News Release
Mar 31, 2006
CICU Signs Sixth Agreement in Ongoing Commitment to Controlling Higher Education Costs
The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) and Rochester-based Paetec Communications today announced an agreement to offer CICU’s 100+ member campuses additional savings beyond what was previously available through New York state contract pricing for local, long distance and calling card services.
“New York’s independent colleges and universities are working together to reduce expenses,” said CICU president Abraham M. Lackman. Agreements such as the one we’ve announced today with Paetec Communications help our campuses keep quality high while mitigating overall costs.”
“An educated New York workforce is important to PAETEC, as more than half of our employees work in the state,” said Arunas Chesonis, Chairman and CEO of PAETEC. “Our affiliation with CICU reinforces the emphases we place on higher education by offering unmatched service and support to these institutions, helping them to better fulfill their academic missions.”
With a focus on serving medium and large businesses and strategic markets — including higher education — PAETEC emphasizes personalized solutions at a reasonable cost. All PAETEC internal procedures are ISO 9001:2000-certified and the company uses Six Sigma methods to measure and improve operational performance, ensuring its customers receive consistent, industry-leading service.
The agreement is the sixth initiative adopted by CICU through The CICU Collaborative, an effort to consolidate the purchasing power of CICU’s 100+ member colleges and universities. Campuses can contact Paetec electronically through a designated Web portal available to the CICU membership.
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About PAETEC Communications:
PAETEC Corp., through its operating subsidiary, PAETEC Communications, Inc., is a provider of integrated communications services, including local and long distance voice services, data and Internet services, software applications, network integration services, and managed services. PAETEC currently provides these services to medium-sized and large businesses, colleges and universities, hospitals, hotels, governmental organizations, financial markets, and affinity groups within its 29-market service area. The company is headquartered in Fairport, N.Y.
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The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) represents the chief executives of New York's 100+ independent (private, not-for-profit) colleges and universities on issues of public policy. Member colleges compose the largest private sector of higher education in the world and confer most of the bachelor's degrees (56%), master's degrees (72%), and doctoral and first-professional degrees (80%) earned in New York State.
CICU member campuses enroll more than 466,000 students, including nearly 300,000 New York State residents. One in three (27%) New Yorkers enrolled full time at independent colleges and universities in the state comes from a family earning less than $40,000 annually. And most (52%) African-American and Latino students who earn their bachelor's and graduate degrees in New York State are Independent Sector alumni.