By: Neil Markee
Editor in Chief-Purchasing Link

The filled seats during concurrent workshops and the lively chatter at breaks were indications that Members at the 2017 Reno NAEP Annual Meeting were being well served by the work of the Program Committee.  Information provided was both informative and thought-provoking.  Keeping up with the best practices and technology in procurement is a challenge, and I was impressed with how many Members clearly were there to update their knowledge and share what they had learned.  The technology gap associated with scale between large and small institutions still exists but is shrinking.   NAEP’s information exchange is working as designed.  The General Session speakers were very good.   I left thinking about how I might benefit from what I had heard and, maybe, even a little bit inspired.

Reading through articles covered in the Chronicle of Higher Education and national print media in my clippings file since the meeting, I found myself wondering what topics would be on the NACUBO annual meeting program.  More important, what would the business officers be talking about face to face?

Try as I might, I could not locate an online a list of the concurrent workshop topics to be covered at the NACUBO 2017 conference.  I’m sure they will discuss the stock market and a good number of complex financial topics, as they usually do.   But student loans, endowment management, sustainability, Title IX compliance, free speech, and Trump have all been in the news and will be on the program, officially or otherwise as well.  And they will have inspirational General Session speakers.  I remember one speaker at a NACUBO annual meeting decades ago in Philadelphia.  As I recall, the speaker’s name was Porter Crow. His tales of growing up in hardscrabble Texas, as the son of an itinerant Methodist preacher, brought the house down. Given the unique hotel problems that year, perseverance was a requirement for registrants and his topic fit in perfectly. “Sunday’s coming” and, with it, a chicken dinner, his mother had promised— and that was his theme.

The business officers are more likely to be talking about major issues concerning higher education covered in the national print media than we are at our NAEP Annual Meeting. We might want to narrow that gap a bit. Whatever they are interested in, we should be, as well.  Probably the hottest higher education-related media topic in the last few months has been the evolving definition of free speech and its consequences on campus.  The Chronicle of Higher Education, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal have each published several articles on the topic and opinions and conclusions expressed have varied widely. We have not reached consensus yet and the media is having a field day with the hypocrisy aspects. Title IX and sexual misconduct have probably been the second-most contentious higher education topic discussed in the press, now that sustainability has cooled off a bit. There, justice has become the issue, and we seem to be moving toward a more formal legal approach.  Sustainability may move up the priority scale, if the national government steps away from the Paris accord.  Student-loan issues still generate some heat, but are not the visceral issues the first two or three topics seem to be. Fine you say, I understand the link between sustainability and procurement and our role in affordability, but what has procurement have to do with either free speech or handling sexual assault on campus?

Nothing much, I guess, if you believe that the role of procurement is to stick to its knitting and focus all but exclusively on the acquisition of the goods and services needed by higher education to function.  But both free speech and sexual assault have landed on the business affairs doorstep.  Sustainability has been there for some time and your boss is involved.  I doubt the role of any campus faculty member or business leader should, or could, be strictly limited by the individual’s job title.  Procurement officers are part of the campus business leader community and part of the chief business officer’s staff.  They should be willing and able to contribute to the business office discussion of the important issues of the day in many areas, including those with little or nothing to do with procurement.  To do that, they must be up-to-date on the pressing issues at hand.  More than likely, this would encourage promotion, from within, of those people seen as both interested and potential contributors.  Demonstrated interest in institution-wide issues would probably improve academic/business office relations overall, as well.

With NAEP’s sustainability guru and regular NAEP Educational Procurement Journal contributor Brian Yeoman, I attended the Reno meeting of the Editorial Board.  One of the topics on the agenda was related to increasing the number of articles expected to be published in the Journal now that a new printing partner was on board.  Some of these might be written by contributors from outside the NAEP Membership.  Their input could broaden the range of topics covered. This change may add to the diversity of expertise, alter the perspective of procurement officers, and add interest to the publication. Brian and I supported those goals. 

More than likely, planning for the 2018 edition of the NAEP Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, is well underway.  Perhaps a theme has been selected.  In the past, we have invited chief business officers to present at our meetings.  If we invite one next year, I hope the speaker’s focus will be, ”Big picture challenges on my plate.” Topics such as defining diversity, free speech on our campus, what the term business-like” means to us, and how sustainability is changing our institution come to mind.  We’d learn what at least one business officer is concerned about and the presenters would leave knowing purchasing professionals are interested in the current and future challenges institutions face and might look to informed NAEP Members on their campus and elsewhere for input.

We serve educational institutions and our ultimate goal must be to contribute to the achievement of the educational mission of the institution.  I don’t think we want to be seen solely as efficient in-house providers of an important specialized service that might be delivered by a suitable outside contractor.  I think we want to be and be seen as a necessary integral part of higher education. Exchanging views with peers at the NAEP Annual Meeting is one sure way to deepen your knowledge base and broaden your perspective. 

What’s happening on your campus?