Big Ten news

I was in Chicago on Monday to meet with deans from other Big Ten arts and sciences colleges. Getting everyone in the same room was a great opportunity to address issues we all face and to continue discussions about how we can benefit from our shared strengths.

I fielded a few questions about our world-renowned Center for Digital Research in the Humanities — certainly one of our strengths. More generally, everyone is interested in digitization across disciplines. People want to digitize everything, from books to images and data, and for good reason. We see the Committee on Institutional Collaboration, the Big Ten’s academic arm, playing a key role in addressing storage costs and concerns.

We talked about summer research opportunity programs, which allow students to go to various campuses in the Big Ten. Course-sharing also remains a hot topic.

Although we won’t become a part of the Big Ten officially until July 1, the doors are beginning to open even more and excitement continues to build. As Graham Spanier, President of Penn State, said when he visited campus recently, joining the Big Ten was a game changer for them. I am sure it will be for us also.