ECF is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit foundation that
developed from a National Science Foundation grant to EDUCAUSE, an
educational association of approximately 1800 colleges, universities
and companies advancing the use of information technology in higher
education.
www.educause.edu provides further information on EDUCAUSE. The
five-year, $6 million grant, “Advanced Networking with
Minority-Serving Institutions,” began in 1999 and concluded in
November 2004. The purpose of the grant was to assist
minority-serving institutions in improving campus networks, network
technical support, training, Internet connectivity and advanced use
of the Internet for teaching and research. The minority-serving
institutions were Hispanic-Serving Institutions, members of the
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU); Tribal
Colleges and Universities, members of the American Indian Higher
Education Consortium (AIHEC); and Historically Black Colleges and
Universities, members of the National Association for Equal
Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO). Roughly one-third of the
over 100 institutions involved were from each community. More
information on AN-MSI is available at
www.anmsi.org.
During the five years of the NSF grant, AN-MSI
developed the information technology services most needed by the
schools, which ranged in size from 150 to 20,000 students. The
services are outlined below. More information on each service is
available by clicking on the links. Word began to spread about the
AN-MSI services among minority-serving institutions not eligible for
participation in AN-MSI, and among non-minority colleges and
universities of all sizes. Because the NSF grant was specifically
for the schools in the three associations, AN-MSI was unable to
serve the other schools in spite of repeated requests. Consequently,
the four AN-MSI “veterans” formed the Educational Consulting
Foundation to serve these equally deserving schools that face the
same issues.
In addition to offering its own expertise, ECF
has worked closely with several organizations that provide
additional services. ECF has no partnerships or allegiances with any
of these organizations, and therefore can serve as an “honest
broker” to aim schools at providers of other services they may need.
Such services include distance learning consulting, from
introduction to advanced hosting; establishment of student
technology service organizations on campuses to support and offload
the IT staff; turnkey campus wireless networks with no initial
implementation charge; technical assistance on wireless links to
remote learning centers, buildings or other resources; and
consultants on the introduction of change and amelioration of its
negative effects.
Educational
Consulting Foundation
2012 Calle las Brisas, Bakersfield, CA 93309
Phone: 661-398-8794 Cell: 661-333-4747 WWW.EDUCF.ORG
educf @ educf.org
