From the issue dated April 24, 1998

Microsoft Headquarters Evokes Ambience of Campus, but 'It's Just an Office Park' Post card from Redmond: The Microsoft "campus," as the corporate headquarters is called, has no quadrangles, no Gothic archways, no ENIAC Memorial Stadium. It's just a sprawling office park with dozens of buildings that look as if they were designed with the same operating system. But employees say the company tries to evoke a collegiate atmosphere. It's okay to throw a Frisbee around on the lawn in the middle of the day. Employee lounges are equipped with arcade games and A SPECIAL REPORT: Microsoft's reach in higher education Introduction Microsoft Marketing Brings New Business and New Skeptics Corporate Largesse: Philanthropy or Self-Interest? Microsoft's Campus Brain Trust: $10,000 a Year for Providing 'Input' Microsoft Pays $200 for Mentioning Its Tools Funds and Freedom Make Microsoft Nirvana for Some Researchers Colleges Wonder if Microsoft Is Their Next Competitor Microsoft Headquarters Evokes Ambience of Campus, but 'It's Just an Office Park' What you said: Is Microsoft's growing role on college campuses helping or hurting higher education? Does Microsoft have too much influence in academe? Read the responses we received in Colloquy. Foosball tables. And, of course, programmers are expected to pull the occasional all-nighter to meet project deadlines. "Microsoft spends an awful lot of money trying to convince us we're still in college," says one employee. The word "campus" has become a popular euphemism in the business world: Nike employees "just do it" at what the company refers to as its "World Campus," near Portland, Ore. Apple's programmers "think different" on a "campus" in Cupertino, Cal. At a time when colleges seem to be becoming more like businesses -- paying more attention to marketing, cutting costs, rethinking tenure and other perceived threats to efficiency -- it's ironic that some businesses seem to want to be more like colleges. Much of the language spoken on Microsoft's campus would sound foreign to a university professor. The company wants to "provide solutions" and "partner with I.S.V.'s." I.S.V.'s are independent software vendors, apparently. And "solutions" -- currently the most abused word in all of commercial technospeak -- is vague enough to mean just about anything. Microsoft officials say businesses and colleges will have more in common in the future, partly because of the technology created here. Distance-education programs could make location less of an issue for both students and professors, so that colleges which until now have served local populations will have to compete harder for students. Perhaps professors will soon find themselves hyping their own "knowledge solutions," just as technology companies do now. Meanwhile, like college campuses, Microsoft's headquarters attracts visitors who want to see the place where young minds come to work. No doubt visitors are also attracted by the software company's astonishing success, which has made many employees very rich. Often, tourists stop to take pictures of each other in front of Microsoft signs. Even people in academe are curious. Officials of the academic-technology group CAUSE will offer visits to the Microsoft campus during their annual conference, scheduled for December in Seattle. A Microsoft spokeswoman, Rebecca Needham, laughs about the level of interest. "It's just an office park," she says. http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Page: A25