Volume 7, March 13, 2000

The Inevitable Transformation—What College Presidents Have to Say"
by Stefanie Sanford, Converge, February 2000, p. 66

Four prominent university presidents reflect on their experiences and the challenge of change for their institutions.

1. "University of North Carolina Chancellor Molly Broad recently observed that universities are probably the only global institutions in the world that have remained essentially unchanged in the last 600 years." (p. 66) She pointed out that "the digital world is creating new academic disciplines." (p. 69) "Many schools now expect freshman to arrive with a laptop with certain specs and that will link to the network. Classrooms will be renovated to accommodate laptops. Then we will expect that faculty members will begin to rethink their entire syllabus." (p. 70)
2. Ellen Chaffee, president, Mayville State University and Valley City State University, North Dakota, noted that one of her biggest issues and challenges in implementing technology in higher education is "dealing with the shortage of IT faculty and staff." (p. 68) She also stated that "our goal is learning, and as long as we use technologies to achieve our true goal, they will enhance what we do. For us, enhance does not mean more of the same or better of the same—it means new ways of doing things." (p. 69) "Administrative [software] applications lag behind classroom and student capabilities. We are still very clunky and transaction-based, rather than analysis-based." (p. 70)
3. William Kirwan, president of Ohio State University, indicated the biggest issues and challenges in implementing technology are the up-front costs and a substantial number of faculty to whom to this [IT] does not come naturally." (p. 68) He says that "we are going to have to rethink the faculty-reward structure to accommodate and encourage this new approach to teaching and learning." (p. 69) "We want to use IT not to just enhance learning, but to ensure that students have the best possible support information." (p. 70) Students "have a much more global sensibility to them, and so have a certain sophistication, a greater sense of social responsibility. Their levels of volunteerism are higher than any previous generation. Technology has helped cultivate this global consciousness." (p. 70)
4. University of Texas at Austin President Larry Faulkner noted that "the greatest challenge is faculty time." (p. 68) "As new opportunities in executive education, lifelong learning and Web-based instruction generate new income streams for the university, there will be financial incentives for faculty to engage in them." (p. 69) "About 80 percent of university cost of operations is salaries. Our challenge in administration will be to use technology in the ways that successful U.S. service-industry firms have to increase customer service and simultaneously decrease costs." (p. 70)

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