About

MISSION

The New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium facilitates collaboration among its member institutions in fulfilling their educational missions and serving the public good. Through the sharing of expertise and resources, the Consortium enhances options for students, faculty, and staff, while reducing colleges’ individual and collective operating and capital costs.

VALUE STATEMENT

The New York Six provides vehicles for cost-saving and cost containment, creates opportunities for shared learning, and fosters professional and leadership growth.

HISTORY

In 2009, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided the presidents of six liberal-arts institutions in upstate New York with a planning grant to explore potential areas of collaboration with an eye toward cost-saving and efficiency through academic and administrative collaborations.

After a year of study and planning, the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium (NY6) was established, and a three-year Mellon grant supported its first major initiatives, the centerpiece of which was the NY6 MediaShare Project, a library and information technology collaboration. A second major Mellon program grant supported the first significant academic collaborations, including the Upstate-Global Collective, supporting multi-campus faculty research groups.

In 2014, four New York Six schools partnered in the development of an innovative health-care collaboration called Health4Edu, administered by consultants at Relph Benefit Advisors in Fairport, NY. The program has provided millions of dollars in cost savings for the participating schools, which now number 12 small private colleges, including non-NY6 members.

As the Consortium entered its second decade, its Board of Directors (comprised of the six presidents) affirmed the commitment to academic-related collaborations in faculty development and co-curricular programs, and to administrative focus on procurement, shared services, communities of practice, and professional development.