CCBT: The California Collegiate Brain Trust

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Excerpted from The Capitol Morning Report
Monday, August 17, 2009

A BRAIN TRUST FOR HIGHER ED
By Bob Schmidt, retired Capitol reporter.

Eighteen months ago, education lobbyist Pat McCallum perceived a need in the field of higher education. As senior administrators retired (like other baby boomers) their less experienced successors might need temporary help to deal with, for instance, problems of faculty, curriculum or growth.

And so McCallum formed the California Collegiate Brain Trust, a group largely composed of retired administrators who'd been there and done that, and who would advise for a fee the men and women still on the job.

Business has been good, but the hottest topic nowadays is not growth. "Now, because of the economic situation, we're helping them downsize," McCallum said.

"We're doing two things. The first is to convince college administrators that they have no choice, they have to cut costs. Second, we help them mitigate the impact of that by showing them ways to increase the efficiency of what they do.”

"We've gone in to districts and helped them find ways to cut costs. We just solved a $9 million shortfall in a community college district in Santa Clara County, and we've also done that with other colleges.”

"What we're good at doing is finding ways they can be more efficient, for instance with their information technology systems."

McCallum, 55, has been involved in higher education, primarily with community colleges, since 1979 when, fresh from the Coro Foundation, he joined the staff of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, then chaired by former Asm. John Vasconcellos.

He began lobbying for the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges two years later, became a contract lobbyist in 1998, and in early 2008 partnered with Darroch "Rocky" Young, the retired chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, to start the Brain Trust.

"We have 46 consultants, all experts in higher education with expertise in information technology, affirmative action, any other area that public higher education institutions need expertise in. And we're recruiting more consultants all the time. Currently, the firm is involved with 25 projects for 15 colleges.”

"Next year we'll move into the private sector, the non-public colleges and universities, and we're also looking at providing services for private corporations on how to educate their employees," McCallum said.

Not everyone is downsizing. McCallum said the firm has been selected in a national competition to help develop, from scratch, a new school in Boise. "It is called the College of Western Idaho, and will be financed by the Albertson Foundation. Working with the people onsite, we have 11 months to develop the school. We don't know yet what fields the college will specialize in.”

"It could be a two-year institution or what is known as a two-plus two school. It's very exciting and challenging for us."

One of the challenges, he said, is determining what jobs are going to be needed five years from now so a curriculum can be developed to meet that need. But the Brain Trust can handle it. "Fortunately," McCallum said, "we have the premier work force analyst in the country to help us."