The Five Colleges of Ohio, Inc. is an American academic and administrative consortium of five private
liberal arts colleges
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual ca ...
in the state of
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. It is a nonprofit educational consortium established in 1995 to promote the broad educational and cultural objectives of its member institutions.
Members
The members of The Five Colleges of Ohio consortium are:
*
Denison University
Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...
,
Granville, Ohio
Granville is a village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,646 at the 2010 census. The village is located in a rural area of rolling hills in central Ohio. It is east of Columbus, the state capital, and west of Newar ...
*
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...
,
Gambier, Ohio
*
Oberlin College,
Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, 31 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students.
The town is the birthplace of th ...
*
Ohio Wesleyan University,
Delaware, Ohio
Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County, Ohio, United States. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio ...
*
The College of Wooster
The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Churc ...
,
Wooster, Ohio
Wooster ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Wayne County. Located in northeastern Ohio, the city lies approximately south-southwest of Cleveland, southwest of Akron and west of Canton. The population was 27,232 at ...
History
The designation ''Ohio Five'' first appeared in Ohio newspapers in the early twentieth century. The grouping, predating any formal agreement, was immediately adopted by the press as a foreshadowing of an Ohio league of schools with similar academic and athletic reputations, which, at the time was a common perception.
Image:Kenyon College Church of the Holy Spirit.jpg,
Image:Denison univ.jpg,
Image:DSCN4646 oberlincollegepetershall e2.jpg,
Image:ElliottHallOWU.jpg,
Image:COWkaukehall.jpg,
Following informal discussions among the five colleges in the early 1990s, the consortium was formalized by the incorporation of the organization on June 30, 1995. A grant from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...
, awarded in June 1995, provided for the development of a joint library system, establishment of an administrative structure, and investigation of the benefits and methods for sharing digital images and multimedia resources, establishing The Five Colleges of Ohio, Inc. as a legal entity.
Collaboration among the five colleges occurs in several areas:
*Academic Programs
*
Administrative
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
Programs and Technology
*Libraries
Academic programs
The colleges have worked together on grants and long-term projects to support curricular development, faculty collaborations, and opportunities for students. These projects have included:
In language teaching:
Foreign Language Technology Project(1996-2002) a four-year project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to strengthen foreign language learning through collaborative use of technology
Language Enrichment and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program(2015-), a Mellon-funded program which placed thirteen postdoctoral fellows in languages from The Ohio State University for two-year terms and provided opportunities for faculty to collaborate on teaching and scholarship project. In its final phase in 2018-19, the project included a test of three advanced Chinese language courses shared among four of the colleges via distance technology.
In curricular development:
Teagle Creativity and Critical Thinking Assessment2005-2006, a multi-year project funded by The Teagle Foundation that developed tools to assess outcomes of a liberal arts education: creativity and critical thinking.
Teagle Curricular Coherence Project2015-2019 supported a comprehensive initiative offering structured ways for students to complete general education requirements and create coherent understanding of their educational pathways.
In student opportunities:
Ohio Five-OSU Summer Undergraduate Research Experience(SURE) offers science students at the Five Colleges of Ohio an opportunity to engage in summer research activities in Ohio State University laboratories.
* Stanford-Ohio Five structural molecular biology collaboration provides internship opportunities at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL.)
In faculty collaborations:
Ohio Five Dance Workshopssupport an annual showcase of faculty and student dance performances at member colleges.
Administrative programs
In 2012, the Ohio Five resolved to identify and implement
joint e-procurement solutionto automate purchasing and contract administration across the colleges and realize related savings through joint purchasing plans and contracts. A $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation in 2014 supported system installation and a full-time staff member was hired to supervise the program. Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College and Ohio Wesleyan University moved forward together to develop the program, which realized an estimated $500,000 in contract savings in its first fully implemented year in 2015-16. In 2017-18, more than 4,300 suppliers were active in the e-procurement system representing an annual spend of $4.483 million.
Since 2014, the Five Colleges have also collaborated on a shared online work order system enabling the colleges to optimize workflow in facilities management and maintenance and track expenditures.
Risk management, disaster planning, Title IX training and investigative services and information technologies represent additional areas in which the college work together to support training and cost savings. The Ohio Five also maintains
job sitefor employment opportunities in faculty, staff, and administration at the Five Colleges
Libraries
The libraries of
Denison University
Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...
,
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...
,
Ohio Wesleyan University, and
The College of Wooster
The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Churc ...
share an
integrated library system
An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS),
is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.
An ILS usually is co ...
called
CONSORT __NOTOC__
Consort may refer to:
Music
* "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses''
* Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles
* Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...
. This multi-college system maximizes the colleges' abilities to share collection resources and collaborate on collection-related databases and publications.
Oberlin College maintains its own
integrated library system
An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS),
is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.
An ILS usually is co ...
calle
OBIS
Since the founding of the Five Colleges, its libraries have worked together to support the development of the CONSORT system and promote institutional priorities in digital literacy and digital scholarship. Joint library projects have included:
Information Literacy Web Tutorials(1998) a project funded by the Foundation for Independent Higher Education and A T & T.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided significant support for three projects focusing on digital scholarship:
Integrating Informational Literacy into the Liberal Arts Curriculum(1999), a project to support curricular innovations to deepen student capacity in using information resources.
Next Generation Library and Digital Collections(2009–11), which funded the development of digital collections by faculty and librarians
Digital Collections: From Projects to Pedagogy and Scholarship(2013-), which created digital resources to enhance faculty and student research, teaching, and learning using emerging aspects of media literacy, scholarly communication, information literacy, information management and digital publishing.
Governance
The Five Colleges of Ohio is governed by its five presidents who form the organization's board of trustees
Standing committeesled by cabinet officers of each college supervise finance and business operations (chief financial and business officers), academic affairs (provosts and deans), library programs (library directors) and information technology (chief financial officers). The Five Colleges of Ohio is managed by
full-time staffof five who supervise the organization's activities from offices located throughout the consortium, with a central office at Oberlin College.
References
External links
*
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College and university associations and consortia in the United States
Kenyon College
.