Activities of the Forum

The Forum has a history of spearheading and guiding programs that benefit institutions in the Northwest region.  Most recently, the Forum was involved in the creation of the Northwest Education Outreach Network (NEON), identified as a strategy for the Forum to develop a course listing and exchange to broaden access to internet delivered courses across the WICHE region.  NEON, which was supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), is now being developed into the WICHE Internet Course Exchange (WICHE ICE). 

The Forum has also been involved in the establishment of NorthWestNet, a research and education computer network, and the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium (NWACC), a nonprofit corporation which served as the governing board for NorthWestNet. Established in 1987, NorthWestNet connected major research institutions, government laboratories, and private corporations in six states. Services were expanded to over 130 organizations including universities, colleges, businesses, primary and secondary schools and school districts, government agencies, hospitals and clinics, libraries, and other nonprofit entities. NorthWestNet was spun off as a profit-making corporation and the Forum continues to explore new relationships with NWACC.