HEC HISTORY On November 29, 1962, at a Conference of School Board Members and Superintendents, a special committee was formed to take the lead in establishing a Metropolitan St. Louis Coordinating Council for Higher Education. This special committee, under the leadership of Dr. Gerald Nadler of Washington University, succeeded in forming a Council on February 2, 1963. It was incorporated on January 17, 1964 as Higher Education Coordinating Council of Metropolitan St. Louis (HECC). In 1979, HECC acquired the fictitious name of Higher Education Center of St. Louis (HEC). From the beginning the Council included members of the public. They served officers and were influential in coordinating activities of the Council. These activities included founding of the Central Mid-west Regional Educational Laboratory (CEMREL) and the Midwest Technical Education Center, developing a Union List of Serials, planning further library cooperation, helping develop college work study and Advance Placement programs, supporting a state scholarship plan, restudying a major report of education in St. Louis (the Shils report), and helping to produce a school textbook on citizenship. Many areas of potential cooperation among St. Louis colleges and universities were explored during the first 10 years of HECC- education television, student teaching, college admissions, citizenship education, nursing education, technical education, computer sharing, off campus employment opportunities, inter-library loans, a center for improvement of social studies education, a higher education planning and management fact book, facilities planning, graduate education, and so on. These explorations culminated in major grants from the Ford and Danforth Foundations for Project AHEAD, a four-yeah effort (1969-73) to serve capable disadvantaged students who had not yet improved their prospects through post secondary education. At a cost of #692,000, including financial aid, 606 high-risk students were enrolled in area colleges and universities. At the end of the project, 1796 were graduated or still enrolled, for an encouraging 30 percent success rate. Upon completion of Project AHEAD in 1973, it was clear that the program had laid the groundwork necessary to implement in St. Louis a new federal commitment to underwrite post secondary recruitment centers for the inadequately educated poor. Consequently, a proposal was written and submitted to the U.S. Department of Education and funded a network of six satellite Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) in the metropolitan area under the aegis of HECC. The first EOC proposal was funded for the 1975-76 academic year in the amount of $333,000. Since then, the EOCs have grown to accommodate more students, and their funding for the 1992-2000 academic year is $786,300. For the past three years, the St. Louis EOC has ranked number one among the 82 EOCs in the United States in: the number of prospective students recruited; the number of students enrolled in post secondary educational institutions, and the lowest cost per student HEC applied for and received funding of a Talent Search program in 1989 to assist students from 9th grade through counseling, financial aid and scholarship search, and career exploration to continue their education. Educational Talent Search (ETS) is now in its eleventh year of funding and received $314,918 for the 1999-2000 program years starting in the 6th grade. HEC's track record in recruiting and serving low-income participants to continue their education continues in the new millennium. As of September 1, 1999, HEC received funding from the Department of Education for an Upward Bound program. It was funded at $190,000 for program year 1999-2000. The Upward Bound program prepares students in 9th and 10th grade for post secondary education through tutoring, counseling, workshops, cultural events and other support services. In 1974, the librarians from member institutions generated a demonstration project for computerization of library cataloging and other functions that attracted a grant of $93,532 from the Missouri State Library to HECC. The admission directors developed a promotional booklet for high school juniors that in its currents form, Colleges and Career Schools in Metro St. Louis, elicit 20,000 requests annually. In the early 1980's the librarians and admission directors redirected their cooperative energies to more comprehensive organizations, but other groups took their place in HEC. By 1984, the directors of cooperative education, financial aid, intonations student offices, and college theaters and women's program personnel had formed fairly active HEC councils. The Women's Program Council has studied the role of women in our institutions, and now promotes networking among college and university women through two annual conferences. For years, the financial aid directors have shared information and methods of handling rapidly changing financial aid regulations and resources. They have conducted workshops for the support personnel in their offices. The international student officers of HEC institution meet regularly to share experiences, frequently inviting the St. Louis district officer for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The college theater directors continue to meet regularly to share plans, cooperatively promote College Theater, and collaborate on regional festivals. Directors of cooperative education formed an HEC Council for mutual support and promotion of cooperative education in local industry. Other groups, such as visual arts faculties and academic deans, have occasionally flared into action but have not developed substantial interest in the cooperative mode. Active Councils today are the International Education Council and Theatre Council. In the early 1982's, a great deal of effort was expended on planning for a Higher Education Channel on cable television. A planning group form the HEC member institutions met regularly for four years in efforts to study and obtain funding for such a channel. By July 1985, the St. Louis county Cable Commission had dedicated a cable channel (HEC-TV) exclusively for the use of higher education. In 1986, the Commission agreed to provide funding for the channel. The channel went on the air in February, 1987. The mission of HEC-TV is to pool resources of participating colleges and universities to use cable television in providing the community with courses, educational programming, and informational and promotional programming of value to HEC members. Funding for the 2000 calendar year $334,000. Three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) plus a $34,000 supplemental grant for equipment, programming, advertising and TV supplies. In August 1996, HEC re-organized. The fictitious name changed from Higher Education Center of St. Louis to Higher Education Consortium of Metropolitan St. Louis (retaining the initials of HEC). The position of President was eliminated and the Executive Committee oversees the operation of HEC. This Committee consists of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary/Treasurer and two members-at-large. With the addition of the Upward Bound program, HEC continues its mission to provide member colleges and universities the opportunity to meet and discuss topics of interest; enhance students access to and achievement in higher education; and operate the educational cable channel.