Friday, July 5, 2002

Educause Considers Letting More Colleges Use '.Edu' Addresses By DAN CARNEVALE The organization that decides which institutions get to put ".edu" at the end of their Internet addresses may loosen the requirements this fall, possibly opening the door to hundreds of colleges that are currently barred from the domain. Educause, an education-technology group that is also in charge of assigning ".edu" Internet addresses, is considering a proposal to allow any higher-education institution that is accredited by any board recognized by the Department of Education to receive a ".edu" address. The current policy requires the institution to grant degrees and be accredited by one of the six major regional accrediting bodies. The proposed policy change could open up opportunities for institutions that offer courses and training -- but not degrees -- and that are approved by national accrediting boards. Officials at institutions like Pioneer Pacific College in Oregon, and Westchester Business Institute, in New York, have indicated that they want an ".edu" domain name. Currently those institutions use ".com" or ".org" addresses. Mark Luker, vice president of Educause, says the organization wants to guard ".edu" addresses so that illegitimate institutions and diploma mills cannot use them. The question then remains where to draw the line, but he said that Educause was not indicating whether it was leaning toward changing the policy. "The discussion is under way right now," he says. Officials from colleges that are ineligible for ".edu" addresses have pushed Educause to reconsider the policy. Educause is holding an online discussion until August 15 about access to the domain. Within 90 days of that date, the organization will make a recommendation to the Commerce Department, which will decide the matter. Before Educause took over the duty of assigning ".edu" addresses last year from the Department of Commerce, generally only four-year universities were given the popular suffix. Educause immediately changed the policy to allow two-year institutions to adopt ".edu" addresses as well. One person supporting the proposed change is the Rev. Mark S. Pranaitis, president of Career Colleges of Chicago. His institution is a secular proprietary college that offers associate degrees and certificates in legal and medical subject areas. Students can then become court reporters, medical secretaries, and the like. The college is approved by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, a national accrediting body. Career Colleges does not have regional accreditation, so its Web address ends in ".com." That causes problems because potential students associate an ".edu" address with legitimate institutions, Mr. Pranaitis says. Other Internet suffixes raise questions in the students' minds. The ".edu" suffix causes most prospective students to say, "Oh, this is a school," Mr. Pranaitis says. "When people go searching for a college to attend, I think it's reasonable for them to expect that '.edu' is the universe they'll be in." He said the current situation would be tantamount to the Yellow Pages' trying to exclude Career Colleges of Chicago from the "schools" portion of the phone book. Dozens of other people have sent e-mail messages to Educause's electronic discussion boards supporting the proposed policy change. The only criticism has been that the proposal is too narrow. Some writers have suggested that high schools and state-licensed schools should also be able to get ".edu" addresses. But Mr. Luker says high schools are unlikely to be included. "There's been a very strong tradition that ".edu" has been for postsecondary schools," he says. Background articles from The Chronicle: Commerce Department Hands Over '.edu' Domain to Educause (11/9/2001) Community Colleges Want a More Eminent Domain (1/26/2001) Change Proposed in Control of '.edu' Internet Addresses (2/13/1998) Is the Internet Becoming a Bonanza for Diploma Mills? (12/19/1997) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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