Funding Technology on Campus

An update on the state of funding at universities seems to be in order. Two months have passed since we discussed the importance of finances on translational technologies and uncertainty in the traditional higher education revenue resources has moved to gloom. State revenue continues to drop and the pressure from unemployment insurance payments are unprecedented, draining remaining state reserves. It is clear additional funding from the state will be nonexistent in all but a very few states. The stock market remains unstable without near term hope for a recovery that would help endowment funds. The only glimmer of hope is scholarship funding; the financial markets' deterioration has had minimal impact on student financial aid.

The remaining hope of many Presidents (CAOs) is the Obama stimulus plan. The initial draft is available and higher education projects were not omitted. The clear winner is funding for science and ensuring facilities are energy efficient. The Obama plan attempts to stabilize budget cuts to 2008 levels. The breath of fresh air was funding for science research and research facilities. Another real plus is funding for scholarships.

An obvious omission in the Obama stimulus plan is funding for campus technologies, computing, or networking. It is clear the Obama plan considers the state of technology at most universities acceptable without need of stimulus funding. This will require the CIO to focus on funding technology projects with traditional funding that is in short supply. The future remains uncertain for campus technology departments. The traditional methods of delivering applications is under considerable pressure. The next 24 months will be very interesting as cloud vendors offer campus solutions to technology requirements, and the CIO will have to decide their University’s strategy for the future.