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I routinely tell my students, if they miss class and ask a buddy for notes, they’d better offer cash. And the supplier students had better value their work and demand payment. To me it’s basic fairness. If it doesn’t cost you time and effort to get the notes, it should at least cost $$, and it should reward the time and effort of the classmate generous enough to share the fruit of such labor. --morris

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October 2, 2008

Tech Therapy: What Does Your Lawyer Think of IT?

Technology issues seem to get more entwined with legal issues as the years progress. In the latest edition of Tech Therapy, Michael B. Goldstein, Kenneth D. Salomon, and James M. Burger, three lawyers from Dow Lohnes, talked about how to think about technology and the law.

“Technology has always been important … but it has largely been supporting the academic enterprise,” Mr. Goldstein says. “What has happened now is that it has become integral to the academic program.” That puts IT staff members right at the center of the academic enterprise, which means that they need to be aware of a whole range of legal issues. Yet lawyers are too often brought into the conversation late.

“I always say, ‘Take your lawyer to lunch, because he’s probably lonely,’ and in this case I would say take your IT director to lunch because she’s probably lonely, too,” Mr. Goldstein says. “There needs to be a close relationship between the IT operation and the legal office.”

Listen to the episode below, and hear more episodes and subscribe to the podcast on the Tech Therapy page.

September 23, 2008

Laptop Policy at Eastern Illinois U. Derided as 'Cost-Cutting Measure'

An editorial in The Daily Eastern News, the student newspaper of Eastern Illinois University, complains about a policy to require freshmen in some programs (including the journalism program; nice way to get the attention of the student newspaper!) to buy laptop computers. The newspaper says the requirement is a “cost-cutting measure” for the university, which cannot afford to maintain its computer labs.

The Daily Eastern News proposes that the university should hike its technology fees slightly and cut back on buying expensive devices like smart boards and projectors. The editorial quotes James Tidwell, chair of the journalism department, who says that “the university cannot upgrade and support all of the labs on campus unless the fee is hiked, which is unlikely.”

“While there is a need to connect students to their technology necessities, requiring a computer purchase to save computer maintenance costs on campus is beyond reason,” the newspaper says. “The laptop initiatives have good educational intentions behind them, but don’t force the issue because the university has funding problems. Endorse the purchases, don’t require them.” —Scott Carlson

September 12, 2008

Tech Therapy: What to Look for in Tech Staff

Recent editions of Tech Therapy covered how to hire a chief information officer and some things that CIO’s should look for in prospective employers.

Well, what is a new CIO going to do if there aren’t people to boss around? So this week’s Tech Therapy is a discussion of how to hire tech staff members.

“Recruiting is very difficult … and depending on where a college is in the country, that can make things more difficult — or less difficult,” says Warren Arbogast. “One of the ways people deal with that is by promoting from within, which is a great thing for all organizations. At the same time, you want to make sure that you have the right people matching up with the right skills. Sometimes when you promote from within and you don’t have the right match, that can be a real problem.”

Listen to the episode below, and listen to past episodes on the Tech Therapy page.

August 28, 2008

Tech Therapy: Know How Much Technology Costs? Probably Not.

Few colleges and universities have a handle on the comprehensive costs of their technology operations. In the latest installment of The Chronicle’s technology podcast, Tech Therapy, Scott Carlson, a Chronicle reporter, and Warren Arbogast, a technology consultant, discuss some of the things to tally.

Check out past episodes of Tech Therapy in the archive.

August 7, 2008

Faster Wi-Fi Predicted for Colleges

Higher education may be the number one customer for fast Wi-Fi networks in the coming decade, according to a new business analysis. The company Allied Business Intelligence says in the new report that colleges will be early adaptors of a wireless network standard called 802.11n, which speeds data several times faster than do many networks today. It also allows for more access points while reducing the chances of interference.

Universities have great demands for bandwidth, as professors put more material on video and students expect to be able to download it easily and quickly to their laptops. A commonly-used current wireless standard, 802.11g, doesn’t have enough capacity to allow students to do what they want—stream lots of video, for instance—as fast as they want it. So anticipating future demand, many institutions are building networks to the “n” standard. It’s expensive, the company says, but not as expensive as building a slower network now and then upgrading in two or three years. The company forecasts that 99 percent of universities in North America will have such fast networks by 2013.

Before then, however, there may be a lot of frustrated users because current chips in laptops don’t always support the “n” standard. The tech blogs are filled with complaints from users who have access to 802.11n wireless networks but can only connect at slower speeds. Chip makers like Intel reportedly will update their products to support the faster standard by the end of this year.—Josh Fischman

August 1, 2008

Minority-Serving Colleges to Receive Money for Technology Improvements

Colleges serving minority students may receive federal money for computer hardware, software, and network upgrades under a provision in legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The bill cleared Congress Thursday and is expected to be signed by President Bush.

The provision largely restates the Minority Serving Institution Digital and Wireless Technology Opportunity Act of 2007, HR 694, which the U.S. House of Representatives approved in September. The provision would create a program at the Department of Commerce to distribute money for technology upgrades at colleges serving blacks, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Hispanics, and Native Alaskans. Institutions receiving the funds would be required to provide a 25-percent matching contribution or $500,000, whichever is less. But the requirement would be waived for institutions with no endowment.

Unlike the House bill, which authorizes $250-million for the first year of the program, the Higher Education Act provision does not specify how much money would be allocated for the four-year program.—Andrea L. Foster

Webcasting a Few Ideas for Green Computing on Campus

Campus computers are energy hogs. Whether they are dorm room devices or large college data centers, computer processors suck in huge amounts of electricity and give off a lot of heat. What is an energy-conscious (and budget-conscious) CIO to do?

The California State University-Monterey Bay has some ideas. On their education and technology roundtable, Ready2Net, which is both Webcast and broadcast on TV, they tackle computing, energy and the environment.

Casey Green, founder of the Campus Computing project, moderates a panel that includes CIOs from Washington State, San Diego State, Bryant Universities, as well as executives and specialists in high-tech energy conservation from Pacific Gas and Electric and Cisco Systems.

Another place to find useful ideas is The Chronicle’s latest Tech Therapy podcast, “How Green Is Your IT?” Tune in, turn on, and drop your big carbon footprint.—Josh Fischman

July 24, 2008

Cellphones May Endanger Your Health, Pitt Cancer Center Director Warns His Staff

The director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute sent a memo yesterday to his employees saying that, despite many published studies saying otherwise, cellphone use could be hazardous.

Ronald B. Herberman, director of the institute and a tumor immunologist, advised staff members to keep conversations short, to hold phones away from their heads, and not to allow children to use mobile phones. He said that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the phones could cause “possible adverse health effects including cancer.”

Dr. Herberman based his memo on the recommendations of an international panel of scientists, on which he served. The panel reviewed unpublished data.

The studies that have been published have produced conflicting results, but the largest studies found no link between cellphone use and cancer, the Associated Press reported.—Lila Guterman

July 15, 2008

Are College CIO's Thinking What Their Bosses Are Thinking?

The chief information officer at a college or university is a key position, says Wayne A. Brown, who may be forgiven a slight bias: He is the CIO of Johnson County Community College. But he has data to support the claim. Four times since 2003, Mr. Brown has surveyed CIO’s and their managers, either college presidents or vice presidents, about the job. The 2008 survey has just come out. (Mr Brown says it will be available online here shortly.) Everyone agrees the job is important, but not why, or what a CIO should really be good at.

Q. How is your survey done?

A. There are two parts. One is sent to the CIO, and we got 435 responses from technology officers at places including community colleges, liberal-arts colleges, major research institutions, and service academies, all in the United States. I asked about their roles, their career paths, and some demographic information. The second part went to the management team of these CIO’s, which I define as college presidents and any vice presidents that the CIO’s report to. I ask their ideas about the CIO’s role and effectiveness. I got 130 responses from this group of people.

Q. Do the groups have different ideas about the CIO’s role?

A. Well, the CIO’s thought they were most effective as classic IT-support providers. That’s basically putting PC’s on desktops. But their managers thought that CIO’s were most effective in explaining and determining the college’s technology course into the future. Managers really want their CIO’s to be “informaticists.”

Q. Is that a problem?

A. Yes, because obviously there’s a big disconnect there. Presidents have different expectations for the CIO’s than the CIO’s have for themselves.

Q. How can CIO’s change this?

A. I think there is an opportunity here for CIO’s. The role of “IT educator” is at the bottom of their list of what they think they are effective at. But educating the management of a college about technology, or educating the faculty, is exactly what those managers want. Because we as CIO’s say it’s least important to us, we’re going to be least effective at it.

We should embrace that role as educators. We always complain that management doesn’t understand us and doesn’t appreciate what we know. Well, we have to teach them about technology. That’s our job. Who is going to do it if we don’t?

Q. Is that part of the evolution and maturation of the CIO position?

A. Yes. Degrees in technology management have not been around that long. For example, the guy I replaced here at Johnson County had a music degree, I think. That’s changing, and it will continue to change as current CIO’s reach retirement age—which, the survey shows, is coming soon for many of us.

July 2, 2008

U.'s of Pennsylvania and Miami Rank Among the Top IT Workplaces

The Universities of Pennsylvania and Miami are among the top 10 best places to work in information technology, according to an annual report by Computerworld magazine. The report was based on salaries and turnover rates for IT employees, among other measurements, as well as 31,317 IT employees’ responses to a variety of workplace questions.

Computerworld cites Penn’s cultural activities and its contributions to the Philadelphia community. The magazine ranks the university six out of 100 attractive workplaces. Miami is ranked number 10, in part because it offers employees a wide array of technical- and managerial-training opportunities.

Other universities who made it to the best 100 places to work are: Cornell, George Washington, and Temple Universities, and Duke University Health System and Duke University Medical Center. —Andrea L. Foster

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