Independent College Enterprise
CARRIE STOLLINGS
Enhancing Technology Through Collaboration
Today, higher education runs on tech-
nology. Whatever a school’s size, mission,
location or student body demographic,
the need for information technology and
best practice procedures is critical to its
success. But how can smaller schools—
those with smaller budgets—keep up
with technological changes?
One innovative West Virginia organi-
zation is helping a consortium of schools
do just that.
In the late 1990s, the presidents of two
schools—Dr. Edwin Welch of the Uni-
versity of Charleston (UC) and William
Haden of West Virginia Wesleyan College
(WVWC)—discussed the possibility of
pooling resources to purchase and maintain
an integrated information management
system. That discussion led to a collabora-
tion among five independent West Virginia
schools, and today, the Independent College
Enterprise (ICE) serves 10 small higher
education institutions in four states:
Alderson Broaddus University, Bethany
College, Davis & Elkins College, UC,
WVWC and Wheeling Jesuit University
(WJU) in West Virginia; Emory & Henry
College in Virginia; Stillman College in
Alabama; Tusculum University in Ten-
nessee; and William Peace University in
North Carolina.
“Economically and technologically, ICE
provides great value to member schools,”
says current UC President Dr. Martin
Roth. “The ICE platform offers us soft-
ware-as-a-service benefits at a scale that
would be difficult for us to accomplish
individually.”
ICE hosts and supports database tech-
nologies for its member schools from its
location at UC in order to improve effi-
ciency and effectiveness through sharing
information technology resources and
supporting shared operational functions.
While the colleges share hardware, soft-
ware and technical personnel, each school
has exclusive access to its own data.
“Our school would be hard-pressed to
manage its enterprise resource planning
system without the support of a collab-
oration that shares services and staff,”
says Cynthia Warrick, president of Still-
man College.
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
From server hosting and software
installation and maintenance to user and
database security and project manage-
ment, ICE staff can perform a variety of
services for member schools, providing
a level of expertise most small schools
couldn’t afford on their own.
“ICE staff bring specific technical talent
to Bethany in roles where we do not need
a full-time person,” explains Ed Stough,
the IT director at Bethany College. “By
sharing staff, the resultant expense is
less than hiring consultants or vendors.”
However, ICE isn’t just an IT platform
for its members.
“We don’t see ourselves as a technology
organization. We see ourselves as a ser-
vice group,” says ICE CEO Shelley Nason.
“ICE is a true partnership. We often fa-
cilitate conversations among schools so
departments like financial aid and the
registrar and business office profession-
als can have conversations and share
expertise.”
Nason meets monthly with the CIOs
and CFOs of each school and then puts
forward common issues so members of the
group can provide support for one another.
“Engaging with other members allows
us to achieve efficiency and effective-
ness while continuously improving the
educational experience for our students,”
says Brian Ralph, president of William
Peace University. “ICE enables talented
leaders from numerous institutions to
partner in solving problems as well as
enabling each institution to be a great
steward of its resources.”
According to Laurie McCullough, the
project manager for WJU, the ICE con-
sortium is a lifesaver for small, private
institutions. “Using a consortium model
saves significant money, expands the IT
team for the school and provides col-
laboration with other member schools,
which expands the resources for all de-
partments,” she explains.
For example, when a member school
needed guidance to implement a school
emergency system, ICE sent a survey out
to its members and raised the topic at a
monthly meeting where the schools dis-
cussed a potential consortia agreement
and suggested potential vendors.
“Innovation is critical for higher ed-
ucation institutions,” says Roth. “ICE
is a unique enterprise that allows pri-
vate, independent colleges to share criti-
cal knowledge, skills and systems while
maintaining our own unique operations
and solutions. It’s an exemplary model
for collaboration across competitors.”