Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

The USM will benefit not only by collaborating internally on matters related to Information Technology, but also by forming collaborations and partnerships with external entities. There are numerous opportunities here, some of which the USM, as a System, has begun to exercise, and some which individual USM institutions are developing. The overall goal, as with all activities in the USM, will be to establish a range of opportunities for external entities to partner with the USM depending on whether the benefit is focused on an institution or more broadly at the System level.

The following are some examples of partnerships between individual USM institutions and external entities such as the State of Maryland, businesses, the federal government, other universities, community colleges, and others.

BSU is a partner with Norfolk State University in the Department of Defense Mentor Protégé Program under the Minority Institutions Technology Support Services. The University is represented in the National Science Foundation Advanced Networking with Minority-Serving Institutions (AN-MSI) Project.

In addition, BSU has linkages and ongoing collaborations with many government agencies and organizations, such as the National Security Agency, NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the World Bank. The following is a sample list of organizations that provide internship and employment opportunities to BSU students in science and technology-related fields: Argonne National Laboratory, Bell Atlantic, Digital Equipment Corporation, EXXON Chemical Company, Hughes STX, Federal Aviation Administration, Florida State University, Lockheed Martin, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Morgan State University, University of Maryland, College Park and the Biotechnology Institute and Medical School.

BSU is planning or already has in place the following additional collaborations:

With UMUC to provide academic programs abroad,

With Bladensburg High School in Prince George's County Public Schools System (PGCPS) to develop a web-based course for teacher re-certification,

With Prince George's Community College, Allegany College of Maryland, Garrett Community College, Anne Arundel Community College, and Montgomery College to make obtaining a bachelor's of science degree in technology easier for State students.

Some examples of higher education and private sector partnerships at TU:

Maryland Educational Enterprise Consortium (MEEC)

The Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC) is an agreement  among public and independent institutions, K-12 and higher education in the state of Maryland. Towson University is one of 64 institutions across Maryland that is a member of MEEC. MEEC has formed a licensing agreement with Microsoft and with Network Associates, Inc to allow member institutions to purchase site licenses of the software (e.g., Microsoft Office, Microsoft Operating System software, McAfee Anti-Virus software, and others) at substantial discounts.

Maryland Online

MarylandOnline, a consortium of Maryland community colleges and universities, provides students with the opportunity to achieve their educational goals by completing courses, certificates, and degree programs at a distance. Students are linked to their courses, faculty members, and fellow students through the World Wide Web ( http://www.marylandonline.org/) and other online technologies.

University Alliance Program with SAP

The College of Business and Economics is exploring the University Alliance program and partnership with SAP. SAP, a world leader in the development of business software, is making its market-leading, client/server-based enterprise software, the R/3^® System, available to the higher education community. Through the University Alliance Program, SAP provides the software to higher education institutions without charge. SAP also provides setup, follow-up consulting, and R/3 training for faculty at the expense of SAP. This allows higher education institutions to use the software in classes to provide real work experience.

Comcast

A partnership with Comcast has provided residential students with high-speed Internet access in the university's residential housing.

UMBC is recognized as a leader for the way it contributes to the economic development of the State and the region through entrepreneurial initiatives, workforce training, K-16 partnerships, and technology commercialization in collaboration with public agencies and the corporate community. Some of the cooperative initiatives and partnerships in which UMBC is involved include:

UMBC participation in the USM Library Information Management System (LIMS), both in the development of the current LIMS and in planning for the next generation LIMS to be implemented next year;

UMBC participation in the planning and development of the Maryland Digital Library (MDL);

UMBC participation in the IMS initiative to develop next generation online course management systems;

UMBC partnership with Microsoft and Coppin State College on the FaCT proposal;

UMBC participation in Internet2 and EDUCAUSE;

Private partnerships with Sallie Mae Solutions for e-commerce, Aether Systems for wireless networking, and with RWD Technologies for technology planning;

Development of UMBC South Campus Technology Incubator and Research Park;

Training partnerships through the Computer Certification Training Center (CCTC) provides individual and corporate IT training;

Development of the myUMBC portal for e-business services.

In addition, UMBC recently joined in a partnership with Sallie Mae Solutions to provide the campus with an e-commerce solution. Since fall 2000, UMBC students are able to pay their bills online through Sallie Mae.

The University of Maryland, College Park enjoys extensive partnerships within the University System of Maryland, State of Maryland, Industry, the Federal Government, and other institutions and organizations. Partnerships with Lucent, IBM, SUN, the State of Maryland, and Oracle are directed specifically to e-business initiatives.

Some specific examples include:

Networking initiatives include Internet2, Abilene, MAX and NGIX, which help build an advanced infrastructure that is required by Research 1 Universities.

Partnerships with IBM, through their SUR program, have provided an environment for the development of a directory service and for the Smith School of Business to include electronic commerce as part of its curriculum.

The Smith School of Business has developed partnerships with SUN to develop a .com readiness competency center.

The University of Maryland and the State of Maryland are working with private industry to develop e-Maryland

An example of the sort of partnership that can only be handled effectively at the System level is the Maryland Enterprise Educational Consortium (MEEC) that has leveraged the size of the USM to engage in volume licensing agreements. This is a USM sponsored initiative which the USM Service Center manages and administers on daily basis. Having established these agreements on behalf of the USM, they have been offered broadly to all educational institutions within Maryland. This process started with the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, but has been extended to other licensing agreements as well. The model is that the USM initiates the agreement, offers it to participating institutions, and might handle some on-going administrative tasks. The USM, however, does not get involved in the implementation details such as order fulfillment.

A summary of the opportunities for partnerships includes:

The overarching vision of the USM in most matters, including information technology, is one of K-16+. The MEEC relationship is only one of many potential partnerships in a complex and symbiotic relationship. It is in the interest of the USM that the students coming to USM institutions be as well educated as possible -- including technology fluency. Similarly, the USM is the source of a large percentage of teachers in Maryland schools. Thus, the USM has a responsibility to educate teachers in ways that allow them to be fluent in current technologies and use it in support of their teaching in Maryland schools.

These principles are articulated in the USM Plan as:

USM institutions will:

Produce teachers capable of integrating technology skills into the K-12 curriculum, particularly since the majority (70%) of K-12 teachers in Maryland graduate from USM Schools of Education. This will help to ensure that public high school graduates have the technological fluency necessary for post-secondary education.

In technology issues, the USM has worked closely with MHEC. The MHEC IT plan, Connecting with Tomorrow, in fulfillment of requirements in the State Plan for Higher Education was written in close collaboration with the USM Office. Several of the initiatives in that plan are extensions of USM initiatives described in this plan. The USM vision is that all benefit by collaboration across the segments of the higher education community in Maryland. This will be reflected in strategies for wide area networking, management and delivery of content, and deployment of middleware standards-based services.

The USM Office has worked closely with the State OIT on a number of initiatives, and intends to continue to do so into the future. The recent activities include active participation in the net.work.Maryland Taskforce and participation in developing the State IT Master Plan and IT Policies. It appears to be in the interest of the citizens of Maryland, DBM OIT, and the USM for such collaborations to continue and expand. The USM offers intellectual talent and technical insight while DBM OIT offers projects of high significance to the State.

The USM continually seeks partnerships with business entities that wish to interact with USM institutions in a highly leveraged manner. This will mean a relationship that extends beyond a single campus. To be a partnership rather than just a leveraged buying service, there will need to be multiple levels of interaction. Some examples of these include: USM assistance to the partner in developing requirements for new goods or services; testing of products prior to release; and running pilot projects. From the USM side the benefits will be in terms of having products and services available that better meet needs; close relationships in areas of support and training; and better pricing than might be available to the general higher education customer.

[ Issues and Actions | Introduction | Minimum IT Standard | Strategic Challenges | Executive Summary]
[ Environmental/Competitive Context | Institutions | Interface with the State | USM IT Initiatives]