Campuses are increasingly looking to renewable energy as the most financially attractive strategy for achieving dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while reducing long-term energy costs and minimizing energy price risk. To achieve economies of scale when sourcing renewable energy, cohorts of colleges and universities are beginning to…

Many public and private higher education institutions continue to experience flat or reduced state budget allocations, coupled with tuition and fees that continue to exceed inflation. Finding proactive and innovative approaches to reduce costs without sacrificing quality of instruction and service is truly the challenge facing facility and…

There is no doubt that eProcurement technology has turned cumbersome paper-based processes into highly connected online systems. The most basic parameters of eProcurement range from shopping for or sourcing goods, to creating purchase requisitions and getting them approved, to placing orders with suppliers, to receiving invoices--all…

Today, as difficult as it is for large institutions to keep software and hardware up-to-date, the challenge and expense of keeping up is only amplified for smaller colleges and universities. In the area of data-driven decision-making (DDD), the challenge can be even greater. Because smaller schools are pressed for time and resources on nearly all…

Technology product procurement can be a daunting task for a college or university--especially a smaller institution--to accomplish alone. Perhaps this is why schools are tackling it by banding together. When it comes to purchasing technology, a little help from friends is the key to economies of scale, which frequently net schools the best…

Discusses how joint buying through consortial arrangements has had a dramatic impact on the purchasing power of higher education institutions, with cooperative agreements leading to significant savings for the member institutions. (EV)

A special purchasing group was formed by the Worcester Consortium for Higher Education with financial advantages. (Editor/HS)

Presents guide intended to aid librarians who are responsible for planning coordinated and cooperative collection development arrangements between libraries and suggests possible contexts, goals, methods, organization, effects, and processes to be investigated while establishing such programs. Benefits, problems, models, preconditions, and…

One way colleges can approach cost control is by taking advantages of cooperative purchasing activities with other, similar institutions. Guiding principles for effective efforts include sharing the risk, sharing the resources, providing services to other institutions, and expanding institutional bargaining power through cooperation. Significant…

Describes the formation and role of a consortium for cooperative purchasing formed by the Council of Chief Librarians for the California Community Colleges in fall 1998 called the Electronic Access and Resources Committee. Its charge is to evaluate electronic, proprietary databases and negotiate prices for the community colleges as a group. (VWC)

A survey of 145 schools found that all had experimented with innovative purchasing approaches. Many used electronic methods, such as credit-card, fast-track requisition (most popular), bidding and purchasing, and data interchange. Results suggest that nonelectronic innovations (just-in-time, cooperative, direct, and consortium leverage purchasing)…

Cooperative purchasing programs among school districts have grown rapidly in the past decade, but significant questions remain about the benefits and drawbacks of such programs. This document presents the results of a project sponsored by the Association of School Business Officials for the purpose of addressing these questions. Comprising…

Michigan has long advocated local control of education, a philosophy that particularly applies to purchasing school buses. To counter adverse legal actions stemming from noncompetitive bidding practices, the Michigan School Business Officials and the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation collaborated to develop a comprehensive,…

Representatives from wide spectrum of cooperative programs discuss issues associated with cooperative library development. Programs described include statewide projects in Colorado, Illinois, Alaska, and New York; University of California Shared Purchase Program; Hampshire Inter-Library Center; Triangle Research Libraries Network; Pacific…

Direct purchase of natural gas may help schools and universities avoid increases when price controls on new natural gas are removed. For an educational institution to take advantage of the new regulations, gas must be purchased and transportation arranged, either individually or through a consortium. (TE)