The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC)
today announced that the merger with the Foundation for Independent Higher
Education (FIHE) has been officially approved by Maine and New York, the states
in which the organizations were incorporated, respectively. The effective date
of the merger was October 14, 2010.
CIC is the national association that
provides programs and services for more than 600 independent, liberal arts
colleges and universities across the United States; FIHE has served as the
national organization for state funds that focus on consortial fundraising and
collaborative programs for independent colleges and universities.
In announcing the merger, CIC President
Richard Ekman said, “The merged organization will enable us to advance the cause
of independent higher education as never before possible. We also will be able
to serve the heavily overlapping memberships of the two organizations with a new
coherence and a far stronger national voice.”
Former FIHE President Myrvin
Christopherson said, “This merger has an enormous capacity to create more and
better services for private colleges and universities nationwide.” Ekman
added, “In my view, the planning for the merger has been careful and thorough,
and both the FIHE and CIC Boards of Directors as well as the CIC and FIHE staff
are ready and enthusiastic about serving private higher education as a merged
organization.”
Edward G. “Ned” Moore, the new executive
director of FIHE and CIC vice president, and Christopherson have worked with CIC
to prepare for the implementation of the merger. Ekman said, “Their cooperative
spirit and commitment to realizing the full potential of the benefits of the
merger for both CIC and FIHE and for all our member colleges and state funds
have been unwavering. We anticipate a very smooth transition; indeed, over the
past few months we have already begun to integrate some of our operations.”
The merger culminates close cooperation
between the two organizations over several decades. Discussions for the merger
have been underway for nearly three years. In early 2008, representatives of the
FIHE Board of Directors proposed to CIC that discussions begin that might lead
to the merger of FIHE into CIC. This overture was very favorably received by the
CIC Board of Directors, and after a June 2008 meeting, the Board voted
unanimously to support the merger.
In April 2009, the FIHE Board voted in
favor of a resolution to merge FIHE into CIC. The full memberships of both
organizations overwhelmingly approved the merger by October 2009.
Advantages of the
Merger
FIHE
Endowment
In addition to supporting the 32 state
associations that raise money for independent colleges and universities in their
states, FIHE also has raised money for national projects that are subsequently
administered through the state funds, and it has functioned as a foundation. In
this capacity, FIHE distributes proceeds from an endowment, now worth about $36
million, originally made possible by a $4 million gift of stock given to FIHE in
the 1970s by the United Parcel Service Foundation.
A committee of the CIC Board will oversee
the FIHE endowment and procedures for distributing its proceeds. CIC will
continue to administer the FIHE endowment earnings according to the current
policy, and it is anticipated that through direct grants and through challenge
grants to the state funds, financial support generated for independent colleges
and universities will increase over time.