CNN

Steve Schmidt, left, and David Plouffe are teaming up at the University Delaware.

(CNN) – Nearly a year after Election Day 2008, the campaign managers for John McCain and Barack Obama, who spent last year at war, have joined forces.

McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt and David Plouffe, his counterpart on the Obama campaign, are teaming up to develop a political communications center at the University of Delaware. Both men attended the university, though they did not graduate.

The two political operatives are working together to develop a curriculum combining political science, communication, marketing, sociology, and other subjects.

The effort comes as both Schmidt and Plouffe are in the process of obtaining their full bachelor's degrees from the university.

"It's a privilege to get a chance to work with David and the talented women and men at the University of Delaware to help create a center that will help students study our political system and maybe inspire a few of them to participate in our nations political life," Schmidt said in an e-mail to CNN.

The news comes a day before Plouffe is set to speak at his alma mater in what will be one of the few open press speeches the former Obama campaign manager has delivered since the election.