Editor’s note: This article is a part of The Daily Illini’s Semester in Review issue. Regular publication will resume Friday, Jan. 11.

Rutgers University and the University of Maryland accepted invitations to enter the Big Ten’s academic consortium, The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, as its 14th and 15th members. They will formally join July 1, 2013.

Consortium provosts voted unanimously to invite the schools to become members on Dec. 2, about a month after the universities joined the Big Ten Conference.

The universities will join other the Big Ten Conference Universities and the University of Chicago as members, according to a news release.

The consortium is composed of universities with a strong research base and large student and faculty bodies. It works to pool resources from all membership campuses and offer them to CIC students and staff across the country, said Barbara Allen, executive director of CIC.

With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland, CIC universities will collectively engage in $9.3 billion in funded research each year, an increase from its current $8.4 billion, according to the release.

“(When you) connect researchers and labs from more than one university, you draw upon more expertise,” Allen said.

The consortium does not receive or distribute these research funds centrally; instead, the two new members individually derive research dollars through peer-reviewed government grants, private foundations and other contributions, Allen said.

Richard Edwards, executive vice president for Academic Affairs at Rutgers, said in a press release that he thinks Rutgers is comparable to other Big Ten universities in the consortium, as the schools have many shared characteristics. He also said he also thinks Rutgers’ membership will benefit the university academically.

“Because we are heavily involved in research, being a member of the CIC gives us greater opportunities for our faculty and students to engage in collaborative research,” Edwards said.

Besides research benefits, the addition of Rutgers and Maryland will add 8 million library volumes and over 5,600 full-time faculty to the consortium’s resources.

“We have a delivery system that operates among the campuses so you get 24-hour delivery of books between campuses,” Allen said. “Lots of faculties take advantage of that, but it’s also open to students.”

The consortium is also working with Google to digitize all library materials, so that they will be available to the students and faculty of all its universities through an online database, Allen said.

“Looking at local catalog, these will just appear in there as a part of the Illinois connection,” Allen said. “It’s seamless to you, but you get access to it because of the work behind the scenes.”

Other benefits include an expansion of study abroad programs across the campuses, specialized language courses and new research opportunities for graduate students, Allen said.

“(We are) behind the scenes making these connections so that to the student or faculty member, it looks like a resource from their local campus,” Allen said. “It’s really because we have in place these partnerships.”

Chancellor Phyllis Wise said the addition of the universities to the consortium is “an exciting new step for the Big Ten,” and the University is “pleased to welcome” them as members.

“Together they bring new perspectives, academically and geographically, which will help to advance the reputations of all our universities, in classrooms and laboratories and on our athletic fields,” Wise said.

Emma can be reached at [email protected].