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Institutions want to share services and save money
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
A group of nine Northeast Ohio colleges and universities are beginning the process to determine ways to share services and save money.
The idea started from a casual conversation among Gene Grilli, vice president for finance and administration at Youngstown State University, and the chief financial officers at the University of Akron and Kent State University.
From there, they decided to propose the idea to other higher education institutions in the region and organized a meeting last week at YSU to discuss the possibilities.
Beside the three universities that initially talked about the idea, Cleveland State and Northeast Ohio Medical universities and Cuyahoga, Eastern Gateway and Lakeland community colleges attended.
Both Grilli and Ikram Khawaja, YSU provost and vice president for academic affairs, said there have been other attempts to consolidate services among Ohio’s colleges and universities, but those came from outside sources.
They believe this one may be more successful, first, because it was initiated by university personnel and secondly, because it’s voluntary.
“Everyone who said they would come did except for one and he had the flu,” Grilli said.
Possibilities for shared services include purchasing, fleet vehicles, information technology, travel and training.
Khawaja said the Northeastern Ohio Cooperative Regional Library Depository is a good example of successful shared services.
It’s a high-density library storage facility at NEOMED housing more than one million books, journals and other media from the libraries of the state universities in Northeast Ohio.
Its 1994 establishment eliminated the need to build additions to each university for its respective low-use materials.
Another meeting among the university representatives is expected in October with smaller groups getting together to work on some of the ideas in the meantime.