Pundit Takes the "Mystery" Out of Academic Aspect of Big Ten Membership

A sports columnist for The (Champaign-Urbana) News-Gazette tried to take the "mystery" out of the "academic aspect" of the University of Nebraska-Lincon's future move to the Big Ten athletic conference in a column on Sunday, Sept. 26.

Loren Tate spoke with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Interim Chancellor Robert Easter and the UI's chief academic officer, Vice Provost Richard Wheeler, to clarify the academic value being a Big Ten member -- and in turn, a CIC member -- can bring to a university.

Interim Chancellor Easter gave Tate two examples, including the CIC's course sharing efforts and the Google library digitization project, of ways the University of Illinois benefits from being a part of the CIC.

"It is not a trivial consideration for Nebraska to be a part of these strategies and conversations," Interim Chancellor Easter told Tate.

Said Wheeler: "The move for Nebraska was driven by athletics, but the opportunity to join the CIC was a consideration."

In other recent news regarding the UNL's future admission into the CIC: 

University of Nebraska president J.B. Milliken told the (Grand Island) Independent that he is "excited" about having the CIC to promote collaborative research projects.

The Independent reported the comments from an interview during Husker Harvest Days, which is billed as the nation's largest working farm show and focuses on production agriculture.

The article paraphrases Milliken saying, "While NU already is cooperating with several Big 10 universities, its formal entrance into the conference will only increase those opportunities," the paper wrote.