Universities are one of the few places where you can think broadly before you’re forced to think narrowly.
At Tulane, my alma mater, I memorized classics, wrote poetry, and debated philosophy. That didn’t just round out my understanding of the world; it gave me a lasting drive to put ideas into action and to do work with real consequences.
After university, I had a hunger to be practical. I went from reading Plato to building thousands of websites and supporting hundreds of clients. While I was making money, I was also learning how organizations actually operate. Much of that work was for universities, politicians, and nonprofits, which pulled me deeper into public-interest systems.
By 33, I had reached financial stability and understood how many organizations operated. I took a gap year to read and write freely again.
This led to Equalify. The company focused on helping people with disabilities use the internet. I also had a sneaky suspicion that the company would bring me back to universities because universities must comply with accessibility standards more than other industries.
Last year, Equalify became part of the University of Illinois Chicago. I didn’t pursue that transition just as a “win.” I chose it because I believe in UIC’s mission: to provide the broadest access to the highest levels of educational, research, and clinical excellence. UIC is built on the idea that access and excellence belong together. That is a mission worth defending in a moment when universities are routinely questioned, constrained, and attacked.
I’m not claiming to solve every challenge in higher education. But I can point to one lever I know a bit about: university IT spending. As overhead and tuition pressures grow, we can either keep sending more money to private equity firms that build closed tools or invest those dollars in open work that lowers costs for UIC and creates public benefit.
The problem: universities are often forced into vendor relationships that inflate costs. Vendors are acquired by private equity firms that prioritize profit maximization, leading to escalating prices and unnecessary complexity.
My solution: Open Source. By building and maintaining Open Source tech solutions, we can escape the cycle of profit-focused vendors inflating tech budgets.
For example, after witnessing the high costs for accessibility dashboards, I built a comparable system in three months. This is where the UIC Technology Solutions Open Source Fund (UIC-OSF) comes in.
UIC-OSF redirects a portion of the university’s existing tech budget (spent on vendors) into Open Source projects that UIC can use and improve, while also generating value for donors and the broader public. The result: Lower costs, fewer forced renewals, and a move toward more sustainable, reusable IT infrastructure.
UIC-OSF’s Model
Universities spend millions each year on external software and services. UIC-OSF starts with a simple reallocation: redirect a portion of that existing vendor spend into Open Source projects that UIC can use, improve, and share.
Every project funded by UIC-OSF must:
- Align with UIC Priorities to ensure we’re meeting student/benefactor interests.
- Have outside donors – UIC must share program costs with others, if the project is going to be sustainable. (UIC must eventually spend less than the cost of vendor solutions.)
- Benefit the public – all projects must be open, reusable, and accessible. (Read about The Four Freedoms of Open Source.)
All projects are designed to be sustainable without requiring the university to take a “cut” from the budget, thereby keeping costs lower in the long run. Donors contribute directly to the success of these projects, and public adoption of these tools can create broad, long-lasting value.
Current UIC-OSF Projects
UIC-OSF is currently focused on initiatives in AI Literacy and Web Accessibility, directly supporting UIC’s mission while creating value through Open Source solutions.
AI Leaders is our AI Literacy initiative developed in partnership with the WordPress Foundation. This workforce-focused initiative provides participants with practical AI skills through hands-on projects, earning micro-credentials and job placement opportunities. The program directly benefits UIC students and faculty while aligning with donor priorities for workforce readiness. Additionally, the curriculum and tools are released as Open Source, extending the impact to a wider public.
We’re also supporting Equalify in building a consortium of higher education partners to sustain the development of accessible digital tools. These tools include a cool AI PDF Remediation service, which we’ll announce at CSUN 2026.
The Bigger Vision
I’m posting this on the Philosopher’s Group blog because UIC-OSF creates a model I hope to extend beyond higher education into government, healthcare, and primary schooling.
These public institutions, much like universities, are increasingly burdened by rising costs and the stranglehold of private equity-backed vendors. In government, expensive software contracts consume precious tax dollars. In healthcare, proprietary tools inflate costs and limit access to quality care. In primary schools, recurring vendor costs drain resources that should go directly to classrooms.
Open Source offers a way out of this cycle. By redirecting public funding into Open Source projects, we can create more sustainable systems that deliver public value without locking institutions into expensive, closed software. This approach provides more control, greater transparency, and, ultimately, better outcomes for citizens, patients, and students.
UIC-OSF is just the beginning. Once we demonstrate how Open Source can revolutionize the way higher education spends its tech dollars, we can start scaling this model to other sectors. But I’ll get more into that bigger social vision after I fix Higher Ed with UIC. 😀
