‘This is what collaboration looks like’
In a story titled “Colleges Partner to Fight Rising Costs,” Star Tribune reporter Jenna Ross outlines how St. Olaf and Carleton are working together to seek savings.
“Playful fights over which college has the taller wind turbine have given way to talk about partnering on payroll,” she writes.
The story notes that the two colleges have already merged their library collections, but are looking at a host of other partnerships ranging from merging business operations to collaborating on technology contracts.
“I think the big goal is enriching the student experience and finding a way to expand our programs without expanding the budget,” St. Olaf Assistant Director of Instructional Technology Nancy Aarsvold tells the paper.
The colleges are using a $50,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to explore the opportunities and challenges related to expanded collaboration. St. Olaf President David R. Anderson ’74 and Carleton President Steven Poskanzer have led the way, theStar Tribune notes.
“This is what collaboration looks like,” Anderson is quoted as saying during a conference call in which he and Poskanzer finished each other’s sentences.