by relying on tuition and fees," said Scott. "We need to find ways to make education cheaper." "I think what the new governor should do is put together a task force and make Jake Bishop the chair," added Scott. "The task force should study what is the cost of education and how will it increase based on current models and then agree on a collaborative models." Scott said information technology should be explored as a method for schools to share common courses, allowing individual institutions to direct the savings to priority areas. "I think Massachusetts could show the way. Almost every important idea in education was born in Massachusetts or this region," he said. "In education, we need to look the difficulties that lie ahead, think, plan and build on models" of collaboration and cooperation. Bishop, who was toasted by his colleagues for shepherding MHEC for most of its existence, agreed that consortia are well-positioned for the years ahead. "I'm encouraged that MHEC is still going strong in the face of this awful economy," he said. "Schools that have been down-sized are turning more and more to MHEC." |
