"CraigMichaels provides an excellent forum for networking and bringing participants and Solution Providers together for problem solving solutions. I was also able to discuss options that could provide solutions to challenges facing the university. The Summit was very well organized."

Mercy Valencia Ed.D
Administrative Director
University of Arizona

Can there now be any doubt that university administrators have completely embraced the newspeak of the corporate world?

If you are like most people, you may be wondering what a "solution provider" is. Simple, a "solution provider" is what CraigMichaels Inc. calls a business that has paid between $18,500 and $39,500 for up to 60 guaranteed "pre-schededuled face-to-face business strategy meetings" with the "Executive Attendees of their choice" during the 2006 Higher Education Business Summit.

What's an "executive attendee"? What's this summit all about? Why do these businesses have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to meet only a few people?

Well, "executive attendees" are "senior-level higher education administrative executives... who are responsible for overseeing the business, finance, and auxiliary (HR, IT, Security, etc.) initiatives within their colleges and universities." The summit aims to bring together college administration hot-shots with their peers, expert speakers in the "educational business arena," and, of course, solution specialists (as solution providers are sometimes called). Although paying around $650 for one meeting with a college official might seem steep, some businesses stand to gain huge profits from the decisions that these officials make.

Meetings are not all these solution peddlers are promised for their money. Benefits include "post-Summit privileged private access to summit attendees through the CraigMichaels partnership program," and "secure online access to executive attendee's information."

Why should this matter? First, in the case of state institutions, the fact that vendors can buy direct access to public officials who are, I assume, attending the conference on the public dime should be very worrisome. "Executive attendees," as part of their $595 registration, agree to attend eight "required" meetings with vendors. Second, many worry that businesses will charge higher prices to the captive attendees in order to offset the high cost of buying access. Every penny that these university administrators save, especially during these rough financial times for public higher education institutions, means another penny for low-income students, library books, more tenured professors, and staff salaries. Third, private meetings bought by vendors might cloud the transparency of the financial decisions of public institutions.

Finally, as one prospective vendor told Insider Higher Ed, " when you're pitched about paying big fees for access to these folks, we find it morally wrong… you get access because you have good ideas and services, not because you can lay down the most amount of money."

Although there is no list of vendors attending the conference, Sallie Mae or other student loan providers may well be donning the "solutions provider" hat at this year's summit.

Sallie Mae has a banner on the bottom of the "solution specialist" page of the conference website. Additionally, Sallie Mae has made billions of dollars by convincing colleges to ditch the direct loan program, in which the students borrow money directly from the federal government, for the guaranteed loan program, in which the government promises to repay private lenders for defaulted loans. Because of what is essentially a corporate subsidy to banking institutions, taxpayers have wasted $37 billion that could have gone to grants for low income students. According to a 2003 US News & World Report article, Sallie Mae and other student lenders often offer questionable "sweeteners" to universities in order to convince them to switch.

The time and information of our public officials should not be sold to the highest bidder - their decisions can literally save students and taxpayers billions of dollars.