Five things a Chief Academic Officer should never believe

If you have heard one of these statements from your Chief Information Officer, it is time to ask your CIO to update themselves on emerging technologies. It may be a lack of understanding of today’s technology environment, or perhaps the CIO is just trying to cover up a bad decision. In both cases, it is apparent that the CIO is out of step with the mission and goals of the university and is also not aware of the impact of their decision on the business practices of the university.

1. Open Source software will save the university money. There is no free lunch with applications necessary to manage a complex organization like a university. Open Source will almost always result in additional staffing, and commercial applications will be more expensive to acquire. The new rush to cloud computing is too new and immature to evaluate on total cost of ownership. In the end it will amount to your university spending more up front for your enterprise systems, or if you want go open source you will pay significantly higher operational costs annually.
   
   
2. Capital investments in traditional telephony equipment are safe. This was true for 50 years and lots of CIOs who have spent millions upgrading traditional equipment will be embarrassed in the next three years. As a matter of fact, there are few traditional telephony vendors remaining; both Nortel and Lucent are or have been through reorganizations and are a shadow of themselves. Voice technologies have become just another application on a data network. IT organizations need to address change by adopting the right unified communication technologies and by reorganization the information technology department to reflect the changes in technology. On top of this you have the whole cell phone issue.
   
   
3. Emerging technologies like smartphones, netbooks and virtualized desktop computers will replace the traditional computer and cost less. Everyone is looking for the magic combination that will make computing relevant and cost less--that day is beyond the horizon. The basics of a computer are all still the same, whether it is a traditional notebook or a smart-phone: it still has a processor, memory, disk drives, and needs electricity to run. The smart CIO understands the role of all devices and has the right equipment in the right place. Remember a university is a more like a city and less like a corporation.
   
   
4. Return on investment and best business practices are not relevant to a university. Might have been true for the past decade but no longer. The current economic conditions require the CIO to understand the “business” of the university and to implement changes that were unheard of several years ago. Recently the University of Virginia announced the university would close all student computing labs in the next three years. Many CIOs are already building the case on why this is impossible at their university; we no longer have the luxury of staying the same and change is eminent. Your CIO needs to begin compiling a list of changes in business practices that will improve service and lower the cost of technology.
   
   
5. Web 2.0 is a fad. Many legacy IT staff (including CIOs) would like to think the Web 2.0 technologies will not impact enterprise applications like the ERP or the course management systems because of the significant work required to integrate the tools of social networking with enterprise applications. CIOs need to recognize the front door many students use today to access resources begin with applications like Facebook. In addition we have a new generation of students in high school that spend hours on YouTube rather than watch television. Time for the CIO to invest thought in how your campus IT departments are meeting the needs of the students.

Changes in Business Processes

The economic meltdown has resulted in unprecedented budget cuts, and its swath is broad and deep. The university president has two choices: the first is to retrench by placing many projects on hold, freeze pay increases, and hope for the best. The second would be use the opportunity to change the status quo. Higher education is not known for its efficiency, and we have been doing “university” the same way we have been doing it for decades. During that time many universities have invested heavily in technology, including ERP systems. Many observers inside and from the community have noticed the lack of change.

The university president willing to be a change agent can move their institution forward despite the economic challenges. It is very clear the faculty will continue to introduce change incrementally, and that is OK. Faculty have been supportive of systems that improve teaching and research, and are critical of systems that are considered busy work. Investments in the academic infrastructure will continue to be important.

The change can be realized in administrative functions university-wide. The college president should use the economic climate to bring changes which were impossible earlier. A starting point would be business process re-engineering. A good place to begin would be human resources and accounting processes. The president must be willing to push the university into new methods of conducing university business to recognize the greatest savings. The business world has used ERP systems as a foundation for business process improvement for the past decade with significant returns. The goal would be to generate significant savings to reinvest in academic programs. A byproduct would be organizational agility.

The president that chooses to put everything on hold and wait out the downturn will find all areas of the university being adversely affected across the board budget cuts.

Other areas universities might review for change would be libraries merging student support organizations with IT—many libraries have shown leadership with the Information Commons concept. Another area of interest would be to rethink faculty support organizations (teaching learning centers, research support, library support) into a new organization. Bold rather than timid should define the roadmap of the next twenty-four months.

A number of individuals will say this cannot be done, higher education will never change. Interesting that Obama is choosing this time to change national policy on a number of issues. Who would have thought a year ago we would consider making student financial aid an entitlement or higher education would experience a huge boost in research funding? It is time to act.

Next Steps with Stimulus Funding

The next six months will be revealing for the Chief Academic Officer (President) of major public universities. States will be receiving the initial stimulus funding, and the legislatures and governors will be deciding if higher education will be a recipient or if other state agencies will receive a majority of the funding. It is clear that higher education was de-emphasized in the final legislation; the winners were students and the national science funding agencies.

The National Science Foundation received 3 billion dollars in additional funding and the National Institute of Health received 10 billion. There is another 3.5 billion for Energy and others. Expectations are the two funding organizations will disperse the funds quickly with current projects being expanded. Also expect a number of facilities upgrades to compliment the expanded research. With science receiving limited funding in recent years, it would be exciting to see the majority of the funding going to areas that were important in the presidential campaign: energy and healthcare.

State universities could use this opportunity to set themselves apart from the crowd for the next decade by deciding to optimize outputs through large collaborations with other universities. Further, it would be exciting to see the next boom in venture capital funding follow the Obama stimulus funding. A decade of economic growth could easily follow in renewable energy, healthcare, and informatics.

Many communities are waiting to see the direction higher education will decide to pursue. Will it be more of the same, or will universities step up with innovation that is noteworthy? Academic leaders must decide the next steps; the actions in the next year will set the direction for the next decade. State universities will be forced to reevaluate every aspect of the curriculum as budget cuts take their toll. The universities that can limit administrative and academic duplication statewide will be able to invest wisely in emerging academic programs across the sciences. It is time for the CAO to step up and lead.

Stimulus Funding Planning

It is time for Presidents (CAOs) to decide what steps to take: the following is a guideline for senior university leadership. This is presented in a sense of priority, but each university must interpret the legislation in light of their circumstances. The final legislation resulted in projects that require one-time funding, limiting federal and state exposure to long-term commitments. Initially, NSF, NIH, and Energy should be busy distributing the additional funds. Student financial aid appears a winner across the nation providing needed tuition for lean budgets. Funding that would stabilize operating budgets and funding to provide deferred maintenance were the losers.

Recommendation:

1. Focus on enrollment management with university staff. Each university should be in the middle of the enrollment cycle and staffed to handle this task. The CAO must decide how the stimulus funding will impact the incoming class—no easy task. It will be tempting to listen to the student’s request for admission and accept the increase in grants and aid to support higher education. The problem is stimulus funding that ensured state support for higher education was the largest single cut in the budget. End result will be pressure from students for admittance without offsetting funding for staff and faculty salaries.
   
   
2. Identify shovel projects that will “green” your campus. I expect every campus has a list of deferred maintenance projects; focus on projects that make your campus energy efficient. You will need projects you can begin immediately so you should have a task force underway to prioritize your spending plans. It is also time to visit the appropriate state offices to ensure your university receives a fair share--lobbying is not a dirty word. It appears the funding will be distributed in block grants to the state.
   
   
3. Research universities with medical centers should evaluate if they are prepared to request funding for electronic medical records. University hospitals and clinics that have only given passing interest will be at a disadvantage in becoming shovel-ready quickly; others who are committed will be ready to request funding, and statewide projects appear to be in the best position to receive funding.

More on iPhone Applications

We've mentioned previously that creating relevant campus applications for the iPhone is one of many student services that IT departments should give attention to in 2009. Several items I have seen recently have reminded me of just how important this is.

Abilene Christian University is the first of likely many universities to incorporate the iPhone into campus life; while this video is a dramatization, it does give us a picture of what future iPhone applications could do for the classroom and for everyday student life. Imagine a world where the iPhone really is a student's "campus lifeline"--the video is worth a look. (Incidentally, ACU has an impressive information commons in the library; I attended a presentation from their director last year and made a few notes.)

Speaking of libraries, I wrote a bit recently about a new iPhone application which allows users to search the library catalog, place holds, and view summaries/book jackets. The code will eventually be available to other libraries so that they too can build iPhone applications for their local catalogs.

A post today on The Chronicle's Wired Campus blog discusses a new iPhone application created by Georgia Tech students which provides an interface to several campus services. The application gives students iPhone-friendly access to campus email, a campus map, a bus schedule, and the course management system. One particularly nifty feature is that the application also includes a real-time computer availability map to see when a machine is available in their information commons. This is seriously cool.

Incidentally a librarian had suggested that the students incorporate the computer availability map into their application. He has a very good point about the importance of working together to build applications:

It is easy for us (as librarians) to complain that we don’t have money or staff to develop cool things—but sometimes that’s ok, because maybe we can partner with those who are (doing cool things) and get our materials and resources included in their work. Instead of investing our time in “a library app” we can attach ourselves to an already popular and successful app and gain a wider audience.

I couldn't agree more. So as IT departments (or groups of students) look to building iPhone applications, consider working with libraries and other campus departments to incorporate important student resources into your applications. Those applications will be far more valuable to students, and certainly we librarians will thank you for it.

The Obama Stimulus Plan: Thoughts for University Presidents/CAOs

Mr. President, you are two months away from making several very hard decisions. As you look at your state budget revenue and the demise of your endowment funds, you are about to make budget cuts you had hoped you would never have to implement. To confuse matters further, the House has passed the Obama stimulus plan, and the Senate will follow shortly. Once Obama signs the legislation, you will face two additional pressures.

First, you will have a pot of gold to further fund Pell Grants—a good problem that could allow you to increase your total tuition revenue without having to implement double-digit tuition increases. This itself will offset pressure from the state legislatures to freeze tuition rates, but the downside is the state legislature will be tempted to pass larger state budget cuts to universities. This will be a political football that could really help or make planning almost impossible. One bit of good news is that states must meet a minimum level of higher education spending in order to receive funding from the stimulus plan, assuming that language holds in the Senate.

Second, the Obama plan could fund a number of new research building projects and even more deferred maintenance projects. One-time funding for the projects will appear to be manna from heaven. The operation and maintenance budgets will not increase with the stimulus funding, leaving Presidents/CAOs with greater pressure on the operations budget that the state will likely ignore.

The stimulus funding will result in the appearance of growth and activity. The lack of state funding for operating budgets and the continued pressure on lower endowment funds will result in sleepless nights for many Presidents. The next two years will be the most difficult in the recent decade.

The Cloud and Libraries

Most libraries, including university libraries, typically offer at least a few computers available for use by the general public. In the university library, the purpose of these machines is primarily to provide the general public with access to the library catalog, subscription databases, and in the case of federal depository libraries, government information. For obvious reasons these public machines are pretty locked down, and they generally offer few applications beyond a web browser and perhaps word processing software. Some libraries have moved toward thin client solutions, but many still manage expensive desktops which barely make use of the 80GB or more hard drives. Utilizing cloud technologies could potentially make these machines easier to manage and less costly. Read more on the ALA TechSource blog.

Interesting Student Technologies in 2009

2009 will be a challenging year for universities as campus needs, budgets, and technologies all struggle for our attention. Some key student needs/expectations in 2009:

1. iPhone is the real winner. The iPhone will challenge university IT departments to offer students information in a new user interface. IT departments must develop new applications to allow students to use student information systems and course management systems on mobile devices, particularly the iPhone. Facebook sets a high standard on the iPhone interface that must be met by IT departments.

2. Online course response systems are driving students crazy. Students are requesting university IT departments standardize on a single course response clicker. Currently faculty members are establishing contracts with textbook publishers to use proprietary clickers. Students will demand a single standard clicker for all classes. Several universities have developed course response software for cell phones, and it would be wonderful if Turning Point would establish an iPhone application.

3. Students want universities to develop team study environments. Libraries have taken the lead here with the popular information commons model. Libraries that developed information commons are enjoying success and are finding record numbers of students visiting. The information commons that are most successful are those which are partnerships of multiple campus units, such as libraries, IT, and teaching/learning centers. A good source of information about the commons environment is Stacey Greenwell’s blog, The Uncommon Commons.

4. Facebook is the meeting place for college students. Universities that understand this and successfully integrate Facebook with campus systems will be relevant. Information Technology departments that ignore social networking will be ignored by students.

5. Google and Microsoft have developed very good collaborative tools for the university marketplace. Collaborative learning is very popular with high school and college students, and students have already adopted many free online collaborative tools. University IT departments must find ways to support both Microsoft and Google tools in their customer support centers.

The Tower and the Cloud

In addition to The Big Switch, The Tower and the Cloud is another must-read for those interested in the effects of cloud computing on IT as we know it. The Tower and the Cloud is a collection of essays focused specifically on higher education and how these technologies will impact higher education institutions and the IT organization. Librarians, CIOs, faculty, and other experts describe the role of technology in the higher education enterprise and predict where we are headed in the future.

The entire volume is available online.

Managing the Funding Gap

In the current economic environment, it's impossible to avoid our funding situation and what the future may hold. With this blog less than one month old, we've already commented on the future of technology funding on campus and expect many more posts around that topic.

Managing the Funding Gap: How Today’s Economic Downturn Is Impacting IT Leaders and Their Organizations, an EDUCAUSE whitepaper from a December 2008 ECAR Symposium, describes some immediate and long-term responses to the current funding environment. How can you make the best of this difficult situation? Read the full whitepaper online.