Just a week away from the first deadline for the responses on the broadband stimulus bill--what was the response from your university or college? I do not think the response to the opportunity is as important as why did you not respond. I do not mean to put you on the edge of your seat, Provost or President, but the culture of the university is becoming clear as the time draws to a close. I do not know about other states (that’s not quite true), but I am very aware of what happened at home. It appears that with almost two billion dollars at stake there are few if any responses ready to go, lots of reasons given, but the truth is we had a difficult time trying to do anything other than the norm for a large university.
A small recap...the broadband stimulus bill was aimed at getting broadband services to the unserved or underserved areas of each state. Bottom line, get broadband to those who do not have the service today. What I observed from most large universities was using the stimulus funds to improve and enhance the status quo, meaning improving our own university infrastructure or regional networks. I would have been excited to find universities reaching out to be change agents for areas of the states that do not enjoy high-speed access to the internet. I guess we should not have been surprised at the results. I look forward to the awards that result from the initial proposals. Will RUSS and NTIA make awards on our best efforts to move ourselves ahead or will the awards be given to organizations reaching out to the remote areas of each state?
I, like most others, hope the second round of grant proposals due next month will provide an opportunity for large research universities to form partnerships with groups that could use our assistance. I envision there are a number of opportunities in health care, saving energy, and education. I am beginning to hope the awards from the first round of grants and the rules for the second round of grants make it clear that all universities and colleges within a state must form partnerships that break down traditional political issues and demand creative solutions to problems that all states are experiencing. Only time and leadership will reveal if I get my wish.
The broadband stimulus grants will be debated for years to come, but they do provide our leaders with the opportunity to change. We will continue to work tirelessly to improve our own universities, or we will reach out and create an infrastructure that would allow our legislatures to improve the overall efficiency of higher education. Without a doubt in three years and 7.2 billion dollars, we will have a different landscape. The fruits of the investment are not as clear. During the same time period we will be experiencing transformational technologies across our campuses. No longer will we have e the ability to maintain an information technology leadership with large capital investments on our own campus. Cloud computing will level the difference between who can or cannot afford complex comprehensive systems. Colleges and universities will be able to enter the IT arena with little more than a good campus network and desktop systems. The need for systems staffs, large pools of application programmers, and data centers will diminish over time.
Now is the time to take advantage of the changing technology infrastructure requirements and team with others statewide to create world-class solutions to solve today’s problems. Just think, if your staff can grasp this vision soon enough to submit a grant, you might be able to get significant assistance along the way. Found it interesting there was an article in today’s New York Times by the founder of Siebel, Tom Siebel, asking the question about the importance of IT in the years ahead. This reminds me of the recent book by Nicholas Carr, The Big Switch.
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