AICUP offers numerous business efficiency programs offering member schools with the ability to collaborate with each other, and without AICUP’s coordinating role, these opportunities could not be developed to the necessary critical mass on a regional or state-wide level. 

Below you will find: 1) the range of business efficiency programs that AICUP sponsors for members; 2) institutional participation rates; and 3) the estimated cost-savings per institution from those programs. It is important to measure these programs over time as part of the normal performance measurement of our AICUP work.

Our findings are as follows:

  • 39 PROGRAMS – In 2023, AICUP offered thirty-nine (39) different cost savings programs of which, 29 are vendor-driven and the remaining 10 are driven by AICUP staff activities.
  • $36.9M ANNUAL SAVINGS – Thirty-six (36) of these programs leveraged volume and lowered costs in a way that could be documented resulting in $36.9 million of calculable savings in 2023.
  • 28:1 ROI ON FY 2023 DUES – $36.9 million of calculable 2023 savings equates to an average savings of $393,330 per AICUP member or roughly 28 times the average 2023 membership dues ($13,965).
  • AICUP MEMBER PARTICIPATION – Seventeen (17) of these programs provided service to 35 or more AICUP members and only four (4) programs had participation of less than 10 AICUP members. All AICUP Members and Associate Members participated in at least one of these 39 programs.
  • SEVEN (7) PROGRAM SAVINGS EXCEEDED FY 2023 DUES – Seven (7) of these programs each provided annual 2023 savings that exceeded the total 2023 AICUP membership dues of $1,242,907. Five of these seven are vendor driven programs including: Aggregate Group Purchasing, Purchasing Card
    Programs, Accounts Payable Automation, Software Licensing (all software), Cengage Unlimited for Institutions, and Student Health Insurance. Two of these seven programs are managed by AICUP staff as services to the membership: Monthly Presidents’ Updates and our Annual Economic Impact Study that will be substantially updated in FY 2025.
Facilities and Administration

Facilities & Administration

For over 8 decades, electricity was generated, transmitted, distributed, sold, and bought in the same manner. This all changed in December 1996 when Pennsylvania passed a law, which, among other requirements, provided  customers the option of competitively buying their electric supply needs. To assist AICUP and its members in sorting through the issues created by retail deregulation, AICUP contracted with Utility Solutions Inc. (USI). Member colleges are priced individually to assure that one does not subsidize another. By participating in the program, AICUP members can be assured of getting excellent rates, stability over a longer term, and many other value-added products (e.g. Green Power).

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 30
  • Dollar Volume for 1st 12 Months of Current Contracts: $23.3M

Contacts:

AICUP member schools face a consistent challenge in reconciling needs for campus facilities planning, design and construction, with the  availability of funding, early in the project lifecycle. The MasterConcept Planning Process aligns and connects these projects with their institutional mission, allowing schools to go beyond just meeting the need, by also using their capital projects to help fulfill their institutional mission and build their unique brand of education, for the monies that are available. To meet these challenges, Kimmel Bogrette has developed the MasterConcept Plan™.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants in 2023: 12
  • Program Volume: $354,000
  • Estimated Savings: $270,000

Unique Program Features:

  • 5 phases that Expeditiously: Identifies the Need & Goals, Understands the Constraints, Develops an Experiential Program, Creates a Compelling Design Solution & Confirms that the Project Cost of Fits the Budget Process is developed as a means of developing forward-thinking facilities programming that maximizes the use of financial resources over time and will become the roadmap for future improvements.
  • Matches Need with Available Budget without sacrificing innovation & design excellence
  • Supports Forward-thinking Facilities Planning, that Maximizes the use of Financial Resources to be the Roadmap for Future Campus Improvements
  • This approach is the only fixed-cost planning and design tool in the industry, offered at a discounted rate for AICUP members schools.
  • ½ of Program Fees are Credited toward the Project’s Design and Construction Documentation if Kimmel Bogrette is Retained to Implement the Design from the MasterConcept Planning project

Contact:

Check Out These Webinars to Learn More: Solving the Educational Planning Paradox of Matching Need, Funding & Outcomes View Slides |  View Recording

Finance and Treasury

Finance & Treasury

OMNIA Partners is the leading national cooperative purchasing organization dedicated to serving public agencies including higher education, K–12 schools, nonprofits, and state and local government. OMNIA Partners has a robust portfolio of contracts as well as an exclusive strategic alliance with the largest group purchasing organization in the United States, Vizient, which has over $100 billion in annual purchasing power. OMNIA Partners has more than 140,000 members that have utilized at least one of the contracts from their portfolio in the past 12 months, allowing them to pay less for products and reduce administrative costs.

Outcomes*:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 82
  • Program Volume: $254.9M
  • Average Program Volume per College: $3.1M

Unique Program Features:

  • OMNIA Partners offers over 350 competitively solicited and publicly awarded national contracts education customers can utilize.
  • OMNIA Partners is the largest national cooperative purchasing organization serving the public sector and education.
  • With limited procurement resources on campus, OMNIA Partners can save your schools time and money when they utilize nationally solicited contracts as the average RFP takes 3-6 months and costs about $70K from start to finish.

Contact:

*These figures include the outcomes for the Electronic Payables & Purchasing Program which is administered thorough the Omnia Partners agreement.

Kuali Ready is cloud-based, IT-approved and easy-to-use software designed to reduce business and instructional risk during adverse events that happen everyday on campuses. Kuali Ready is an All-Hazards customized solution for business and academic continuity planning with intuitive reporting, role structures and critical functions. Kuali Ready provides higher ed-specific resources and a community of higher ed peers to help you create a culture of resilience. AICUP and Kuali entered a two-year program in 2018, funded with a $30,000 grant from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and matched by $50,000 in AICUP corporate sponsor funds, plus another $2,500 from participating colleges.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 5
  • Program Volume: $35,000

Unique Program Features:

  • Higher Ed-Specific Resources: Access to resources tailored for higher education needs, supporting the development of a resilient campus culture.
  • Collaborative Community: Benefit from a network of higher ed peers for shared insights and best practices.
  • Customizable Plans: Fully tailor your continuity plans and reporting to meet your institution’s unique requirements.
  • Seamless API Integrations: Effortlessly synchronize information between Kuali Ready and your existing systems, ensuring your data is always up-to-date.
  • Transparent Workflow: Every plan includes a clear workflow, providing visibility into the status of your continuity efforts at all times.
  • In partnership with AICUP, Kuali Ready is your partner in building a resilient academic environment. Transform how your institution prepares for and responds to challenges today with Kuali Ready.
  • Pricing: Save up to 50% as an AICUP member.

Contact:

For 30 years, Nelnet and its affiliate companies have remained committed to helping students, and the institutions that serve them, reach their goals. Working together, we strive to make educational dreams possible for your students and families.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 29
  • Program Volume: $523.7M
  • Payment Plans Managed: 18,002
  • Average Payment Plans Managed per Member School: 643

Unique Program Features:

  • Dedicated Support
  • 24/7 call center support for students
  • Proven Partnerships and Stability
  • Long-term success with major ERP providers
  • Security and Compliance PCI-DSS Level I Certified
  • Meaningful Collaboration

Contact:

Check Out This Webinar for More Information: Using Payment Data to Improve Retention & Student Success View Slides | View Recording

Through this Program, AICUP members have had all aspects of their debt portfolio managed by the program’s highly experienced team including the national Higher Education Practice Group of Stifel, Ballard Spahr and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company (as Trustee). These same individual team members employed by the program’s participating firms have worked with the program since its inception in 1997, saving AICUP members both time and costs of issuance.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 46
  • Dollar Volume Since 1997: Over $1.41B
  • Estimated Savings in 2023: $25,000

Unique Program Features:

  • Savings of University Finance Staff Time and Transaction Costs
  • Efficient professional team with standardized base documents
  • Program commitment of not-to-exceed fees
  • Program discounts related to fees

Contact:

PNC’s Electronic Payables & Purchasing Cards program offers to AICUP members a real purchasing power that begins with electronic payables and purchasing card program which is a great opportunity to drive value through the procure-to-pay process. This service offers many benefits for AICUP members including the ability to benefit from a P-card spend of all participating members to achieve higher rebate tiers which help maximize the revenue share (rebate) on the school’s own program.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 45
  • 2024 P-Card Spend: $181.5M
  • 2024 P-Card Rebates Paid: $2.5M

Unique Program Features:

  • Ability to benefit from the spend of all participating members to achieve a higher rebate tier
  • Rebate paid on dollar one
  • Rebates paid to the schools quarterly

Contact:

*This program is administered through the Omnia Partners agreement for Aggregated Group Purchasing.

First American is a specialty lender, ultimately owned by RBC. They work exclusively with CFOs and CIOs at over 700 higher education institutions, including 30 AICUP members, to finance capital projects and equipment acquisitions on campus. The three main areas include: IT assets, building infrastructure and renovations, and ERP software projects. Why lease? There are three main reasons why colleges choose to lease. First, leasing is an effective way to spread payments over multiple budget periods, allowing them to preserve cash for operating expenses. Leasing is way simpler than issuing bonds, utilizing lines of credit, and even many traditional loan projects. Lastly, it’s flexible, there are an infinite number of ways we can structure a lease to bet fit the budgetary needs.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 30
  • Total Program Value: $30.1M

Unique Program Features:

  • IT equipment leasing
  • Facilities renovations and deferred maintenance project financing
  • ERP software implementation financing

Contact:

Check Out This Webinar to Learn More: IT Device Management Strategies View Slides | View Recording

Paymerang offers a secure and efficient electronic payments program for AICUP member institutions. The terms of this AICUP Member Preferred program were negotiated by the Coalition for College Costs Savings (AICUP is a member). Paymerang serves a viable need for campuses that are concerned about:

  • Administrative expense of A/P check writing and student refunds
  • Fraud protection/security of online and paper A/P payments and
  • Validation of vendors in this world of phish, spam and international payment fraud.

AICUP staff participated in multiple presentations and many AICUP member institutions attended webinars over the past year and found the following:

  • Simplicity in design—security in execution—walling off your bank account on these ePayments
  • Ease and speed of implementation—small campuses and large
  • Coordination with existing P-card programs, any banking relationship and all common ERP systems
  • Low-cost business model—they do the work, your campus gets paid— at least 105 basis points on spend volume
  • And now, the program provides a safe, online alternative to issuing paper checks in a COVID19 timeframe

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 12
  • Total Volume: $187.4M

Contact:

Check Out This Video to Learn More: A/P Automation for the Modern Office View Slides | View Recording

HR Compliance & Legal

HR, Compliance, & Legal

CBY Systems, a name you’ve grown to know and trust, is now CBY Professional Services. Among a diverse portfolio of background screening  options, CBY Professional Services provides the mandated employment background checks consisting of PA State Police, PA Child Abuse and FBI clearances in accordance with the PA Dept. of General Services to keep the member institutions in compliance with Act 153. CBY provides ongoing customer service to monitor the entire process acting as an extension of you HR department to ensure the process is completed by treating this as a professional service and not merely selling it as a product. CBY should not be considered a vendor, but a partner to AICUP members. CBY also has the capacity to serve in critical support functions and back-office services by acting in the space of CFO, CEO, HRO, Leadership Development for teams and D.O.T Compliance.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 31
  • Dollar Volume: $521,049
  • Dollars Saved: $130,262
  • Clearances Ordered: 8,350

Unique Program Features:

  • Competitive Pricing for PA State Police, Child Abuse and FBI Clearances
  • Streamlined process of applicant initiated background screens through QuickApps feature to create efficiency for HR partners.
  • Continuous monitoring of the issued but unused PA Child Abuse and FBI Codes in order to follow up with applicants to ensure the process is completed in a timely manner. PA Child Abuse result returned directly to the member.

Contact:

Clery Center offers two types of membership: Institutional and Individual. Both Membership tiers connect campus safety professionals with ready-to-use materials, resources, and strategies to help guide them through understanding and implementing the provisions of the Clery Act. Clery Center guides institutions and individuals to exemplify the spirit of the law with a proactive commitment to campus safety. Institutional Membership provides an annual security report review, free training and workshops, discounted Training On Request and Policy & Procedure Audits, all the benefits of Individual Membership, and more. Individual Membership provides discounted workshops and trainings, member-exclusive webinars and Q&A sessions, access to our private Member Portal resources and discussion forum, unlimited technical assistance and support, and more.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 19

Unique Program Features:

  • Supplying unlimited technical assistance and expertise around Clery Act compliance
  • Free and discounted virtual and in-person Clery Act training
  • Access to a private Member Portal with a discussion forum for networking and an archive of resources

Contact:

Check Out This Webinar to Learn More: Clery Center Membership – Experts in Your Corner w/Practical Solutions View Sides | View Recording

WasteStrategies provides a variety of services to AICUP member schools designed specifically to support your Facilities, Environmental Health and Safety, and Risk Management departments including: • EHS Staffing • Outsourced Safety and Asset Inspections • Policy Review, Development and Deployment • Onsite Training and Certifications • Hazardous Waste Management

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 17
  • Estimated Savings: 30%
  • Average Savings per Member: $7,950

Contact:

AffinityLTC, LLC has been an AICUP Board-endorsed program provider since 2006, specializing in the marketing and administration of employer and association sponsored Long Term Care (LTC) Coverage programs. AffinityLTC remains exclusively focused in the LTC marketplace. AffinityLTC has negotiated a best-inclass LTC benefits program for AICUP member institutions. AffinityLTC has been approved to bring the next generation of LTC protection available in the marketplace to their members.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 38

Unique Program Features:

What makes this so attractive as an employee benefit? Employers say that sponsoring a group LTC insurance plan shows concern about workers’ welfare, helps to build morale and loyalty, and helps to retain qualified, highly skilled employees.

LTCI coverage can be appealing to employees for several reasons:

  • Favorable underwriting. Insurers streamline underwriting for group plans. Individuals who try to obtain an LTCI product must undergo a health evaluation, and many are deemed uninsurable as a result. Our Group plan offers Guaranteed Issuance.
  • Gender equality. In the individual markets, insurers typically charge higher premiums for women than men—sometimes double and triple the cost of a male! On average, women live longer than men and thus potentially require more care or longer periods of assistance. Policies obtained through our program are gender neutral.
  • Convenience. Simply put, it’s easier to buy LTCI through an employer’s plan than it is to engage with an insurer on your own. We’ve already done the due diligence for you in vetting providers, negotiating premiums, underwriting concessions, participation limits, and can also provide group meetings and/or personal consultations that can help employees make long-term care decisions.
  • Flexibility. Premiums of policies can be payroll deduction or direct billed. This is an employer decision.
  • No sales pressure! As salaried employees of our firm, we take a consultative approach and educate your employees as to why they should consider a policy with no commissioned agent pressure.

Contact:

Health Advocate makes it easier to take control of your health by personalizing and simplifying the experience. Using a combination of hands-on help, a powerful technology platform and data analytics, they can help people get the care they need, when they need it. Their Health care experts are trained to listen and ask questions to determine the full extent of the help a member needs. Picking up the phone or using their personalized app, members can reach them for help 24/7. The result? Greater engagement, improved health outcomes, reduced absenteeism, lower healthcare costs, and most importantly: An easier healthcare experience that works for everyone. Health Advocate is a complete wellbeing company with state of the art customized wellness programs, mental health coverage nationwide 24/7 and the ability to share with clients the gaps in care at the individual level and the results each quarter in closing gaps in care and improving health care compliance overall.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 42

Value to Employer:

  • Increase employee productivity and retention
  • Eases burden on HR staff, reduces claims costs, grievances and appeals
  • Assists in increasing overall engagement and closing gaps

Value to Consumer:

  • Saves time and money; reduces stress and frustration
  • Improves health outcomes and increases engagement in health
  • Makes navigating health care issues much easier and hassle free
  • Get valuable assistance for your immediate family as well as parents and parents in law

Contact:

Check Out This Webinar for More Information: Importance of Healthcare Navigation & the Claims Cost Curve View Slides | View Recording

D. Stafford & Associates offers a series of intensive training classes for Title IX Coordinators and for Investigators who are responsible for conducting and overseeing Title IX compliance and sexual misconduct investigations on campus. Attendees learn how to manage cases and/or how to investigate a sexual misconduct/harassment complaint from start to finish with emphasis on complying with the Clery Act and the Title IX regulations distributed by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. DSA also offers courses for Behavioral Intervention/ Assessment Teams. All courses include opportunities for discussion and participation in case studies and practical exercises.

In 2023, DSA provided a 2-day Title IX Coordinator class in conjunction with the AICUP Campus Leaders Forum.

  • Advanced Investigations Course: Investigations of Sexual Misconduct Conducting Trauma Informed Investigations Designed for Campus Police/Public Safety/Title IX & Conduct Officers
  • Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT)/ Threat Assessment Team (TAT) Training
  • Combined Sexual Misconduct and Dating/Domestic Violence and Stalking Investigation Training
  • Title IX Coordinator/Investigator Training

Outcomes:

  • Total College Staff Trained in 2022: 14
  • AICUP Discount: 35%
  • Estimated Savings: $7,630

Unique Program Features:

  • Taught by practitioners who are currently employed by or have worked on campuses in human resource management, student affairs, and campus safety
  • Expert instruction in an easy to understand format
  • Instructors can speak about laws for civil rights and criminal investigations

Contact:

For the past few years, with the advisement of the HR Working Group, AICUP has been working with industry leading consultants to develop a new 403(b) Multiple Employer Plan (MEP). These consultants are: Millennium Advisory Services, Pentegra, PlanPilot, PRM Consulting Group and TIAA. This program helps members collaboratively administer their retirement plans in order to better comply with IRS regulations and gain cost efficiencies under the MEP. This solution is gaining traction with private colleges in other states where Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, have all implemented MEPs for private colleges in their states. Under the MEP, colleges have reduced financial liability exposure, reduced administrative burdens, and enhanced employee education. Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 8 (including AICUP)

After interacting and reviewing data, the following has been discovered:

  • The average administrative fee reduction is 26% (based on assumption of $250M and growing with the addition of each new college).
  • The average college has $51.5M in retirement assets.
  • The average number of active employees is 500.
  • The average current administrative recordkeeping fee is about 26.2 basis points.
  • In addition to the administrative savings, the estimated MEP savings on the investment lineup is projected to be about 20%.
  • Employee education would be provided by an independent firm that has been successful in increasing on campus individual meetings and assisting employees to move assets to the less expensive MEP investment.
  • 11 Guiding Principles have been created as the vision for the MEP.

Member schools with these existing metrics can expect to experience similar results.

Contact: Michael Rhim, Michael.rhim@prmconsulting.com or 202-745-3721

UCIC is a Pennsylvania group self-insured workers compensation program specific to the education industry that strives to provide a stable workers compensation financing arrangement and a focus on developing collaborative loss control solutions for education-specific risk exposures. The UCIC program has existed for over 15 years and has maintained a steady membership.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 16
  • Workers’ Compensation (WC) funding generated for 2023–24: $2.7M

Benefits of the collaborative group workers’ comp (WC) program:

  • Collaborate with member schools to develop proactive injury prevention and post injury management best practices
  • Membership in a well-managed self-insured WC program insulates member schools from adverse commercial market trends
  • Deep appreciation by the membership to work with likeminded leaders on WC solutions as opposed to being in the commercial insurance market

Unique Program Features:

  • Exclusively for private not for profit colleges and universities in PA
  • Program is owned by the members and overseen by a 9 member Board of Trustees from the PA colleges in the program
  • All members participate in the Safety Leadership Committee (SLC) which offers a collaborative platform for members to share and develop best practices focused on reducing workplace exposures. Additionally, the SLC reviews WC incident trends, formulates education specific mitigation plans for injury prevention based on identified trends, recommends enhancements to post-injury management programs and facilitates an annual conference for the membership focused on the latest WC risk management subjects.

Contact:

Check Out This Webinar for More Information: UCIC: Why It’s a Success for Workers Comp View Slides | View Recording

Student Services

Student Services

This UnitedHealthcare StudentResources program is the first of its kind to leverage the collective buying power of private colleges to reduce operating costs, improve the efficiency of internal procedures and ultimately lower the cost of delivering education. This program provides students with a superior injury and sickness insurance plan with dedicated support, plus helpful tools for administration and staff. Countless colleges and universities are benefitting from the helpful online tools and training for managing the plan, access to enrollment materials and information and suite of value-added programs to support the ongoing health and well-being of students. The new Behavioral Health Student Solutions program will help with the increased demand for college Counseling resources and increased on-campus demand for mental health issues solutions. Behavioral Health Student Solutions program directly addresses issues impacting students’ emotional well-being with several layers counseling and self-help support tools.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 14
  • Total Annual Premium for 2023: $3.8M
  • Average Program Savings per College: $54,390

Unique Program Features:

  • Program provides more comprehensive coverage and benefits than a member institution can purchase on their own.
  • Provides for preferred pricing based on the AICUP affiliation and our consortium pricing model.
  • Provides a full suite of complementary support services and tools including a dedicated Account Manager to service the member and it’s students.

Contact: John Maxwell, jmaxwell@uhcsr.com 215-902-9930 or Debbie Delli Santi, ddellisanti@uhcsr.com 727-563-3415

Cengage Unlimited for Institutions is a first-of-its kind subscription program providing the entire Cengage Higher Education digital library and full suite of personalized, digital homework solutions to students and faculty for a single, low, and predictable annual cost. We’re offering everything that we have. Cengage has partnered with over 240 Institutions across the country to scale access to course materials, study tools and support services. Students included in the Cengage Unlimited for Institutions models programs benefit from a consistent experience that boosts engagement and learning outcomes.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 5

Unique Program Features:

  • Day-one, codeless access to the entire Cengage Higher Education library of digital homework solutions, eTextbooks and all supporting digital learning materials across 675 courses, 70 disciplines
  • Exclusive College Success and Career Center: hundreds of tutorials to help develop and strengthen college and career-readiness skills, available 24/7
  • AICUP Pricing: Discounted maximum pricing for all-campus, 12-month licenses ranges from $145 to $120 per student based on the number of participating AICUP members. Agreements for selected cohorts on your campus are possible. National consumer rate is $189.99 for a 12-month subscription.
  • Single source solution. No other publisher offers a truly unlimited subscription or discounting model.

Contact:  Thomas Riendeau, thomas.riendeau@cengage.com or 518-630-1526

Technology and Telecommunications

Technology & Telecommunications

AICUP software programs enable member organizations to obtain software products and services they already use at significant discounts and better terms than standard academic programs offered elsewhere. Key vendor partnerships include programs with Microsoft, Adobe and VMWare. AICUP’s board-endorsed reseller, JourneyEd, provides exceptional service and is the vendor relations manager for these key contracts. Average annual savings across all programs is roughly 22.79%.

Unique Program Features:

  • JourneyEd agreements offer significant cost savings by leveraging the total size of the membership with our most important vendor partners.
  • JourneyEd agreements are specific to the needs of the member colleges. Because they only operate in the EDU market, JourneyEd is able to effectively work within a school’s budget and process.
  • AICUP’s partnerships with key software vendors are strong both due to the size of the agreements and specific insight JourneyEd offers by working with so many AICUP members.

Outcomes:

  • Adobe Contractual License Program & Enterprise Term Licensing: AICUP Member Participants: 62
  • Microsoft Academic Select & Microsoft EES* Agreements: AICUP Member Participants: 61
  • VMware ELA Software License: AICUP Member Participants: 39

Overall Participation:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 81
  • Total Spend for 2023: $7.9M
  • Total Savings for 2023: $1.8M
  • Total Savings % for 2023: 22.79%

Contact:

BoardEffect, a Diligent brand, is a board management solution specifically designed to assist higher education boards enable quicker preparation, better collaboration, easy review of board materials, and much more through a secure and user-friendly interface. With over 15 years in the boardroom business, BoardEffect is the industry leader with 5,000 customers (and counting!), 400,000+ platform users and a 97% retention rate. 30% of BoardEffect’s clients fall in the education industry—ranging from small private colleges to large research institutions. BoardEffect users report improved engagement, better document management, streamlined processes such as budget planning, decision-making, new member onboarding, and more.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 34 (33 stand-alone; 1 AICUP shared platform)
  • Program Savings per College: Approximately $12,400
  • AICUP/BoardEffect New 5-year agreement in place started January 2020 ends December 2024).

Contact:

The Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), a Pennsylvania based nonprofit organization committed to working with communities, governments, businesses, schools and nonprofits to advance digital equity and inclusion. KINBER believes that advancing digital equity and inclusion creates more opportunities and improves the quality of life for all. KeystoneREN is a wholly owned subsidiary of KINBER. KeystoneREN provides network-based research and education connectivity and services to many organizations including higher education, K12, healthcare, communities, libraries, public media, museums, government, non-profit organizations. AICUP members are represented on both KINBER and KeystoneREN boards and participate in the

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants in PennREN: 19

Unique Program Features:

  • Over $1.5M in federal NSF grant funding received by AICUP members through partnership and collaboration with KINBER and KeystoneREN
  • Supports Campus Cyberinfrastructure enhancements on campus, including participation in a recent NSF grant to create a statewide science DMZ with other colleges and universities

Contact:

3ROX is a regional network operated by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center at Carnegie Mellon University. 3ROX offers network connectivity (commodity Internet and research/education networks such as Internet2) to schools, libraries and higher education and reduces transit costs through rich peering and caching with content distribution networks. 3ROX offers security as a service, focusing on vulnerability scanning and intrusion detection. 3ROX understands higher ed needs and can respond quickly to short-term changes in connectivity. Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 10

Unique Program Features:

  • Commodity Internet Traffic offloaded to peering and caching services: 65 to 95% of individual member’s total traffic was offloaded to 3ROX peering and caching service reducing member’s commodity Internet bandwidth needs.
  • 3ROX receives on average five requests per year to temporarily suspend a member’s Internet bandwidth cap (for free) to accommodate special events or evaluate bandwidth needs.
  • 3ROX members can access special discounts on hardware, software, and services through applicable affiliate purchasing programs.
  • 3ROX supports the full suite of Internet2 services and utilizes in-house Network Performance Engineers to diagnose and provide suggestions for mitigation or correction of performance issues for members.

Contact:

The AICUP Member Services Committee has approved the Hess Consortium Collective ERP as an AICUP Member Preferred (AMP) Program. This program is a growing subgroup of independent, non-profit colleges and universities that are interested in moving together to a common, modern, integrated and affordable cloud-native enterprise system solution using a fully solicited contract vehicle(s) for software, implementation, and ongoing support services. As well as developing a shared archive of resources to ease migration and implementation costs creating a network of institutions to both share staff expertise and other resources to lower operational overhead costs and increase efficiencies.

Outcomes:  AICUP Participating Members: 43

Unique Program Features:

  • “Most Favored Nations” pricing for Oracle Cloud for Higher Education
  • “Most Favored Nations” pricing for licensing, support and implementation from Drivestream (5-year and 10-year options for licensing and support subscription)
  • A network of HESS Collective private colleges and universities working in community around a single enterprise system platform- Oracle Cloud
  • Peer institution resource sharing for continuing support through the HESS Collective ASSIST- closed-community discussion site

Contact:

AICUP and the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA) have worked together to provide AICUP members with assistance in the development of shared high level cyber security initiatives to protect campus infrastructure. Expanding on this very successful collaboration with NCFTA and ten (10) initial Western PA AICUP members, the collaborative has expanded the effort with an additional 24 AICUP member colleges. NCFTA is a Pennsylvania based 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation that facilitates collaboration between private sector industries and law enforcement to effectively identify and address complex cyber related threats.

Outcomes:

  • AICUP Member Participants: 31
  • Savings per Member: $24,750

Unique Program Features:

  • The NCFTA policy specialist assists schools in reviewing their cyber security self-assessment and initially developing required policies leveraging common frameworks to identify gaps.
  • The NCFTA analyst leverages a common mitigation framework of policies as agreed upon by the group, based on findings.
  • Provides access to NCFTA Malware Program daily intel feeds to assist in identifying and mitigating threats of both a technical and non-technical nature.
  • Provides technical guidance in many operational spaces to include; troubleshooting, scripting, firewalls, process control, networking, backups, Azure, cloud computing, technical writing, and more.
  • Coordinates access (when necessary or requested) to embedded domestic and international law enforcement partners.
  • Provides alerting for AICUP Members owned credentials from the Internet Fraud Alert (IFA) system
  • Conducts cyber incident Tabletop exercises on select campuses.

Contact: