Technology Survey Reveals Budget Cuts and Concerns About Staffing

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

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The economic downturn is already hitting campus technology planners, with many more colleges reporting cuts in their technology budgets this year than last year, according to the Campus Computing Project, an annual survey of hundreds of college tech departments. And more of them reported concerns about hiring and retaining their employees this year than in the past.

Forty-five percent of public universities reported cuts in their central technology budgets for the current academic year, compared with 16 percent in last year's survey. And about 22 percent of four-year private colleges reported such cuts, compared with 13 percent last year.

The survey was conducted in September and October, with some responses coming in just last week. Officials from 531 colleges participated.

Even in a time of tight budgets, the survey indicated that most colleges have increased the number of technology services they offer. For instance:

• Most colleges have set up emergency-notification systems that allow officials to send text messages, e-mail messages, or other electronic alerts to student should a dangerous situation arise on their campus. More than 90 percent of respondents reported that they had some sort of notification system up and running as of September.
• A majority of colleges in the survey—about 55 percent—offer plagiarism-detection software. This was the first year the survey asked about such services.
• A growing number of colleges are dabbling in Second Life, the 3-D environment online. About 25 percent of campuses reported a presence there this year, compared with about 16 percent last year.
• More colleges have set up campus Facebook pages—32 percent of respondents this year, compared with 13 percent last year. (About 17 percent have official pages on MySpace, up from 11 percent last year.)

Clearly, many colleges are being asked to do more with less. "The demand doesn't go away, the expectations don't go away, and the needs don't go away," Kenneth C. Green, director of the Campus Computing Project, said in an interview. "The demand for tech-based resources and services just continues to rise, even as the budgets go on this bungee-cord experience, with many institutions up and down" over the years.

The budget strain also shows up in concern over hiring. When asked to choose "the single most important IT issue confronting my institution over the next two to three years," 16.7 percent of respondents named "hiring and retaining IT staff" this year, compared with 12.3 percent last year.

"The last time we saw this was the late 90s when there was huge competition for IT talent," Mr. Green said of the spike in concern about hiring. He said that officials might be worried this year that they will not be able to offer high enough salaries to get good employees.

About 20 percent identified security as the biggest issue this year, down from 25 percent last year.

A summary of the report is available on the project's Web site, and copies of the report will be available December 10 for $37 apiece.