University JUNE 2013 Business Virtual Teamwork · Senior Associate Editor Matthew Zalaznick...

JUNE 2013

DIVESTMENT DEBATE Steering clear of fossil fuels 48

DESIGNING DIGITAL Online course creation partners 52

Collaborating via videoconferencing 26

CIOS SPEAK OUTManaging bandwidth, file sharing, and other IT issues 30

CLOSING THE TICKETHelpdesk technology and the campus user’s experience 39

AV TREND REPORTVideo and presentation devices in the classroom 42

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BusinessSOLUTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

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Contents

26 Virtual TeamworkBy Sonya StinsonDistance is no barrier to face-to-face collaboration

30 CIOs Speak OutBy Caryn Meyers FlieglerTop IT leaders share how to keep campuses running and safe

39 Closing the Ticket By Elizabeth Millard

Streamlining help desks with technology and savvier users

42 AV Trend ReportBy Lauren WilliamsThe latest on video and presentation devices used in classrooms

22 ViewpointBy Mark Oster7 ways to nurture graduate outcomes

54 Enrollment MattersBy James ScannellConsidering management models

58 Human ResourcesBy Carol PattonEasing leadership changes

48 Divestment DebateBy Kristen DomonellMaking the case for and against stripping endowments of fossil fuel investments

52 Designing DigitalBy Ed FinkelMaking partnerships for online course development work

26

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ARTICLESProvidng More Value to the On-Campus Student Students who live on campus can provide a number of benefits to the institution, both in revenue and in classroom performance. How can schools maximize the benefits while creating an atmosphere that not only attracts a growing number of students, but also ensures the experience is mutually beneficial? universitybusiness.com/on-campus-value

Asset Lifecycle Management: ALMa Maters One effective strategy for doing more with less is to look at the maintenance processes and costs of insti-tutional assets. Employing a powerful and sophisti-cated asset lifecycle management tool can facilitate adherence to the processes. universitybusiness.com/alma-maters

Don’t Forget the First Screen When Planning EAS There’s a lot of attention on delivering content and services to the second, third, and now fourth screens - laptops, cell phones, and tablets. Skipping the origi-nal first screen, the television, leaves a gaping hole in the Emergency Alert System (EAS) messaging plan. universitybusiness.com/eas

From automation to resource management, see how AMX can innovate the educational environment.

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North Carolina legislators passed a bill last month that

prevents colleges and universities from requiring

students to provide their passwords to Twitter, Face-

book and other social networks. The law was drafted in response

to a student-athlete handbook rule forcing athletes to choose an

administrator or coach to monitor their social media accounts

throughout the academic year.

In Oregon, a bill currently working its way through the

legislature would bar state institutions from asking prospective

students for their social media log-in information as a condi-

tion of applying to the school. Similar legislation is also being

considered in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Those states should be

commended for getting out in front of an issue that will likely

become bigger in coming years.

For all the attention it gets, social media is still in its infancy,

and the limits of its use remain to be determined. Certainly,

when someone uses these networks to harass or bully others, or

post libelous messages, the poster should be addressed through

proper channels, whether it is an administrative hearing or legal

action. Likewise, an intervention may be

necessary if someone hints that they may

harm themselves.

But I believe this oversight can be

achieved without requiring password

access to someone’s account. Sure, the

argument can be made that the school’s

network resources are being used—and

to that point, schools have every right

to protect their property and themselves

from legal action—but posts can just as easily be made outside

the network, from home or from a cell phone.

Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the like function as public

diaries. Yes, students (and faculty for that matter) should realize

that what they post can be seen by the public and potential em-

ployers. We’ve heard many stories of students and teachers being

reprimanded or fired for posting a photo that someone, some-

where, deemed inappropriate. Common sense says that you

shouldn’t post things that you wouldn’t want others to see. Still,

they do. In the end, it is their “property” and they have the right

to free expression. If they embarrass themselves in these forums,

they will have to face the consequences. It isn’t, and shouldn’t

become, the job of a college or university to monitor that.

There are boundaries that should be exercised in the use of

social media, and most people observe those out of hand. For a

school to assume the role of social network “nanny” and claim

the right to have access to social media passwords and, in effect,

control content is wrongheaded.

Programming notes

Beginning with our July issue, this

page will be replaced by a new feature

called “On Topic,” a Q&A interview

with an education thought leader or

newsmaker. I’m excited by the people

we have lined up already, and I invite

your suggestions for future interviews.

Send an email or call and let me know

who you think we should feature.

Also, our “End Note” page will be replaced by a new column

called “At Large” by Editor Emeritus Gil Dyrli, who has served

as a writer, columnist, and editor at UB over many years. An

education industry veteran, Gil is emeritus professor of educa-

tion at the University of Connecticut, and a trustee of Messiah

College (Pa.). We’re glad to have him back in the fold.

And finally, in this issue, you’ll notice that we have changed

the name of Jim Scannell and Kathy Kurz’s regular “Money

Matters” column to “Enrollment Matters.” We believe this bet-

ter reflects the authors’ expertise. Let us know what you think.

Common sense says that you shouldn’t post things to a social network that you wouldn’t want others to see.

Write to Tim Goral at

[email protected].

EDITOR’S NOTE

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Article

It is a widely known fact that colleges and universities are under

increasing financial pressure. Publicly funded schools are facing flat

or reduced government funding. Business departments throughout

the higher education enterprise face pressures to increase both

the environmental sustainability and cost efficiency of their

management practices. Private and public institutions alike are

dealing with ever-increasing healthcare costs, as well as a growing

public outcry over the dramatically rising cost of tuition.

As a result, there are tremendous incentives for administrators to

improve operational efficiency wherever possible, and the financial

office can be an area of particular opportunity. However, despite

the availability of new technology, key aspects of higher education

financial management remain paper-intensive and dependent on

outdated legacy systems. More specifically, while the adoption

of electronic, automated tuition payments has advanced at

breakneck speed over the last decade — with many institutions

now processing nearly all of tuition payments electronically —

the disbursement side has lagged behind.

Issuing paper checks for vendor, supplier and contractor payments,

student tuition refunds, or employee payroll can end up costing

institutions significant amounts of money annually in paper,

printing, processing and mailing. Such systems also require large

amounts of time and work for already-stretched campus finance

personnel. Environmental sustainability is also top of mind for most

higher education institutions, and a paper-based system consumes

more energy and creates a substantial amount of physical waste.

Switching to automated, electronic processes for these transactions

can greatly reduce these costs while dramatically improving

efficiency. Electronic payments also can increase accountability

by eliminating lost paperwork and offering an audit trail of more

accurate and precise spending data.

However, there can be impediments to change. For instance, colleges

and universities deal with a wide diversity of payment types and

recipients, and institutions face concerns about compliance with

federal regulations of electronic transactions. Moreover, colleges

and universities o�en lack the resources or expertise to design,

implement and maintain an in-house financial system.

To overcome these challenges, an increasing number of institutions

are implementing solutions offered by financial services providers that

focus on the unique needs of college and university management.

Common payment types that can benefit from the improved

efficiency of electronic processes are vendor and supplier

payments, and student payments and payroll.

Vendors and supplier payments

As they are at many other types of organizations, payments to

vendors, suppliers and contractors are still largely done through

paper checks and invoices at most colleges and universities.

This can be a costly and burdensome process that can also lead

to confusion in business departments about compliance with

departmental spending limits, account history or current transaction

status. And if sent by mail, checks can be slow to arrive and even

get lost, delaying payment even further.

Purchasing cards (P-cards) and virtual card payments are two

solutions that can help institutions improve the efficiency of these

transactions by moving from paper-based to electronic payments.

P-cards or other electronic payments are faster, more secure and

more transparent for both sides of the transaction. They also offer

institutions greater fraud protection over paper checks and the

ability to set spending limits by cardholder, department or time

period. Supplier account information is more secure than with paper

recordkeeping, and vendors can access transaction details and

company spend information in real time. Electronic payments can

be integrated with existing financial management or ERP so�ware,

making budgeting, financial planning and future strategy easier and

more accurate for everyone involved.

However, while most institutions are already aware of the many

benefits of upgrading to electronic payment solutions for these

transactions, implementation has been slow to advance, primarily

Increasing Operational Efficiency

Through Electronic PaymentsUpdating financial practices in higher education management

Common payment types that can

benefit from the improved efficiency

of electronic processes are vendor

and supplier payments, and student

payments and payroll.

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due to lackluster adoption on the supplier side. Many suppliers and

vendors may be hesitant to change familiar systems, even if they are

outdated and inefficient. For the university, the key to overcoming

this hesitancy and increasing the acceptance of P-cards and other

forms of electronic vendor payments is to take a comprehensive

approach, offering P-card and automated clearing house (ACH)

options to vendors, and to clearly communicate how vendors and

suppliers will also benefit from such systems. Some financial services

firms will offer assistance or direct this messaging outreach effort to

help increase participation. Through a variety of marketing methods,

suppliers and vendors can be shown the benefits of electronic

processes, as well as the steps necessary to enroll.

On the other hand, administrators should also know that many

financial service providers can provide access to a network of

vendors and suppliers who are already engaging in electronic

processes, to help establish a relationship that utilizes these

processes from the outset.

Student payments and payroll

Nearly all institutions issue some form of payments to students,

for transactions such as financial aid payments, refunds of tuition

reimbursement, or paychecks to student employees. However,

much of the student population may be underbanked or unbanked.

For these students, cashing a check can be difficult and expensive,

o�en incurring fees that could be as high as 15 percent of a check’s

value. Similar to vendor payments, issuing paper checks to students

also requires paperwork and labor-intensive procedures, and carries

the risk of lost or stolen checks and delayed payments.

In fact, mailing payments to students carries even more risk than

with vendors, as students typically change addresses o�en, and

many study abroad or at other campuses at some point during

their college career.

The ideal solution is similar to that for vendor payments, in that

electronic processes, namely prepaid debit cards, would eliminate

these disadvantages. Prepaid payroll debit cards can reduce

the costs and issues associated with paper checks for both the

employee and the institution, as they establish a direct deposit

account and debit card without a formal banking relationship.

These cards can be issued once or be reloadable, are available from

a number of firms, and offer campus employees all the convenience

and security of a debit card, including cash ATM withdrawals,

point-of-sale transactions and online account access. Prepaid

payroll cards are also more secure, as they include cardholder

fraud protections and relieve employees from needing to carry

large amounts of cash.

Colleges and universities may also consider taking advantage of

the opportunity to engage with students who require prepaid debit

cards because they are underbanked or unbanked about financial

literacy, and encourage them to pursue a banking relationship.

Change management

Implementing processes as dramatically new and different as these

electronic payment systems is challenging for any organization.

This is even more the case in higher education, where institutions

are o�en under tight resource constraints and the wide variety

of stakeholders creates considerable complications. Still, even

the largest colleges and universities have updated their systems

successfully and reaped the rewards of improved efficiency.

A detailed spend analysis is a crucial early step in identifying

areas where electronic payments can make the most difference.

Institutions should identify precisely how much money is being paid

out to vendors, students and employees through paper, and then

subdivide these groups based on criteria such as size or frequency

of payment, for example. Depending on the needs of the institution,

leaders may want to start with those most significant areas first; or

employ another strategy, such as starting small and working up to

the biggest transactions.

Ultimately, clear communication will be key to gaining buy-in of

any new process and initiative. All stakeholders and participants,

be they administrators, vendors, students or employees, should

understand the clear benefits to themselves and the institution,

and know to whom they should direct their questions and concerns.

Maintaining this communication from the outset — and throughout

implementation with regular progress reports — should also keep

everyone enthusiastic about the new procedures.

Implementation may be a gradual and challenging process, but the

eventual rewards of reduced costs and improved efficiency will

quantifiably benefit the institution, and enable more resources to

be devoted to pursuing the ultimate mission at every college and

university: teaching and learning.

The eventual rewards of reduced

costs and improved efficiency will

quantifiably benefit the institution

SPONSORED CONTENT

Institution Page Institution Page

Alfred U (N.Y.) 58

Antioch U (Ohio) 16

Antioch U, New England (N.H.) 16

Atlantic, College of the (Maine) 48

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Baylor U (Texas) 58

Boston College 18

Boston U 18

Brown University 48

California Polytechnic State U 16

Cardiff, U of (Wales) 27

Central Connecticut State U 58

Coastal Georgia, College of 16

Connecticut, U of 8

Duke U 16

Franciscan U of Steubenville (Ohio) 16

George Mason U (Va.) 52

Georgia, U of 40

Ghent, U of (Belgium) 28

Green Mountain College (Vt.) 50

Hampshire College (Mass.) 48

Harrisburg U of Sci. and Tech. (Pa.) 16

Harvard 60

Henderson CC (Ky.) 30

Hendrix College (Ark.) 26

Keene State College (N.H.) 16

Kentucky, U of 39

Kirkwood CC (Iowa) 41

Laurel U (N.C.) 16

Louisiana State U 40

Mankato State (Minn.) 60

Maryland, U of 32

Massachusetts, Dartmouth, U of 14

Messiah College (Pa.) 8

Metropolitan State U of Denver 28

Michigan, U of 28

Mississippi State U 40, 41

Missouri State U 58

Moraine Park Technical College (Wis.) 27

New Hampshire, U of 30, 42

New Jersey Institute of Technology 16

North Carolina State U 43

North Dakota, U of 40, 41

Notre Dame College (Ohio) 52, 53

Ohio Northern U 16

Ohio State U, The 54, 56

Our Lady of the Lakes U (Texas) 27

Pennsylvania, U of 39, 40

Rhode Island School of Design 48

Rochester Inst. of Tech. (N.Y.) 26, 27, 28

Rollins College (Fla.) 27

Roosevelt U (Ill.) 16

Rowan U (N.J.) 16

Rutgers 41

San Francisco, U of 16

St. Bonaventure U (N.Y.) 56

St. Norbert College (Wis.) 30, 34

Saint Rose, The College of (N.Y.) 16

Sciences, U of the (Pa.) 16

Southern California, U of 16

Stanford 60

Sterling College (Vt.) 48, 51

Unity College (Maine) 16, 48, 50

Vasser College (N.Y.) 50

Virginia, U of 40

Voorhees College (S.C.) 30, 33

Western New England U (Mass.) 53

Western Washington U 48, 50

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Phoenix Kiosk .........................................................................33www.PhoenixKiosk.com

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Bombings Bring Scrutiny of Student VisasImmigration bill could improve flow of information to customs officials

Behind the NewsThe student visa process has come under scrutiny after investigators

in the Boston bombings learned that a friend of suspect Dzhokhar

Tsarnaev entered the U.S. with an expired student visa.

Azamat Tazhayakov, a student from Kazakhstan, was arrested

on suspicion of obstructing justice after investigators say items

were removed from Tsarnaev’s University of Massachusetts, Dart-

mouth dorm room three days after the attack. Tazhayakov left the

U.S. in December and was allowed to re-enter the country on Jan.

20 even though his visa had been terminated earlier that month

when he was dismissed from UMass Dartmouth. The border agent

who admitted Tazhayakov at the airport did not have access to the

information in the Department of Homeland Security’s Student

and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

Homeland Security has since ordered all border agents to verify

that every international student who arrives in the country has a

valid student visa, according to an internal memo from May 3.

And, on May 14, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously

approved an amendment to an immigration bill that will require

customs officials at the nation’s 329 ports of entry be immediately

notified by DHS when a student visa is terminated.

Michael Reilly, executive director of the American Association

of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, says it’s rare for

international students with expired visas to fall between the cracks.

“It’s a shared responsibility,” says Reilly. “The schools don’t

monitor the visas per se, they monitor the status of students.”

It’s then the government’s responsibility to ensure students’ visas

are active through its SEVIS system. That database was created in

2002 because one of the 9/11 hijackers had entered the U.S. on a

student visa.

“We have almost 800,000 international students in the United

States,” he says. The rarity of situations (like Tazhayakov’s) suggests

to me the system is working quite well.”

Reilly says SEVIS II, a system that could go into effect as early

as 2014, “would improve a lot of situations by automating the pro-

cesses and putting more online.” —Kristen Domonell

Funding Engagement on CampusAs other campus departments experience cut or stagnant bud-

gets, campus engagement centers have been an exception. Al-though they’re generally smaller departments, their budgets have been steadily growing over the past few years. That’s according to a survey of Campus Compact’s member institutions. As its report, “Creating a Culture of Assessment,” shows, 18 percent of the 557 responding centers reported annual budgets of $250,000 or higher in 2012, compared to 15 percent in 2010. Centers with low budgets are also decreasing: 37 percent had budgets of less than $20,000 in 2012, compared to 39 percent in 2010.

Maureen Curley, president of Campus Compact, says students have been a driving force in the focus on increased engagement. They want hands-on experiences that connect their studies with the community around them.

Similarly, alumni like to see their institutions being active in citizenship. As high student enrollment and alumni donations are crucial to the health of an institution, it benefits the institution to make engagement a priority.

It’s essential for universities to make their community efforts

known, Curley says. Beyond gathering, publishing, and publicizing the results of their outreach, she recommends institutions seek the Community Engagement Elective Classification from the Carnegie Foundation.

“It is an arduous task to obtain this classification,” Curley says, adding that it shows others the institution is serious about engagement.

Universities and their communities have a better chance of ob-taining engagement funding when they present a united front to federal and state legislators, says Kim Griffo, executive director of the International Town & Gown Association.

“When communities and institutions show they are on the same page regarding a project, legislators are more likely to grant mon-ey,” Griffo says.

A crucial part of getting neighbors excited about engagement is making them feel like part of the university, Griffo says.

A dedicated engagement center building and parking lot let community members know they are welcome. The full report can be found online at http://bit.ly/18IsMts. —Kylie Lacey


Behind the News

Over the past year, the American public has gotten a rare look into the alleged

unethical and deceitful business, hygiene, medical, and pharmacy practices

at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts.

In an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” one former lab tech reported that

“the company got greedy, over extended, and we got sloppy.”

Across the nation, pharmacy education thought leaders are now partner-

ing with pharmaceutical industry executives to create a professional workforce

development pipeline of pharmacists, educators, and researchers. This pipeline

is a key driver for improving patient care, educating allied health professions,

and raising community health awareness and wellness.

The University of Southern California hosts the Pharmacy Explorers

program—an Early College Pathway in partnership with inner-city high

schools. This partnership better informs elementary and middle school

students of career options in molecular pharmacology, toxicology, pharma-

ceutical science, gerontology, and global medicine.

Steeped in a special mission of social justice, Roosevelt University (Ill.)

now hosts a new pharmacy school. George MacKinnon, founding dean of

the College of Pharmacy, explains that pharmacists play a critical role in

addressing today’s rapidly changing health-care market conditions. “As a

pharmacist, I believe that the pharmacy degree is the ‘engineering’ degree

of the health sciences. It is the competent pharmacists in community phar-

macies, hospitals, and long-term care facilities who actually help patients

and other health-care providers improve health outcomes with medica-

tions, monitoring, and counseling.”

During its venerable 125-year history, Ohio Northern University’s

Raabe College of Pharmacy graduated thousands of professionally licensed

pharmacists. What sets ONU apart is the infusion of the practice of phar-

macy with a strong liberal arts curriculum, a community-as-family phi-

losophy, and its steadfast patient-oriented teaching practices.

We turn to our leading colleges and schools of pharmacy to prevent a

reoccurrence of the alleged malpractice at the New England Compounding

Center. Their schools of pharmacy will ensure public health and ethical

conduct are the top priorities for future pharmacists.

—James Martin and James E. Samels, Future Shock columnists and authors of

The Sustainable University (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), will cover

the financing of green energy and technology solutions in their UBTech 2013

session on “Myths and Realities of Campus Sustainability.” Martin is a professor

of English at Mount Ida College (Mass.) and Samels is president and CEO of The

Education Alliance.

PharmaU: Proper Use, Public Health, Professional Responsibility

MORE ONLINE @www.universitybusiness.com/futureshock

FUTURE SHOCKJ a m e s M a r t i n a n d J a m e s E . S a m e l sTim Jordan has been named vice chancellor and chief

financial officer at Antioch University (Ohio). He has served in finance-related capacities with Antioch for almost 30 years, most recently as the vice president for finance and administration at Antioch University New England (N.H.). … In April, the University of the Sciences (Pa.) held the inauguration for Helen F. Giles-Gee, the school’s 22nd president. She previously led Keene State College (N.H.) and was provost of Rowan University (N.J.). … Eric Darr is now president

of the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (Pa.). He had been interim president since last July, when founding president Mel Schia-velli stepped down. ... Sean Sheridan became the sixth president of Franciscan Uni-versity of Steubenville (Ohio) in mid-April. … Gregory F. Al-oia has been named the fifth

president of the College of Coastal Georgia. He takes over on July 1. … Larry D. McCullough, president of Laurel University (N.C.), will retire, effective June 30. … President Joel S. Bloom, of New Jersey Institute of Technology, has been appointed to the newly formed Innovation NJ Coalition, which will advise the state’s Partnership for Action on how industry and academia can work together to improve the state’s economy and attract more federal funding. … The College of Saint Rose (N.Y.) has named Hadi Salavitabar as its new pro-vost and vice president for academic affairs. … Michael Evans is now provost and vice president for academic affairs at Unity College (Maine). … David P. Christy, dean of the Orfalea College of Business at the Cali-fornia Polytechnic State University, will step into the roles of provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Baruch College (N.Y.) this summer. … Kevin K. Kumashiro is now dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. … John Trasviña, assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Oppor-tunity for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is replacing Jeffrey Brand as dean of the University of San Francisco’s law school. … Philip Ben-nett, former managing editor of The Washington Post, is now director of the DeWitt Wallace center for Media and Democracy at Duke University. —Jordan Mills

PEOPLE WATCH

Tim Jordan


Behind the NewsSTATS WATCH

Admitted Students Want to Connect, Not Be InformedOn Friday, April 19, when the entire city of Boston was on lockdown

during the manhunt for the marathon bombing suspects, institu-

tions such as Boston College and Boston University were posting on

Facebook to let admitted students know the status’ of open houses

scheduled to occur that weekend.

“Admitted student Open House programming has been can-

celled for today and tomorrow, April 19 and 20. Please do not come

to campus for these events. We are exploring options for accommo-

dating those of you who want to visit campus before making your

enrollment decision,” administrators at BU wrote on the “Boston

University Class of 2017” Facebook page.

Thanks to those pages, the institutions had a logical place to get

the word out about events during the crisis. Of course, that’s not ex-

actly the motivation behind creating these pages—helping accepted

students make a decision is.

Gil Rogers, director of marketing and outreach at Zinch, explains

that once students are accepted into a school, they often focus on

whether or not they’ll fit in socially. “What students want is to get the

inside scoop about campus life [via] Facebook,” he says.

“Facebook groups or pages are a great way to engage with admit-

ted students,” says Suzanne Leung, senior enrollment consultant at

Inigral, which partnered with Zinch on the “2013 Social Admis-

sions Report” that surveyed more than 11,000 college-bound high

school students.

It appears Facebook and other social networks now have more in-

fluence than ever on students’ college choices. The report found that

seven out of 10 college prospects use social media when deciding on

where to enroll, and a school’s social media presence has at least some

influence on a student’s decision 76 percent of the time.

Leung says Inigral has found that putting students in touch with

each other on the social medium and allowing them to meet each

other or current students before physically meeting on campus also

works well to improve engagement. While administrators should

take official ownership of these Facebook pages and monitor them to

answer questions and provide information, Leung also says the idea

is to let students “own” these communities—which means letting the

conversation be honest.

Learn more at http://inigral.com/research. —Lauren Williams

Administrators and Faculty Split on Online Learning’s ValueThe number of students taking at least one course online is on the rise; the 2012 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and released this year indicated that number surpassed 6.7 million for the fall 2011 semester.

That said, there is a divergence between higher ed administra-tors and faculty on the value of online learning. Seventy-seven percent of academic leaders surveyed believe online education re-sults in the same or superior learning outcomes as in face-to-face classes. However, only 30.2 percent of chief academic officers think their faculty accept online learning as valuable and legitimate. This figure has decreased from the recorded statistic in 2004. With 69.1 percent of chief academic leaders saying online education is a key part of their long-term strategy, faculty must learn to embrace it.

Jeff Seaman, co-director of the Babson Survey Research Group, and Todd Hitchcock, senior vice president for online solutions and business development at Pearson Learning Solutions (a study spon-sor) agree that the fear of the unknown contributes to faculty wari-

ness over online learning. As Seaman explains, the acceptance rate increases when faculty have had exposure to online learning. Hitch-cock adds, “Faculty acceptance of online learning goes up when there’s online learning training or administrators take a collabora-tive approach to implementation and involve their faculty.”

The tendency of administrators to look at the long-term health of their institution may also account for their higher rate of accep-tance. Seaman says faculty are focused on the time and effort to develop and teach an online course. If desired learning outcomes aren’t produced, that is time and effort that’s wasted. Administra-tors are more focused on the growth of the institution as a whole.

“Chief academic officers want to provide a service to a popula-tion that is large and growing,” Hitchcock says. “They want to open access to those who cannot easily come to a physical campus.”If administrators want to make online learning an integral part of their campus, they need to crystalize the mission of their institution to their faculty. —K.L.

“Admitted Students” Facebook Page/Group Experiences

Rated by College-Bound High Schoolers

Source: “2013 Social Admissions Report” from Inigral and Zinch

5 = great

4321 = terrible

21%

33%

37%

7%

2%

Gardner: The University of Missouri’s journalism school recently tweeted that 55 percent of news readers are us-ing mobile devices to read the news. Only 44 percent use laptops or desktops. Clearly, we’re moving to using mo-bile devices more and more.

Mobile phones and tablets are replacing PCs at a rapid rate. This mobile adoption makes having an effective mo-bile app a necessary method of publicizing your institu-tion. This is much like how having a website went from a “nice to have” to a “must have” in the mid-1990s.

What we have learned is that a pleasing user experi-ence that is easy to use, delivers useful content, and worth recommending to your friends is critical for mobile adoption. Otherwise, users download the app, then de-lete it without even using it.

SAP is a world leader in enterprise software. Mercury Intermedia is an innovative mobile application developer. Together with Ole Miss, they partnered to create an ef-

Mobile applications are on the rise as the method for communicating with a university’s expansive audience. Though apps have the potential to deliver content in a new, dynamic way, many higher ed leaders are unsure how to best deploy an effective mobile app strategy. This web seminar addressed how the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) was able to successfully release an effective app for its campus community.

SPONSORED WEB SEMINAR DIGEST

Creating an Effective Mobile App for Higher Ed

fective mobile app that gives info to staff, students, and alumni on a device they carry at all times.

Gates: Ole Miss is a public university in Oxford, Missis-sippi, about an hour south of Memphis. We aim to serve our entire state. Our mobile application is one result of our desire to be considered a leader in the higher educa-tion sphere. We believe that if we are leaders in technol-ogy, then we will be perceived as leaders overall.

Our IT landscape includes SAP for our enterprise re-source planning system. This relationship began in 1998 and has been integral to the launch of our app. We do not have a large IT staff. This relationship with SAP and Mer-cury Intermedia has allowed us to get the most out of our limited personnel resources.

This past year, a survey by Educause revealed that 62 percent of U.S. students have a smartphone with a data plan. fifteen percent own a tablet. At Ole Miss, we aim to

MARK GARDNERDirector, Enterprise MobilitySAP

KATHY GATES, PH.D.CIOUniversity of Mississippi

PAUL STANLEYVice President, Business DevelopmentMercury Intermedia


To watch this web seminar in its entirety please go to http://www.universitybusiness.com/ws050713

support all types of mobile devices. Bandwidth can be a major challenge; our internet provider recommended we plan for four to six network devices per student. That, com-bined with more video streaming than ever, creates real challenges in maintaining a good connectivity experience across campus. Our bandwidth consumption has followed an exponential growth path for the past five years.

In Fall 2011, we conducted a survey on campus that in-dicated 54.13 percent of students plan to use their mobile devices more and PCs less, which falls right in line with the statistic Mark quoted. We also asked about iPad own-ership; 35 percent of students owned one, and even more alumni, parents, and staff owned one. We could clearly see this shift to mobile device adoption.

From user interfaces to campus infrastructure to server responsiveness to web design, mobile adoption means great changes for universities. When I was looking at cre-ating an application, I examined other university’s apps. Many of them looked the same and required users to click through many buttons to get useful information. The tab-let version was often simply a blown up version of the smartphone version, so resolution was often poor on tablets. I was not satisfied with these experiences. SAP introduced me to Mercury Intermedia, which helped Ole Miss launch a state-of-the-art mobile news app. Mercury Intermedia was already at the forefront of creating mo-bile news apps for the consumer market, so to apply their expertise to the higher education field was very exciting.

We aimed to have a rich user experience, where the con-tent was designed for each device type. We started with an iPad app to share news stories, HD photos, and videos. Mercury’s platform is called M3. Ole Miss set up content feeds that are consumed by M3. In higher ed, we often have conversations about whether cloud, on-premise, or proprietary software or open source is the way to go. The answer is yes to all. We have all types available in our app, from social media to a feed from our radio station. It is a hybrid of many pieces of information, but is presented to the user as one experience in the app. We have orga-nized our app by our primary audiences. News, announce-ments, photo galleries, and campus events that are filtered by audience type. We connected our university’s Twitter feeds to deliver dynamic content after hours. For exam-ple, if there’s a baseball game, the app shares tweets from the game. We also have maps and directories that are fed from our SAP system. We can even push notifications to the app, as well as link to other university mobile-friendly sites that perform specific tasks.

Stanley: Ole Miss already has an iPad and iPhone app and will be adding an Android app later this year. This is an example of how we’re taking the uniqueness of a device and modifying it; we’re not simply taking the design of the iPhone app and using it for the Android.

Analytics are a great way to monitor consumption, learn about your audience’s preferences, and optimize your content. You gain that mobile mindshare that drives the consumption of your information. In Mer-cury apps, you can pull the daily unique users, which showed us the huge impact of the iPhone app that was released in January at Ole Miss. Analytics revealed the heightened access to the app when there was a tornado near campus and a tornado alert was pushed through the notification system. People opened up the app to find more information about that tornado. Also, when Ole Miss became the SEC basketball champions, user consumption increased. Over time, you can use analytics to see what is generating interest in your app. Analytics can also show which sections of the app are most popular and what hours the app is most commonly used.

Monthly unique user reports at Ole Miss showed that on a campus with 18,000 students, there was over 7,000 unique visitors in March 2013. That is an amazing testa-ment to the level of engagement that this app has been able to gain for Ole Miss.

Gates: We conducted a follow-up survey last spring af-ter we went live with the iPad app. We were pleased to see that reactions were very positive. Some specific things people liked about the app included:

Responders said the app puts Ole Miss ahead of other universities. We are proud to have a new way to communicate. We also asked users how frequently they used the app to get information; within a month of the app being out, it jumped to the number one most frequent method of getting information about Ole Miss.

The app gives us a way to convey the feeling of the campus. It shows the diversity in our population, our commitment to access and affordability, and gives us a way to engage with potential students and parents. The app gives us a way to feature news beyond just sports, including academic programs and achievements.

A well-designed, content-driven app is key for universities to share information and engage with students and alumni


VIEWPOINT

As rising tuition and the uncer-

tain job market pressure families

to spend their college savings

wisely—and to even question the value of

such spending—colleges and universities

are more likely to be evaluated based on

their return on investment. It is not just

academic quality and prestige that today’s

prospective students look for. They also

demand a proven track record of graduate

school admissions, job placements, and

earning potential in relation to the overall

cost of enrollment.

Institutions have struggled to illus-

trate their value in these challenging

economic times. According to a recent

Pew Research Center study, 86 percent of

Americans still believe college is a good

investment, yet 57 percent feel it does not

provide a good value for the money and

75 percent say it is too expensive.

Amid this harsh reality, higher ed

leaders need to create a culture centered

on nurturing students’ post-graduation

success and make a strong case for the

real-world value of their degrees. This

approach is not just about strengthening

institutions’ career services functions. It

extends to activities in the classroom and

off campus, such as alumni engagement,

branding to employers, and changes in

student attitude. A culture focused on

graduate outcomes also involves instilling

a sense of institution-wide responsibility

for graduates’ success in the marketplace.

We have spoken with officials, faculty,

and career development administrators

at many institutions across the country,

solicited feedback from leading employ-

ers, and formally surveyed thousands of

graduates and employers. Here are seven

key recommendations that emerged:

1. Ensure student success through an

“it takes a village” approach. Post-grad-

uation success is everyone’s responsibility,

not just the career development depart-

ment’s. Each unit at the college—from

academics and experiential learning to

alumni services and development—needs

to define its role in students’ career devel-

opment and “own” its share of the institu-

tion’s post-graduate achievement goals.

A well-developed curriculum and

an effective career services function are

critical success factors. However, so is

the sense of shared ownership of gradu-

ate outcomes across the organization.

Institutions must break down silos by de-

signing organizational structures and in-

centives that facilitate collaboration (e.g.,

data and contact sharing) across all parts

of the university.

2. Own your backyard. Understand and

cater to the economic centers near your

campus. The local community has strong

ties with your students and can be their

staunchest advocate. Analyze the nearby

economic hubs and the competitive

environment, and align your career

development efforts to meet the commu-

nity’s employment and experiential learn-

ing opportunities. Be aware of the unique

industries in your region—and seek ways

your curriculum and career programs

may cater to local and regional employ-

ers’ needs. Consider investing in your

employer relations team. Maintaining re-

lationships with key employers is critical

to successful career placement.

3. Build cost-effective partnerships

with key recruiting companies. Due

to shrinking recruiting funds, many

employers skip traditional career fairs.

Instead, they now choose to recruit from

a handful of select academic institutions

that offer cost-effective ways for compa-

nies to engage with students. Make sure

your institution develops strong, high-

touch partnerships that help employers

interact with students in a variety of low-

cost, but effective ways, such as guest in-

struction and mentoring.

4. Bring the real world into the class-

room and vice versa. While faculty are

commonly prepared to support students

interested in moving on to graduate edu-

cation, they are less comfortable assisting

students who plan to seek employment.

Develop ways for faculty to gain industry

exposure and relationships so they can

integrate elements relevant to current em-

ployer needs into their curriculum. Work

closely with faculty to develop meaning-

ful experiential learning opportunities

for your student. Internships and relevant

employment experiences can sometimes

be the differentiator that students need to

get the job they want.

5. Think about students’ futures from

day one. Beginning to look for a job or

graduate school program senior year

is too late. We recommend instituting

structured career counseling early on

and establishing a graduate-outcomes

The local community has strong ties with your students and can be their staunchest advocate.

7 Ways to Nurture Graduate OutcomesInstitutionwide ideas for helping students get a return on their education investment

By Mark Oster

www.universitybusiness.com June 2013 | 23

mindset that underscores the urgency

and importance of student focus from

day one. Integrate academic and career

counseling to help students shape their

approach to their college experience in

ways that would enable a successful post-

graduate career. For example, rather than

helping students select courses that just

satisfy graduation requirements, advisors

should guide them toward courses and

experiential learning opportunities that

are also uniquely relevant to their own

career goals.

6. Bridge the gap between hard skills

and workplace expectations. Are stu-

dents getting the education employers are

looking for? Are their skills and knowl-

edge valued by the industry?

While employers rely on objective

measures such as GPA to evaluate stu-

dents’ technical capabilities, they tend to

focus most of their attention on assessing

soft skills such as work ethic, teamwork,

industry knowledge, communication,

writing, and critical thinking. These are

the differentiating factors in hiring deci-

sions. Consider implementing feedback

loops between your institution and part-

ner employers to gain insights on their

view of students’ capabilities relative to

the skills companies need.

7. Leverage young alumni, as they

make the best advocates. Recent gradu-

ates are the most current “data points”

employers use to evaluate your institution

and the educational value you provide.

The workplace performance of recently

hired graduates and their enthusiasm to-

ward their alma mater are key determi-

nants of continued employer engagement

with a university. Young alumni also tend

to be very enthusiastic advocates for their

school because they feel closely invested

in the success of graduating students.

Although not always able to offer sig-

nificant financial support, young alumni

are a treasure trove of talented resources,

often eager to contribute to the well-

being of their institution through men-

toring and other non-economic means.

(As with all alumni, but particularly

young alumni, outreach should involve

more than a monetary “ask.”)

As prospective students weigh their

options based on what happens after

they receive their degrees, the value

that colleges and universities provide to

graduates is no longer based solely on

academics. In an increasingly competi-

tive market, higher ed institutions must

take responsibility for the post-graduate

outcomes of their students and build ca-

pabilities that enable them to have suc-

cessful careers.

Mark Oster is partner-in-charge of the National Not-for-Profit Business Advisory Services Practice at Grant Thornton, www.grantthornton.com.

Kym Glass: The Global Education Alliance is a worldwide consortium of higher education A/V and IT users. The Alli-ance has taken part in the best practices and development of solutions globally for a wide variety of institutions for over 20 years. This long history has led to a unique under-standing of the challenges and technical requirements for colleges and universities. The Global Education Alliance was established to address the needs of IT and A/V leaders and offer exclusive benefits to its members.

The University of Minnesota is a Global Education Alli-ance member, was a finalist in the Innovation Awards at UBTech 2011, and has been leading the way for A/V best practices in the classroom for years.

Ray Troyer: Classroom Technical Services evolved from various separate audio-visual departments on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. We have 23 full-and part-time employees, with five engineers and six technicians. We have an average gross sales of $2.75 mil-lion, and this year we will get closer to $3.3 million. I men-tion the gross sales because we are an Internal Service Organization (ISO) within the university that is not sup-ported by university funds. We charge other university de-partments for our services and are federally mandated to neither make a profit nor operate in the red. We purchase our equipment from local dealers and re-sell it to our inter-nal customers. I also believe that as an ISO, we inherently have an efficiency advantage over an outside vendor.

The Office of Classroom Management was formed

Employing resource management software (RMS) can help higher education institutions maximize A/V, financial, and personnel resources. Additionally, the automation provided by RMS can increase A/V equipment efficiency. This web seminar was the final in the three-part “Automate Innovation” series and focused on how the University of Minnesota centrally controls its A/V hardware, maximizes sustainability, and improves efficiency through RMS.


Automate Innovation Series: Automate Efficiency

in 2000 to deal with many issues, including the class-room physical environment and classroom technology. At that time, Classroom Technical Services was formed and charged with developing a base design that could be scaled across the wide variety of Classroom Manage-ment’s classrooms. One of the initiatives we developed was the “Projection Capable Classroom.” The Projection Capable Classroom requires the instructor to bring his or her laptop to the classroom. This one decision lowered the cost of the base design and has saved thousands of dol-lars each year on support costs compared to classrooms with dedicated computers.

The Projection Capable Classroom’s base design in-cludes a projector and program sound system with a VGA laptop input, a VHS VCR and a DVD player. The sys-tem is controlled by a tactile button control panel with eight buttons.

Variations on this base design include ITV functionality, video conference and most recently, the Active Learning Classroom, or ALC. ALCs provide the student with a col-laborative environment with as many as 14 tables seating nine students each. Students are expected to bring their own tablet or laptop to class. Each table has its own flat screen monitor with three laptop inputs. The instructor has the choice of displaying his or her presentation on all of the student tables, routing one student table’s signal to all student tables or allowing the tables to work independent-ly. This capability is provided via AMX NetLinx controllers and AMX CatPro routers.


To watch this web seminar in its entirety please go to http://www.universitybusiness.com/ws040913

We have gained efficiency with our Projection Capable Classrooms because:

pared to rooms with dedicated classroom computers. Teachers working from their own laptop or tablet can deliver their presentations more efficiently than working with a computer with which they are not as familiar and don’t use every day.

to classroom.

hours, further extending equipment life and reducing energy costs.

program was first being developed. Among its many ben

classroom planning decisions.Campus police are notified immediately when an at

tempt is made to remove a projector or unauthorized tampering with a system occurs. It should be noted that we have never lost a projector in a classroom connected to

Rooms showing an issue can be dealt with before class begins. Every classroom system hosts a web page that allows a support person to assist an instructor with any issues they are having with operating the classroom technology. This saves time and money for the university.

life meets a predetermined threshold of lamp hours. This allows us to replace the lamp well before it burns out, preventing projector damage. Teaching and learning are

are operationally ready more than 99 percent of the time.In my opinion, the automation supplied by the control

of Minnesota to efficiently provide the classrooms needed to support the university’s mission. To summarize, I would like to use a phrase of our classroom support manager: “Maximized teaching time by reduced classroom down time.”

Casey Foulds, Education Relationship Manager, AMX: There are two key stakeholders involved to maintain an efficient campus. The instructor wants the technology in the room to be reliable and intuitive. It must work every time and class time must not be wasted getting the room powered up to use. The user experience must also be con

sistent from one room to the next. An instructor should not have to relearn the way the system operates in every room. The room should also provide perfect audio and video for the knowledge transfer from the instructor to the student.

The other key stakeholder is the support person. From his or her perspective, it is all about minimizing the total cost of ownership. Therefore, the technology must be:

its lifecycle

equipment

objectives

for remote monitoring and managementTo create a perfect classroom, there must be projec

tors or displays and speakers for audio reinforcement.

effectively installed.

centralized management and monitoring of all of the equipment across the campus. This suite helps a campus incorporate collaborative initiatives into their technology equipment, use, and support. It helps to maximize A/V and IT staff efficiencies and provides asset utilization reporting.

software for IT and A/V managers that provides remote management capabilities for A/V assets and building

dashboard with enhanced graphics and navigation to

prise contributes to energy reduction initiatives and extending useful life of devices.

The millions of dollars you’ve invested in beautiful,

Enterprise is a simple answer to maximize your technolo

port, and security with enterprise scalable software, and improve Help Desk performance metrics and meet service level agreements through proactive maintenance.

AMX can bring you the textbook result for a technology efficient campus.

KYM GLASSProgram ManagerAMX Education Alliance

RAY TROYEREngineering ManagerClassroom Technical ServicesUniversity of Minnesota


With videoconferencing technology, distance is no barrier to face-to-face collaboration.

At the Rochester Institute of Technology (N.Y.), bio-

medical photography students are showing their work

to audiences in Wales. A librarian is providing tutori-

als to students at satellite campuses in Eastern Europe.

And researchers are holding meetings with project

sponsors hundreds of miles away.

It’s all thanks to videoconferencing technology, in place at RIT

since 2009. RIT’s Office of Research Computing developed the

institution’s Global Collaboration Grid from a combination of in-

house software, open-source software—including the Access Grid

from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laborato-

ries—and other components. Administrators began using the tech-

nology for meetings with program officers at the National Science

Foundation, which was financing some of the office’s research.

“This is sort of videoconferencing taken to the next level,” says

Gurcharan Khanna, director of research computing at the univer-

sity. “We can use it for meetings, and we can also use it for class-

room, distance-learning missions, and a kiosk system where you

have a video wall for large displays for people to collaborate at

multiple sites.”

RIT’s experience exemplifies the wide-ranging ways higher

education faculty and staff engage videoconferencing for long-

distance teamwork. Here’s a closer look at how the technology is

transforming teaching, research, and administrative connections.

Teaching and Research More than one-third of higher ed faculty reported using distance

and virtual learning methods more frequently than they had in the

past two years, according to “Learn Now, Lecture Later,” a June

2012 CDW-G study of high schools and colleges. Overall, 33 per-

cent of students and 37 percent of educators, in both high school

and higher ed, reported using telepresence—which according to

CDW-G’s definition includes telepresence, videoconferencing,

and/or web conferencing. Out of that number, 42 percent of stu-

dents and 30 percent of educators said they used the technology at

least once a week.

Students at Hendrix College (Ark.) use videoconferenc-

ing to participate in several collaborative courses with fellow

members of the Associated Colleges of the South. The program,

which uses a cloud-based Blue Jeans Network system, grew out

of the ACS’ New Paradigm initiative to expand the academic

choices of students enrolled at member colleges, says Hendrix

CIO David Hinson.

The 16-school consortium initially began offering noncredit

courses. For example, when one professor was elected to the Ar-

kansas delegation of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in

Charlotte, N.C., he conducted a virtual class in politics and elec-

tions from the convention floor. Another professor taught a fall

course in post-modern constructionism that connected his class

Virtual Teamwork


By Sonya Stinson

with students at three universities in China.

This spring, the ACS offered its first full-credit videoconference

class, a theater arts course taught by a professor at Rollins College

(Fla.). Hendrix students, participating remotely, got to take a class

their college had previously offered only every other year. “It gives

us some flexibility in terms of getting another option, as opposed to

having the faculty member teach an overload to accommodate the

course, or having to go out and get an adjunct,” Hinson says.

Moraine Park Technical College (Wis.) made its first foray

into videoconferencing in the early 1990s, with the purchase of

an ITV system that allowed the school to offer some joint courses

for students at its three campuses in Fond du Lac, West Bend,

and Beaver Dam.

In 2009, after about three years of eying a Cisco TelePresence

system, administrators acquired one and consulted with CDW-G

to implement it. The equipment was installed in a 14-seat room at

the West Bend campus, a 14-seat room at the Fond du Lac cam-

pus, and a six-seat room at the Beaver Dam campus.

“It finally got to the point where it was affordable for edu-

cation,” says Pete Rettler, the West Bend and online campus and

community partner at Moraine Park. Outfitting one 14-seat room

cost about $150,000, not counting the price to convert the room

to accommodate the equipment, he explains. “It was the single-

biggest budget item we had that year.”

Rettler says the rooms are booked more than 60 percent of the

time. Outside groups can also rent space. For example, a West Bend

area business partner tapped the technology to connect with a col-

league in Hong Kong.

Graduate psychology students at Our Lady of the Lakes Uni-

versity (Texas) use the same type of system to record and share

counseling sessions at clinics where they complete their practica.

When the recordings are complete, a Cisco Media Experience

Engine adds watermarks restricting the viewing of the videos in

compliance with HIPAA privacy regulations, explains OLLU chief

technology officer Joseph Deck.

The system also is at work in the OLLU speech pathology de-

partment, where faculty members and parents of children in ther-

apy can observe student-run laboratory sessions.

At RIT, the professor who teaches the biomedical photography

course has conducted virtual seminars linking his students with

those of colleagues at the University of Cardiff in Wales and the

National Library of Medicine. “This is a way for them to share

Follow the trainer: An RIT librarian conducts virtual tutorials for students

based in Dubrovnik, Croatia.


Virtual Teamwork

their research ... with the students in those remote sites,” Khanna

says. He recently facilitated a videoconference involving partici-

pants in Rochester, Belgium, and Australia: a professor on the RIT

campus, members of a faculty advisory committee at the Univer-

sity of Ghent (Belgium) and the student currently defending his

thesis from Down Under.

Administration CollaborationHigher ed administrative departments are using videoconferencing

to connect communities on campus and beyond.

The Metropolitan State University of Denver’s new decision

theater, the Center for Advanced Visualization and Experiential

Analysis (CAVEA), will feature videoconferencing capabilities

when it opens this fall. Along with students and faculty, busi-

nesses and organizations in the Rocky Mountain region will be

able to access the facility for meetings.

CAVEA director Susan Lowrance says

the first question she gets from people tour-

ing or inquiring about the facility is whether

it is videoconferencing-equipped. “A lot

of people are interested because they have

many stakeholder groups scattered across

the state, and it’s very difficult for them to all

meet at one time in one place.”

Lowrance expects the center to attract

gatherings to discuss environmental is-

sues, including regional land use and the

management of the Colorado River. Other

projects will have local experts collaborat-

ing with MSU Denver engineering and in-

dustrial design students who are building a

virtual wind tunnel.

At RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, students

eager for first-hand tips about making the transition from school-

to-work videoconference with alumni.

OLLU uses videoconferencing for meetings between faculty

and staff at its main campus in San Antonio and those located at

the Houston and the Rio Grande Valley branches.

At the University of Michigan Google Hangouts allow for re-

mote meetings among staff and communication during software

deployments. The small-scale Google teleconferencing program

enabled members of the Office of University Development to talk

to the deployment support team when migrating email and calen-

dar systems. “It got pretty intensive in the weeks coming up to the

actual migration, when we had to meet every day,” says Heather

Oleniczak, web and data integration application developer in the

development office. “If it was just to check in for 15 minutes, it

didn’t make sense to pull everybody away from what they were

doing to go and physically be in some conference room.”

Encouraging UseAs with any technology, ensuring an institution gets its money’s

worth is an important consideration. And a popular way to attain

a good ROI is to encourage use. Hendrix College’s Hinson says

maximizing the benefits of videoconferencing for better teamwork

requires choosing the right scenario for introducing the technology.

“We have to be careful that we don’t try to shoehorn technol-

ogy into a place where it’s not wanted or where it doesn’t work

well,” Hinson says. “One of the keys to success is having good

pre-existing relationships before you try to form these types of

collaborations, so that you don’t have a lot of dead air waiting for

engagement to happen.”

Another tip: Don’t overburden instructors with complex techni-

cal tasks. Instead of using a special videoconferencing room, Hendrix

faculty and administrators set up their equip-

ment in regular teaching spaces, staffing them

with student tech facilitators so instructors

could concentrate solely on teaching. “They

can teach without having to worry about how

they’re being framed in the shot or how they

look,” Hinson says. “The facilitator takes care

of handling the codex, negotiating the call,

and making sure we’ve got a good back chan-

nel for the other location.”

Deck, who uses Vyopta’s V-Control soft-

ware to keep the OLLU videoconferenc-

ing setup user-friendly, agrees on this point.

“Whatever you do has got to be very simple

for the faculty, staff, and students to do.”

Picture perfect: RIT biomedical photography students interact with students at the University of Cardiff in Wales.

Sonya Stinson is a New Orleans-based freelance writer.

ResourcesAccess Grid, www.accessgrid.orgAT&T Enterprise,www.business.att.com/ enterprise/business-solutionsBlue Jeans, http://bluejeans.com CDW-G, www.cdwg.comCisco, www.cisco.comGoogle Hangouts, www.google.com/ +/learnmore/hangoutsIVCi, www.ivci.comPolycom, www.polycom.comSprint, http://convergence.sprint.com/ voip_collaboration.aspxVerizon Business, http://e-meetings.verizonbusiness.comVyopta, www.vyopta.com

MORE ONLINE @ www.universitybusiness.com/virtualteamMeasuring the ROI on Videoconferencing


CIOs SPEAK OUTTop IT leaders on bandwidth,

malware, and file sharing woes— and how they’re keeping their

campuses running and safe

By Caryn Meyers Fliegler

(Clockwise from top left) Kimberly Conley, chief information officer, Henderson Community College; Timothy

Kentopp, chief technology officer at Voorhees College; Raechelle Clemmons, chief information officer, St. Norbert

College; Joanna Young, chief information officer, University of New Hampshire; Peter J. Murray, vice president

and chief information officer, University of Maryland

An effective chief information officer can be a bit like a superhero, but without the visible cape.

Protecting information and ensuring the population can go about its day-to-day are all in a day’s work for

these administrators. This spring, we talked with five campus CIOs to hear what is keeping them up at night

and getting them revved to go in the morning. While we heard bandwidth is an ever-growing need (it’s like a

teenager on a growth spurt), we also heard good news about the ability to use technology to inform the culture

and learning of an institution.

Read on to hear what Raechelle Clemmons of St. Norbert College (Wis.), Kimberly Conley of Henderson

Community College (Ky.), Timothy Kentopp of Voorhees College (S.C.), Peter J. Murray of the University of

Maryland, and Joanna Young of the University of New Hampshire have to say about hot technology topics.

What steps have you taken to bolster your network to handle bandwidth demands from a wide variety of

student devices? Do you have official policies as to what devices are allowed or not allowed?

CLEMMONS: About a year ago we moved from commercially getting our bandwidth, and we built an

infrastructure to get a direct fiber connection to the state’s educational network. That’s a huge boon for us. We

Kimberly Conley

Peter J. Murray Joanna Young Raechelle Clemmons

Timothy Kentopp


don’t manage by the type of file, but we try to make sure all of the

traffic gets an equal share of the bandwidth, which is not as much of

an issue now that we have the 1 gigabyte. We don’t limit what devices

they are allowed to use. The only thing we do prohibit is students

putting in their own networking equipment, like their own routers.

YOUNG: We triple our Wi-Fi or even more each year—it used to be

double. I really have started to think about this in the way you think

about your plumbing or your siding; it’s become another piece of

the physical infrastructure. If you don’t, it’s a negative differentiator.

Parents ask us about it when they come visit the campus.

MURRAY: We upgraded our core network from 1 gigabyte to 10

gigabytes to handle the latent demand for bandwidth that has been

showing signs of increasing steadily over the past few years. The

increase has been due to an increase in devices used on campus, as

well as increased data transmission across the network and to/from

the internet. It’s a consumer-driven environment with students,

faculty, and staff bringing these devices to our campus. While we

try to be proactive, we do often have to react. From the security

standpoint, we have that nailed down pretty well. Of course, we

make adjustments when we get updates on software and hardware.

CONLEY: We spent a little over $100,000 on a project to put in a

new wireless controller and access points so we were saturated. We

run both a faculty/staff and a student wireless system.

KENTOPP: We’ve been looking at solutions like Aerohive. It’s a

good way to get additional coverage out for users at a lower cost

and lower maintenance. As far as the back end goes, a couple

of years ago, we split access into two dedicated circuits, so our

students would be covered on one internet circuit and the faculty

and staff would be covered on another. We saw this coming and

bought additional bandwidth so we’d be more reliable.

How do you protect your network from malware or viruses that

may be lurking on individuals’ devices?

CLEMMONS: All devices that hit our network have to be

registered. If it’s a computer, it goes through a process where it

looks for a number of things, and one of those is antivirus software.

We’re at the beginning stages of thinking about and understanding

protection around mobile devices. I’m starting to get spam on my

mobile device, which wasn’t happening a year or two ago.

YOUNG: As a chief information officer, that’s a constant journey.

You have to have very good connections to your vendors in

that space to make sure you’re keeping up with the latest and

greatest. I have to say, where we’ve been putting energy has been

in educating people. We educate our students when they come

through the door with us, and every year, we have a strong focus

in October, which is cyber-security month. People are more

aware and careful.

MURRAY: Currently, we have our IPS configured to watch

inbound as well as outbound traffic. Devices that appear to be

causing issues are blocked, and the network administrator for the

local subnet that the device is connecting to is notified so that he

or she can resolve the issue. We are investigating a network access

control (NAC) solution and implementing posture checking for all

devices that connect to the wireless network or via VPN.

CONLEY: Currently, we’re using Cisco’s Clean Access, which

is being phased out. Users have to be at a certain level of virus

protection on their machine before they are allowed access to our

network. We’re moving to NAC. That’s been our way of keeping

things from getting to our network. We segment the traffic, too;

that traffic never really touches our production network.

KENTOPP: We have this wireless controller from Cisco, and

it’s high-end stuff. It’s capable of DOD-grade, AES-encrypted,

two-factor authentication, Wi-Fi access for segments of the

population. If there are 50,000 new infections or exploits or

malware every month, you’re blocking more and more and

letting fewer things in. The whole concept of application

whitelisting is the reverse of that. You have a narrow definition

of what you’re going to allow. For example, our financial

services office only really works with a dozen or so apps, [and]

we’re going to allow those. We’re looking closer and closer to

that as a concept. We think allowing access to highly defined

applications and blocking everyone else is the only way we can

manage threats in the future.

CIOs SPEAK OUT

‘A hardware appliance … is configured to block all peer-to-peer protocols unless

someone can provide us with a legitimate business need for utilizing those

protocols. To date, we have received no requests for a deviation.’

—Peter J. Murray, University of Maryland


File sharing is a huge problem on campuses. How do you keep

it under control? Do you educate students to the consequences?

CLEMMONS: Partially because we are doing rate-limiting and

traffic-shaping, [students] can’t grab too much bandwidth or the

process slows down a bit. And, when they register a device, they

agree to a policy on file-sharing, and we have a specific procedure for

addressing it. If we get a complaint, we know who it’s coming from

because the device is registered. We can suspend internet access.

They have to go through certain steps to get their access restored.

YOUNG: We take that very seriously. If something bad does

happen, of course there are formal ways you get notified about

that. We had a very good process working with our student affairs

as far as notifying students who allegedly did something maybe

they shouldn’t have. We also work with them to sit with one of

our security team, talk with them [about how] they can’t do this

again. It isn’t just that we pass along information; we actually feel

responsible as a university.

MURRAY: We manage bandwidth and policy enforcement with

a hardware appliance. It is configured to block all peer-to-peer

protocols unless someone can provide us with a legitimate business

need for utilizing those protocols. To date, we have received no

requests for a deviation and the number of complaints from the

RIAA and DMCA diminished to almost zero infractions. We are

required to educate students about the illegality of file sharing and

we have a web page that educates them regarding this issue.

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‘There’s this looming, ever-widening gulf, and it’s getting worse and worse every year,

between the perception and the reality of practical technology. We need to support an open environment, but quality takes time,

and you can’t do it overnight.’ —Timothy Kentopp, Voorhees College


CONLEY: Through having the separate student wireless, we’re able

to throttle the bandwidth they can use, so that kind of discourages

file sharing anyway. It’s a system decision (across the Kentucky

Community & Technical College System). On our college

computers, we limit the ability to download that type of software

and install it. We use group policies. We use a product called Deep

Freeze, which after every time you reboot the computer it comes

back to its implementation. I actually teach online security and

[teach about] ethical hacking.

What keeps you up at night and motivates you to get moving in

the morning, as far as technology usage on your campus?

CLEMMONS: Certainly our boards are very concerned about

information security, disaster recovery, and more recently, with

MOOCs and what that means for us.

These are important parts of what we

do, but mostly they are utility things

and the utility of running an IT

organization. What’s more interesting

to me is looking at how we’re going

to leverage technology to transform

our institution. What can I as a CIO

and our institution do to use this

technology that we know can be

tremendously transformative?

We’re all institutions of higher education, but we all have

unique value propositions. St. Norbert is an older institution with

a rich history; all those things are really good and we don’t want

to lose that, but we want to be relevant. Our goal for our service

desk is that you can contact us through Facebook or Twitter and

you’ll get the same type of response. Twitter has tremendous power.

Think about what you could do with that in the classroom. But

you have to get beyond the idea that you turn off your phone at the

classroom door. It is a bit of a re-education process.

YOUNG: We have a Twitter account now, that students can

tweet to if their classroom is too hot or cold. It’s very simple, but

it lets your students and constituents know you care and you’re

responding, and there’s a little bit of a cool factor. I think it really

has gone beyond a Facebook page for every class, where we think

of every post, like or dislike as an incident. What is it that was said,

negative or positive, and how should we respond? When people see

institutions behaving that way, it enhances their experience.

We had our annual emergency preparedness exercise last week.

It was an example of where the power was out on campus. We were

working with public safety officials, and everyone turned to me and

asked if the network would be up on campus. I said yes, it would.

I think higher education institutions, especially older ones, need to

think about the experience happening on campus.

MURRAY: I think, quite frankly, the biggest change from 10 or

even five years ago was that now, every week, at least a few times a

week, we are meeting and talking about IT security. The focus has

changed so drastically that it is the highest priority we address all

the time.

CONLEY: I have been fortunate to work with two presidents

who understood the importance of technology in the education

process, so I have rarely had to fight for recurring technology

funding. However, as the national economy begins to improve,

community college enrollment tends to decrease. We are seeing

that decrease now. Potential students who can find jobs will go

to work instead of going to school.

A decrease in enrollment means a

decrease in funding and that will affect

technology as well. As I am faced with

tighter budgets, I have to start looking

at how I can reduce costs without

affecting the faculty, staff, and student

experience. One place we are looking

closely at is our replacement cycles and

seeing how far we can stretch them—

perhaps moving from a three-year replacement cycle to a five-year

one for most computers.

KENTOPP: I would say that there’s this looming, ever-widening

gulf, and it’s getting worse and worse every year, between the

perception and the reality of practical technology. We have more and

more kids that come and we need to support an open environment,

but quality takes time, and you can’t do it overnight.

This will be the first time kids can come with their portable device

and work every aspect of the LMS from their phones and portable

devices, and for us that’s a first. We use Jenzabar and something

called JixGo and it’s designed for portable devices. It’s a quick way

to navigate the environment from a smaller form factor. We’re also

trying to get new federal sponsorship for technology and there

are some interesting possibilities, particularly for minority-serving

institutions. There’s a whole range of strategic developments by the

federal government that can provide new and exciting opportunities

for public service and an employment and career path for students

who are technology-focused.

‘Our goal for our service desk is that you can contact us through

Facebook or Twitter and you’ll get the same type of response.’

—Raechelle Clemmons, St. Norbert College

CIOs SPEAK OUT

Caryn Meyers Fliegler, a former editor at University Business, is a staffing manager at the nonprofit TNTP.

Being sustainable is no longer an option for higher edu-cation institutions. Students are seeking schools with sustainability curriculums and eco-friendly campuses. To help meet these demands, schools are developing plans in all areas of campus, including athletic venues, to pro-mote sustainability and encourage waste diversion. Not only is supporting sustainability the right thing to do, it is also a smart business decision.

Achieving sustainability and zero waste is a journey. The journey starts with a commitment to do the heavy lift-ing necessary to make significant improvements. Waste Management has a six-step “Think Green Campus Mod-el” process for achieving sustainability.

1. Establish Common Goals: You want to establish a team with common goals to gain commitment and buy-in from various departments at your university. It is impor-tant to ensure that all of the affected participating depart-ments are represented. Determine a mutually beneficial goal for your university around waste diversion. At the end of this process, all involved parties should know what is expected for the program, why it is important, who needs to be involved, and what outcomes are expected.

Game days at university campuses tend to generate a large amount of waste, which is costly to the environment and the institution. To demonstrate its devotion to sustainability, the University of Arizona partnered with Waste Management to implement an extensive recycling program at its football stadium during the 2012 season, successfully diverting over 25 tons of trash from the landfill. This web seminar addressed how the university got the word out about its initiative, how collaboration among many different departments on campus was the key to success, how that success was measured, and the best ways to do the same at other institutions.


Greening College Game Days

2. Conduct Assessment: It is essential to conduct an as-sessment throughout the stadium. It is crucial to identify exactly what is currently happening at the event in con-junction with the program. In this step, we systematically evaluate and document what’s being done today versus where the school wants to go. Identify the highest volume areas, materials, and opportunities to make an impact and drive results. At the end of this step, we should have a baseline assessment of current diversion numbers for the event, an analysis of the materials stream, available communications channels, available resources, and be able to identify needs and gaps.

3. Program Development: During this phase, we will create an action plan for Greening the Game Day to divert as many materials from the landfill as possible on the day of the event. The action plan will include tasks leading up to the event, like equipment purchases, signage, market-ing and promotional development, etc.

4. Implement the Developed Plan: If you’re looking to effect a big culture change, it is key to educate your campus on the importance of waste reduction. Educat-ing every person who comes on campus is no easy feat. When you have clear priorities, systems, and tools in place, people are much more likely to participate and be-come engaged in the process. During the implementa-tion phase, good lines of communication with the parties involved are crucial. It is essential to clearly define what each person is doing to ensure that the roll-out of the pro-gram is smooth.

5. Measure and Report: Gathering tonnage data for ev-ery game where you implement Greening the Game Day Programs is critical. By comparing the reports each week, the team is able to see the improvements and successes taking place. Detailed reporting is helpful in providing re-

Sustainability is a key factor in helping your university remain competitive

SARAH KAYLORHigher Education Program ManagerWaste Management


To watch this web seminar in its entirety, please go to http://www.universitybusiness.com/ws043013

sults to key players at your university. If we do this step correctly, we are able to accurately assess what is work-ing and what is not.

6. Evaluate the Process and Results: During this phase, it is important to record areas of success and find room for improvement. There may be easy adjust-ments you can make to the program. It’s important to work as a collaborative group with Waste Management and your university so that we can set new goals and work through the process together again if needed. This is the biggest opportunity to compare results to the baseline established and discover new ways to drive further results.

The final part of the process is to promote, which is often overlooked and yet easy to implement. Once every-one has committed the time and resources required to implement and improve sustainability, it’s important to share the results. You need to tell the community you’re committed and leading the way to solve sustainability is-sues. If they see you’re working hard on it, they’ll be more likely to support your efforts or special requests in the future. Get people excited about what you’re doing and what’s possible to drive results.

We brought Waste Management in a year and a half ago to help us achieve the specific goal of increasing our recycling efforts on campus by 10 percent per year. We wanted a partner to assist our athletic staff, sustainability office, and facilities management team in increasing the amount of recycling that’s taking place on campus.

Our Facilities Management department collaborates with many groups on campus, including our Students for Sustainability group. These students work hard with our staff to increase the amount of campus recycling. They played a key role in mapping the location of every trash

and recycling receptacle throughout our buildings and athletic venues.

In 2011, the Students for Sustainability began working to improve the rate of recycling in our athletic venues, specifically our football stadium. After each game day, 40 students would partner with our custodial staff in pick-ing up recyclable material from our stadium. The average tonnage diverted from the landfill and sent out to be re-cycled was 3.63 tons per game. All told, we recycled over 25 tons of materials during the 2012 home game season. From a financial standpoint, think about the tipping fees the university would have had to pay to send all of that waste to the landfill. Instead, we were able to recycle the tonnage and use that money to offset the cost to lease solar powered compactors for the campus.

Our partnership with Waste Management has allowed us to do assessments of our current trash and recycling efforts, and determine how we can improve them. We looked at our tailgating area where we hadn’t been captur-ing recyclables in the past. This past football season, we launched an intense marketing campaign to promote our tailgating recycling effort. For all eight home games we in-stalled over 700 containers throughout the tailgating area to collect recyclables. It was key to communicate to the fans about what we were doing and why we were doing it. At the start of the season, we sent email communications to all ticket holders alerting them of our recycling initia-tives and asked for total fan participation to help us reach our sustainability goals. At the stadium entrance, student volunteers distributed bags to incoming fans to collect re-cyclable material in the tailgate areas. In addition, the Stu-dents for Sustainability group set up recycling stations in the tailgating areas and were on hand to answer questions and educate fans on proper recycling.

When we began to green our game days, our first step was making sure we had the proper signage on all of our containers. That way people knew exactly what should be recycled and what could go in the cardboard boxes for general trash. We made sure advertising was taking place so that people knew things were different, that something new was happening that was good for the environment. We had signs up in our stadium and tailgating area, alert-ing fans of the initiative.

We wanted to partner with the various departments and groups on campus. We wanted to make sure ev-eryone was on the same page. We communicated, took questions, solved problems, and utilized a wide variety of resources to achieve our goals.

CHRIS KOPACHAssistant Vice President of Facilities ManagementUniversity of Arizona

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Campus IT departments are streamlining helpdesks with technology and savvier users.

By Elizabeth Millard

Students, faculty, and staff turn to campus helpdesks

when their work has come to a standstill because

technology isn’t behaving as they think it should. IT

support centers at colleges and universities across the

nation are ditching paper and turning to software so-

lutions to help get frustrated users back on track more

effectively and efficiently.

Greg Franseth, director of support for University of Kentucky

Research Information Services, says it’s hard to believe his office

was using a paper-based system for helpdesk tickets just about

seven years ago. “With what we’ve implemented, that feels like de-

cades ago.”

In the past, when users experienced a technology issue, they

would come into the IT office, fill out a form, and eventually have

the problem fixed. The paper trail invited lost requests, and it was

difficult to spot trends or larger issues related to specific depart-

ments or certain pieces of the technology mix, Franseth says.

University of Kentucky administrators turned to a software suite

that expanded the functionality of its helpdesk to better support

users. “The difference between our old system and our new one is

light years apart,” he says, adding that users are much happier with

the digital system that’s now in place. The process lowered resolu-

tion time and gave campus constituents more options for support.

There are an array of vendors making helpdesk support and

functionality more efficient. Here are some main features that

streamline a university or college helpdesk system:

Self-Help for UsersOne distinctive aspect of many helpdesk technology suites is user

empowerment. Since today’s students can be deeply tech savvy,

giving them the tools to solve their own issues can relieve the IT

department of some basic helpdesk tasks. Allowing users to check

the status of their support tickets can reduce the number of calls to

the helpdesk.

“Certain problems can be solved if we just make the informa-

tion available to users,” says Alexander Milne, technical director of

student support at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylva-

nia. “The more educated we make our user group, the more likely

they’ll be to try addressing their problems before they come to us.”

In 2004, Wharton implemented a stronger help ticket system

with software from Parature. Before that, the school had tracked

IT requests via email, and sometimes up to six IT techs would be

cc’ed and multiple people would answer a single query. Anna Kent,

Wharton’s senior IT project leader, says the volume of email for a

single event meant it was easy to lose track of a particular message.

The switch to Parature allowed the school to implement a sys-

tem where nothing gets missed, and tools like the self-help knowl-

edge base have been folded in easily. Kent notes that students, who

are used to self-help systems, can speed up the process by taking

a first crack at a problem and eliminating several potential causes

before contacting IT.

A key feature in the self-help portal is chat functionality,

Milne says. Students can talk in real time with an IT support

CLOSING the Ticket


CLOSING the Ticket

professional, who work to guide them through problem solving.

The system gives students expert help, but still allows them to trou-

bleshoot on their own.

“We’re seeing an increase in usage of the self-help portion of

the site over time,” says Kent. “Students are relying on it more and

more. That helps them become savvy in solving their problems and

reduces the number of helpdesk requests for us.”

Remote ControlTaking control of a user’s computer can be a powerful way to re-

solve issues. Many helpdesk professionals use this function to catch

small problems before they become larger ones.

Kathryn McTaggart, who handles support for the Child Care

Resource and Referral Network for Mississippi State University

Extension Service, uses BOMGAR’s remote software to support

14 sites across the state. In the past, if a piece of technology was

broken, users would have to drive to her location and drop off the

equipment, then wait at least a few days before getting it back—

and sometimes up to three weeks.

Using the software suite to do damage control has allowed

McTaggart to address problems before they escalate into a melt-

down, she says. “When people knew they’d be losing their projec-

tors or laptops for weeks, they wouldn’t tell me about problems,

and then they’d just get worse. Now, they’re not afraid to call and

say their computer is running slow. It’s helped to resolve a lot of

major malfunctions because I can catch them earlier.”

Another BOMGAR user, the University of North Dakota, has

also experienced speedier support turnaround through remote

technology. Joshua Jones, associate director at the Center for In-

structional Learning Technologies at the university, says that as

a user is explaining a problem over the phone, a tech can jump

onto the computer in question and guide the user through

problem solving.

The university implemented the technology about two years

ago, and users have been in love with it ever since, Jones says. “We

can get them back up and running really quickly, and they feel like

they don’t have to waste time on getting support. That’s made a big

difference in user satisfaction levels for us.”

Centralized FunctionalityAt many colleges and universities, help functions are handled by

specific IT employees. For example, one person might be in charge

of AV equipment setup and troubleshooting, while another handles

software upgrades and security patches. Integrating all aspects of a

technology system has been a challenge in the past, but software

Helpdesk Helpers: Institutional Assets

Wharton School, University of PennsylvaniaTechnology Used: Parature Implemented: 2004

Return on Investment:Use of self-help portals, chat functionality, and a more streamlined ticketing system increased productivity and boosted user satisfaction levels.

University of VirginiaTechnology Used: Perceptis Implemented: 2009Return on Investment:The university expanded its support coverage to 24/7 while reducing its annual IT operating budget by 15 percent. The implementation team created a knowledge base tailored to the university’s top issues, with customized information on everything from general IT to payroll and financial aid.

University of GeorgiaTechnology Used:BOMGAR remote support solutionImplemented: 2010Return on Investment:The university has reduced resolution time, and is able to support mobile devices more efficiently. Technicians report that they appreciate the ability to engage with users one-to-one.

Louisiana State UniversityTechnology Used: CampusEAI Consortium’s myCampus portalImplemented: 2011Return on Investment:Using myCampus, the university has been able to consolidate its enterprise applications, requiring only a single set of credentials across all critical systems and providing a one-stop destination for all its major systems.

As a user is explaining a problem over the phone, a tech can jump onto the

computer in question and guide the user through problem solving.


tools are making that kind of centralization much easier.

“We used to have a more traditional service desk where people

would log in a request or come into the office and fill out a form,”

says Gordon Stankavage, technology manager for the Graduate

School of Education at Rutgers. “But requests would sometimes

be a multipart engagement that involved

several people, and it was difficult to put

all those pieces together.”

For instance, whenever a new faculty

member joined the school, there were

multiple steps to getting a laptop ready,

and each step was handled by a different

IT professional on the five-person team.

Now the department uses ServiceWise

from TechExcel and Citrix GoToAssist.

“This type of system creates a better

flow for us,” Stankavage says.

Trend DataCentralized functionality can also lead

to better trend analysis, according to

Steve Creager, technical support man-

ager at University of Kentucky Research

Information Services.

About five years ago, UK implemented

Kaseya, IT services management software

that allows for remote troubleshooting

and problem identification. At this point, about 90 percent of all

support calls are handled remotely, Creager says.

Because the calls are routed through the Kaseya system, IT

administrators can spot issues more quickly and, in turn, provide

help in a timely manner. That has led to more support across

campus for a breadth of technology, in-

cluding mobile devices. There has also

been a shift in IT roles at the institu-

tion, changing one employee from a

support tech to a server administrator.

As a result, the university has scheduled

less downtime for its servers, because

monitoring is better.

That type of ripple effect is expected

to continue, Creager says. “We really

see the system being embraced at every

level. You lose something when you

don’t have face-to-face contact with

users, but at the same time, you gain a

lot of efficiency.”

Kirkwood Community College Technology Used: SchoolDude’s ITDirect Implemented: 2009Return on Investment:The college has been able to increase support through automatic routing without having to hire additional IT staff. Response time has improved significantly, with most incidents resolved within a day, compared to a three-to-four day turnaround with the previous system.

University of North DakotaTechnology Used: ServiceNow; BOMGAR remote software Implemented: 2010Return on Investment:Use of ServiceNow helped to streamline helpdesk tickets and BOMGAR allows for remote support. The university is able to connect all support teams to a centralized system, reducing resolution time even with increased call volume.

Mississippi State University Extension ServiceTechnology Used: BOMGAR remote softwareImplemented: 2012Return on Investment:The software allows a one-person tech support department to service 14 sites across the state, significantly reducing turnaround time for hardware and software issues, and reducing the need for hiring.

Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyTechnology Used: Citrix GoToAssist, ServiceWise from TechExcel Implemented: 2012Return on Investment:GoToAssist has helped the IT team provide one-on-one support to faculty members who may be writing, teaching, or working on research from anywhere on- or off-campus. ServiceWise allows the team to coordinate efforts among several IT employees.

ResourcesAlloy Software, www.alloysoftware.comBMC Software, www.bmc.comBOMGAR, www.bomgar.comCampusEAI Consortium, www.campuseai.orgCitrix, www.citrix.comEllucian, www.ellucian.comFrontRange Solutions, www.frontrange.comHelpSTAR, www.helpstar.comIHD ServiceDesk, www.ihdservicedesk.comKaseya, www.kaseya.comParature, www.parature.comPerceptis, www.perceptis.comRightAnswers, www.rightanswers.comSchoolDude, www.schooldude.comServiceNow, www.servicenow.comTechExcel, www.techexcel.com

MORE ONLINE @ www.universitybusiness.com/closingticketHigh-Tech Helpdesk Benefits

Elizabeth Millard is a Minneapolis-based freelance writer who covers technology.


In old-school lecture halls, the rooms would be outfitted

with a single projector in the back and a single screen in

the front, while large numbers of students quietly listened

as the professor spoke. But as the standard lecture experi-

ence has become dated, the audiovisual needs of classrooms

have evolved to support group study and collaborative, team-based

learning. Mark Valenti, president and CEO of The Sextant Group,

an audiovisual consulting firm, puts it this way: “We’re basically

seeing the beginning of the end of the lecture hall.”

The variety of AV technology and a drop in the price of related

hardware and software are transforming classrooms, Valenti says.

“Before, schools may have only been able to afford to put a projec-

tor and screen in a classroom. Now schools can afford the technol-

ogy that allows for students to work on material together.”

AV technology includes software that allows students to share

laptop screens and documents, work on them simultaneously, and

to return to projects at a later date. This software—combined with

hardware such as flat panels, cameras, and audiovisual ports along

with modern furniture to pull it all together—can create these

smaller, collaborative work spaces, Valenti says.

Collaborative, technology-enriched spaces have been enhancing

learning environments at many colleges and universities.

Real-World PreparationShane Long, an audiovisual project manager and associate princi-

pal at Waveguide Consulting, says the need to prepare students for

their future careers is driving the shift from large lecture halls to

small, project-based learning spaces.

That was the goal for officials at the University of New Hamp-

shire when they worked with Waveguide to build a new busi-

ness school in 2008. Marshall White, the IT manager for student

and infrastructure support, and David Scannell, manager of audio-

AV TREND REPORT

In the new Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics building at the University of New Hampshire, an instructor can control AV technology in the room right from the podium.

Experts weigh in on the latest features of video and presentation devices used for classroom collaboration.

By Lauren Williams

www.universitybusiness.com June 2012 43

visual services, say the new Peter T. Paul College of Business and

Economics, which opened in April, has technology elements that

make the university more competitive and give business students

real-world work experience.

“The department wanted to help students become great

business leaders, and a more collaborative work environment is

the way the business world is headed,” White says. “Places like

Google, for example, are forming a more team-based structure to

produce their products.”

Plans for the business school included two classrooms built for

problem-based learning. “Instead of a projection screen at the front

of the classroom, there are five to six monitors around each class-

room with tables for smaller groups,” White explains. “Students

can work collaboratively at each table, but at the push of a button,

the software allows the teacher to change the students’ screens to

teach the whole class or show a specific group what another group

is working on. Basically, instructors can share content with who

and how many people they want.”

The building also has nearly 30 breakout rooms sized to hold

four to five people at a time. Each room has a monitor on the wall,

and a tabletop that allows students to plug in their laptops and

share content with the class. Cameras beneath the large monitor

and on the opposite wall allow students to record presentations,

Skype, or use other video-conferencing programs.

“There are also lots of spaces for collaboration outside these

rooms, in nooks and crannies along the hallways, as well as an eat-

ery, so they can stay in the building longer.” says Scannell. “We also

made sure to implement a strong wireless connection throughout

the building. All of the tech elements in the Paul Business School

are aimed to make sure that, after four years, our students turn into

business leaders and transition into the corporate world more easily.”

Audiovisual Outside the ClassroomAudiovisual tools not traditionally seen in classrooms are being

used to reconceive campus libraries, says Valenti. Most recently, The

Sextant Group worked on North Carolina State University’s James

B. Hunt Library, which also had its grand opening this past April.

Valenti describes the library as “heavily audiovisual intensive.” In-

side, there are nearly 100 small study rooms where groups of stu-

dents can display laptops and collaborate on larger screens.

The Hunt Library also has five larger research labs, including the

unique 400-square-foot Game Lab that serves as a learning space for

NCSU’s Digital Games Research Center. Available to all students,

the Game Lab is a video game room, as wel, where students can

use modern or “vintage” games consoles. The room has a 21-foot-

wide screen, surround sound, and a touch-panel command console.

Nearly 500 tile-styled, digital signs were installed throughout the

library, many of which were hooked together to create five large

units, including the display found in the Game Lab.

Tile displays, also found in other labs and above the library’s

welcome desk as digital signage, can showcase images and informa-

tion across a single panorama or use them in smaller increments to

display multiple images. Student and faculty work is showcased in

the library’s iPearl Immersion Theater, where a curved, 7-foot by

16-foot tile video wall can display content from an individual com-

puter or from the library’s server room. The theater has also been

used for classes and presentations seating up to 30 people.

“It’s not just about a creating a storehouse for books, it’s a gate-

way into the digital world,” Valenti says. “The Hunt Library is an

outstanding example of where the future of audiovisual technology

is going.”

ResourcesNorth Carolina State University Libraries, www.lib.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary

The Sextant Group, www.thesextantgroup.com

University of New Hampshire’s Paul College, www.paulcollege.unh.edu

Waveguide Consulting, www.waveguide.com

Nearly 100 study rooms within North Carolina State University’s Hunt Library include larger screens so students can plug in their laptops and collaborate.

Models of Efficiency

Is your campus department aModel of Efficiency? See page 55.

Sponsored by


FINANCECAMPUS

Stop Feeding the Monster. End

the Coal Age. Divest the West.

Sandy Says: Divest Climate De-

struction. Bound by Fossil Fuels,

Freed by Action.

Messages like these have emblazoned

banners on campuses across the country

since 350.org’s Fossil Free divestment

campaign began last November.

The organization, dedicated to

building grassroots movements to solve

the climate crisis, urges colleges and

universities to divest their endowments

of 200 publicly-traded companies its

leaders identified as posing the greatest

threat to the climate. There are now

student-led divestment campaigns on

more than 300 campuses.

Divestment—when organizations sell

stock in companies to further a political

or social cause—was first used aggres-

sively in the 1970s and 1980s to protest

apartheid in South Africa. In an effort to

weaken the oppressive apartheid regime,

colleges and universities spearheaded a

major campaign, which peaked in the

mid-80s, to divest from companies that

did business in South Africa.

Momentum for the fossil fuel divest-

ment campaign grew slowly all spring.

In late April, students at Rhode Island

School of Design staged a sit-in to draw

attention to the cause.

And during a nationwide Day of Ac-

tion on May 2, student groups at more

than 60 colleges and universities hosted

events pushing for fossil fuel divest-

ment. At Western Washington Univer-

sity, students covered a Bellingham city

plaza with orange squares—the universal

symbol selected for the campaign. The

following day, hundreds of students, fac-

ulty, and alumni at Brown University

cast symbolic ballots for divestment.

“We have no illusion that colleges

are going to rush into this decision, but

students are making the case that they

have enough information to make a firm

commitment and move forward with

full divestment,” says Jamie Henn, co-

founder of 350.org.

The buzz has been building, but is di-

vesting a good idea? Here are arguments

for and against divesting endowments of

fossil fuel investments.

THE ARGUMENT FORAs of mid-May, only five U.S. schools had

committed themselves to divestment. All

small liberal arts colleges in New England,

they are: College of the Atlantic (Maine),

Sterling College (Vt.), Unity College

(Vt.), Hampshire College (Mass.), and

Making the case for and against stripping endowments of fossil fuel investments

By Kristen Domonell

DivestmentDebate


Green Mountain College (Vt.). Officials

at these institutions have cited three big

reasons for making the move.

Set a positive example. For Unity,

which emphasizes the environment and

natural resources, divesting was a no-

brainer. “We’re very eager to start moving

forward with it because it speaks to who

we are,” says President Stephen Mulkey.

“We embrace what we think are good eth-

ics, and it’s time to have that translated

into our good business practices.”

In November, Unity became the first

school to announce its commitment to

full divestment, a process that began in

2008. It has so far reduced the extent of

its endowment’s investments in fossil fuel

companies from 10 percent to 3 percent.

Mulkey says most institutions tend to

be somewhere between 10 percent and

2 percent exposure, passively and by de-

fault. The process of getting closer to zero

percent is one that requires consistent, de-

liberate action, he says.

Officials at Sterling, another environ-

mentally focused college, have decided to

practice what they preach, too. President

Matthew Derr says the college has a mis-

sion of environmental stewardship. “Our

investment strategies and our investment

commitments needed to run parallel to

what we’re teaching in the classroom.”

Make a statement. Unity’s Mulkey

believes divestment, over time, could have

a large impact on companies’ bottom

lines, but what matters now is bringing

attention to the issue.

“This is making a strong statement

to these companies about their social

license to continue business as usual,”

says Mulkey.

Derr says the push to divest from fossil

fuels is consistent with the higher educa-

tion tradition of investing responsibly.

“Fossil fuel divestment is an ethical

consideration and one that’s also strategic

because it’s bringing broader understand-

ing,” he says. “However small Sterling

may be, we should have a voice in that. It’s

the issue of the 21st century. We say that

without any reservations.”

It won’t hurt endowments. In terms of

generating competitive investment returns,

Unity’s endowment portfolio has met or

exceeded market benchmarks over the past

five years despite the shift away from fossil

fuel holdings, says Deborah Cronin, vice

president of finance and administration.

While it’s possible that in any given

year the move could reduce Unity’s in-

vestment earnings, “over time investment

performance should not be negatively

impacted by this strategy,” Cronin said in

a release.

“The thing that determines whether

or not your portfolio gains or loses is not

the social screening. It’s the decisions you

make after that,” says Mulkey. Unity’s

strategy has been to shift investments in

developed countries to non-energy sectors.

Investments in emerging countries cannot

be as easily moved out of fossil fuels.

THE ARGUMENT AGAINSTChristine Wood, a Vassar College (N.Y.)

trustee with 30 years experience in the

investment management field, has dealt

with one divestment after another—

including those related to South Africa,

tobacco, companies that do business with

Sudan and Iran, manufacturers of birth

control, and those that create weapons of

mass destruction.

Her conclusion? “The problem I have

found in every instance, without excep-

tion, is that trying to use an investment

portfolio to accomplish social or political

causes comes up short in every way you

can imagine,” she says.

Divestment doesn’t actually hurt

companies. Many who promote divest-

ment wrongfully believe that selling off

their investments somehow hurts a com-

pany financially, according to Wood,

who has overseen the global equity port-

folio of the California Public Employee’s

Retirement System and served on the

boards of the International Corporate

FINANCECAMPUS DIVESTMENT DEBATE

Taking a stand: Students from Western Washington University covered a city square in Bellingham, Wash. with orange squares for the nationwide Day of Action on May 2.

Social screening doesn’t determine whether a portfolio has gains or

losses. The decisions made after the screening do.

—Stephen Mulkey, president, Unity College


Governance Network, International Inte-

grated Reporting Council, and the Global

Reporting Initiative. “By petulantly selling

your shares, you have not hurt the company

at all. You’ve just transferred ownership of

shares to some other party who cares much

less about the issue than you do,” she says.

A 1999 study by economists Ivo Welch

and C. Paul Wazzan argued that even South

African divestment had little financial im-

pact. “Despite the prominence and pub-

licity of the boycott and the multitude of

divesting companies, the financial markets’

valuations of targeted companies or even the

South African financial markets themselves

were not easily visibly affected,” they wrote.

Wood says colleges and universities that

choose to divest could be the ones hurt

financially. For any individual or organiza-

tion, she believes divestment leaves the in-

vestor with a more volatile portfolio in the

end, due to inferior risk-adjusted returns.

“A lot of these theoretical things don’t

work in real time,” she says.

It leaves institutions voiceless. Stock-

holders are the only ones who can truly

engage the company, she says. “If you don’t

own shares you’re not eligible to vote with

a proxy, you can’t elect boards of directors,

you can’t vote on share proposals. You are

completely without a voice.”

It’s the easy way out. Wood says there

is no comparable model in society that in-

dicates divestment is the best way to solve

a problem. “Would the best solution be

to put up a ‘for sale’ sign in front of your

house if there are problems in the neigh-

borhood? No, you engage and you try to

rectify the situation. Divestment is the easi-

est thing to do.”

Instead, she suggests that institutions

channel their passions into supporting or-

ganizations doing positive work on the

environmental front, such as the Investor

Network on Climate Risk, the Interna-

tional Corporate Governance Network,

the Global Reporting Initiative, the Inter-

national Integrated Reporting Council, the

Carbon Disclosure Project, and the UN

Global Compact, among others.

While the fossil fuel divestment cam-

paign is a cause rooted in legitimate con-

cerns and founded with good intentions,

Wood doesn’t believe divestment is the

right instrument to convey these concerns.

“We have institutions in our society

responsible for public policy, such as leg-

islators, regulators, and standard setters,

who ultimately have to set standards for

corporate sustainability,” she says. “These

institutions need to be engaged and held

accountable. Working from within, as an

investor with proxy votes that influence

corporate decision-making, is more pow-

erful in advancing corporate sustainability

than stepping outside the sphere of influ-

ence by divesting.”

Resources350.org Fossil Free Campaign, http://gofossilfree.org

Investor Network on Climate Risk, www.ceres.org/investor-network/incr

Sterling College Divestment, www.sterlingcollege.edu/divestment.html

“The Effect of Socially Activist Invest-ment Policies on the Financial Markets” study, http://bit.ly/10PQXiY

2012

Attention UB Readers Name This Year’s Top Products!

Which products and services are making a difference on your campus this year?

From hardware to software, online resources to facilities solutions, books to materials, and beyond, we want to know what you think!

Based on your choices, University Business will announce the Readers’ Choice Top Products in the January 2014 Issue of UB.

Nominate your top products today!

www.universitybusiness.com/top-products

‘By petulantly selling your shares, you have not hurt the company at all. You’ve just transferred ownership of shares to some other party who

cares much less about the issue than you do.’

—Christine Wood, investment management professional and Vassar College trustee


Designing Digital

Making partnerships for online course development work

CAMPUSDISTRIBUTED

Higher ed institutions driving courses online to meet

increasing demand sometimes need outside help in

developing or designing their digital curriculum. Of

more than 2,000 colleges and universities with online

programs, about 10 percent have used third-party vendors for any

course development, estimates Richard Garrett, vice president and

principal analyst for online higher education at the consulting

firm Eduventures.

Institutions may decide to outsource when they want to move

quickly or don’t have adequate in-house expertise. But those that

seek help creating courses generally retain sole responsibility for

content, Garrett says. “Schools tend to be leery of handing over

too much.”

Eduventures estimates that about 3 million students—about

14 percent of higher education students—have taken their educa-

tion mostly or completely online. Yet, the growth rate of online

enrollment has slowed to single-digit percentages the past few

years, adds Garrett.

Here’s a look at why leaders at some institutions seek external

help with online course development, and how they are making

those partnerships work.

Selective OutsourcingNotre Dame College (Ohio) has used Learning House “for a num-

ber of years”— longer than Nick Santilli, vice president for aca-

demic and student affairs, has been with the school. Most faculty

develop their own online courses, Santilli says, “so they are authen-

tic Notre Dame College courses from people who are full-time em-

ployees for us. We also have our own instructional designers to help

us with making the courses online-appropriate.”

But on occasion, Notre Dame has either used courses from

Learning House’s online library or worked with an outside curricu-

lum designer, Santilli says. “It’s the minority of work we do. Before

we accept a course, we have our own faculty review it and give it

approval. There still is a check here on our side. It’s not that we

simply run out, find a content expert and just accept it.”

When deciding to outsource, Santilli talks with division and

department chairs to find the best faculty member to oversee the

project. “In some cases, it’s a matter of workload,” he says. “We

have individuals whom we identify as course masters, who oversee

that class.”

George Mason University (Va.) administrators and faculty

worked with Colloquy to develop its online executive MBA

By Ed Finkel


program about three years ago, says Goodlett McDaniel, associate

provost of distance education. But George Mason hasn’t used third-

party vendors otherwise, McDaniel says, adding that there was ini-

tial pushback from faculty and the need to spend time educating

the partner about campus culture and the institution’s mission and

values. “As our market changes and as we have less and less rev-

enue—and publics especially have a cap on tuition increases—we

may have other partners to do other things,” he says.

McDaniel says the executive MBA faculty “self-selected in some

respects, but their dean was also pretty directive about [the work

with Colloquy].” The school held a half-day training session where

faculty members and representatives of Colloquy set up the courses

and tackled other issues, such as the division of labor. Since then,

both sides have continued to meet and review as “part of ongoing

relationship building and trust building,” he says.

Western New England University (Mass.) has contracted with

Educators Serving Educators to develop courses for its master of

communications program. Other master’s programs might follow as

the institution, formerly undergraduate only, continues to expand its

graduate offerings, says Richard Keat-

ing, vice president for strategic initia-

tives. “We need master’s programs.

We’re a university now.”

But Keating doesn’t envision

Western New England needing ad-

ditional assistance from Educators

Serving Educators or any other third-

party vendors again for a long time.

“We’re eventually going to be able to

shed all of the elements of these sup-

ports,” he says. “They’ve allowed us to

jump-start our way into distance learning. ... My vision is that the

only thing we’ll need is the market research function in another

three or four years.” (The agreement is for five years.)

In the meantime, the school will tell new faculty members they

will do some work with an outside vendor, Keating says. “They’re

responsible for the course development, setting standards, making

sure they keep up with timelines.”

Preserving Academic IntegrityThese design projects are more likely to succeed when faculty mem-

bers are engaged, well-trained and have an opportunity to drive the

process, says Katie Blot, president of Blackboard Global Services.

While call centers or recruitment—two aspects of online pro-

grams that can be outsourced—aren’t at the core of a college or

university’s mission, “instructional design is.”

Where schools might want to “put a flag in the ground,” even

over faculty objections, is when it comes to how the courses look

and work online, she says.

“You need to be willing to say, ‘You’re going to retain academic

control, but there are going to be templates, there is going to be

common navigation,’ so the user ... feels like we’re one cohesive

education provider to them, and not that they’re going to need

to re-navigate when they go from biology to sociology,” Blot says.

“You need to make some calls that seem like they’re going to fly in

the face of faculty autonomy. You need to pick those sparingly. ... If

you get the balance right, you can probably get the faculty to come

with you.”

Notre Dame’s Santilli advises his higher ed peers to remember

that academic program integrity is the core of their institutions’

identities. “You take that reputation with you online. You have to

continue to provide the same quality of educational experience. …

In a lot of ways, the online environment is a pedagogical modality.

It’s not just posting a bunch of PowerPoints with a lecture talk-over.”

Contract Talking PointsIn McDaniel’s experience, vendors will sometimes “over-promise

and under-deliver” results to higher ed administrators who don’t

have significant business world experience. “There can be a natu-

ral tendency to be excited and think that all of their problems

will be solved by the contract,” he says.

Administrators should check com-

panies’ references, pay close attention

to the revenue split, and make sure

the length of the contract seems right,

with an “out-clause” if the school

thinks it might need one.

Garrett sees contracts typically

lasting in the seven-year range given

the “significant upfront investment

from the vendor, which requires a

number of years to pay off.”

“The schools largely feel that’s a

reasonable trade-off,” he says. “They like the sense of predictability

down the road.” There’s some downward pressure on that time-

frame as schools want to keep their options open, Garrett adds.

At a certain point, “Schools say, ‘We now feel we can do this our-

selves.’ ”

‘In a lot of ways, the online environment is a pedagogical modality. It’s not just posting a bunch of PowerPoints with a

lecture talk-over.’ —Nick Santilli, Notre Dame College

Resources2U, http://2u.comBlackboard Education Services, www.blackboard.comColloquy, http://colloquy360.comComcourse Learning Solutions, www.comcourse.comEducators Serving Educators, www.eseserves.org Global Health Education, www.globalhealtheducation.comLearning House, www.learninghouse.comOrbis, www.orbiseducation.comPearson Embanet, embanet.com

MORE ONLINE @ www.universitybusiness.com/designingdigitalSaying No to External Help - Online Curriculum Development: Not a Turnkey Solution

Ed Finkel is a Chicago-based writer and editor.


Today’s enrollment challenges

have impacted all sectors and

strata of colleges and universi-

ties. Campus leaders are questioning

whether their organizational models, as

well as the roles and responsibilities of

key enrollment players, are aligned for

optimal enrollment success.

The questions aren’t new. As early as

the mid-1970s, the Boston College Alumni

Magazine, in an article entitled “To the

Organized Go the Students,” noted that

“enrollment management is a process

that brings together often disparate func-

tions having to do with recruiting, fund-

ing, tracking, retaining, and employing

students as they move toward, within,

and away from the institution.”

There is no “one organization fits all”

model. Rather, administrators must find

a system that fits with their institution’s

mission, culture, and tradition to create.

The enrollment organization should fos-

ter cooperation, collaboration, and con-

stant communication—minimizing silos

and maximizing synergies.

REPRESENTING THE

ENROLLMENT VOICE

Across the higher education landscape,

the chief enrollment officer can be found

reporting to a variety of senior/executive

officers: from presidents to provosts to

vice presidents of finance, student life, and

advancement. The key is whether the en-

rollment “voice” will be represented and

heard at the cabinet level and by trustees

to ensure the availability of the resources

and programs necessary to compete suc-

cessfully in a crowded marketplace.

Because tuition (net of financial aid)

represents the largest source of revenue

in most college and university budgets,

there is a strong argument for the chief

enrollment officer to be a vice president

sitting at the table with other senior of-

ficers. This model is the simplest.

Yet, campus culture, tradition, or cir-

cumstances could render this a bad idea.

Faculty and even trustees at many schools

already express concerns about adminis-

trative bloat. Adding yet another VP may

be untimely, unwelcome, and unwise.

Chief enrollment officers at the as-

sociate or assistant vice presidential level

can, and do, successfully report to a se-

nior officer who is not the president. By

far, the most commonly found reporting

line would be to chief academic or chief

financial officers. The key is the extent to

which the supervisor has the time and in-

terest to understand the challenges and

forces at play in meeting enrollment tar-

gets, and then possesses a willingness to

mentor and advocate.

The supervisor must also be ready

to bring the chief enrollment officer to

the table when it’s absolutely critical for

that voice to be heard. For example,

a critical time for the involvement of

enrollment would be as the financial aid

budget is set and enrollment and net tu-

ition revenue goals are determined.

OTHER MODELS

Just as there’s no one perfect enrollment

management reporting structure, there’s

not a fixed set of administrative units that

must formally be part of this area.

Some institutions have organized

enrollments under the vice president for

university relations or institutional ad-

vancement where marketing/communica-

tions, alumni relations, publications, and

development also are housed. This can

be a very effective model as long as there

is also a concerted effort by enrollment

management to forge a strong partnership

with academic affairs. Because so much of

recruitment and retention success relies

on the faculty playing an appropriate,

meaningful role, it’s important that or-

ganizational structures don’t block com-

munication and collaboration between

enrollment leaders and their colleagues.

Admissions and financial aid, with

the registrar office a close third, are com-

monly part of enrollment management.

Other areas may include: marketing and

communications, career development, in-

stitutional research, orientation, alumni

relations, and athletics (at a DIII school).

Marketing and communications offic-

es have major enrollment-related responsi-

bilities, including the institution’s website.

Alumni relations and career development

offices often run alumni admissions vol-

unteer programs and are responsible for

marketing career/grad school outcomes.

Many institutions struggle with the

reporting structure for marketing and

communications and its relationship with

enrollment management. Since market-

ing and recruitment are so integrally

Adding yet another vice president may be untimely, unwelcome, and unwise.

Enrollment Management ModelsConsiderations for where enrollment managers should reside within the campus organization

By James Scannell

ENROLLMENT MATTERS


linked, the admissions office is often the

marketing department’s biggest “client.”

Yet, it is common for marketing to

be part of a university relations or institu-

tional advancement division where fund-

raising is the No. 1 objective. This is

where tension can bubble up. Is market-

ing an important institutional resource

that serves a number of significant clients

(e.g., the president’s office, advancement,

admissions, athletics, graduate programs,

etc.)? And if that’s the case, how are the

priorities for the marketing team estab-

lished and by whom?

Emily Sinsabaugh, vice president for

university relations at St. Bonaventure

University (N.Y.), says officials there real-

ized that aligning marketing/communi-

cations with advancement was becoming

less common for private, tuition-driven

institutions.

“At the same time, as we prepared to

implement a CRM in admissions, and as

the web and social media were becoming

significantly more important parts of the

communication flow for admissions, it

was apparent that admissions was going

to be calling for greater levels of support

from communications,” she says.

The team decided to remove advance-

ment and alumni relations from univer-

sity relations and align marketing and

communications with enrollment. The

dean of enrollment position became the

associate vice president for enrollment, a

cabinet-level post. Nearly four years later,

Sinsabaugh calls the change “an effective

arrangement for us, although not with-

out some challenges.”

The admissions and financial aid

teams converse more about branding and

messaging, and marketing and commu-

nications administrators better under-

stand their role in enrollment success.

“This experience has crystallized for me

the theoretical assertion that organiza-

tion dictates function,” she adds.

WHO OWNS RETENTION?

Another institutional “hot potato” is

where retention responsibilities are

housed and owned. Clearly, student life

and academic affairs have to be major

players on the retention team, ideally

having forged a strong, collaborative re-

lationship. But retention is one of the

three enrollment streams along with new

freshmen and new transfers. So enroll-

ment management, by definition, should

include managing all enrollments—not

just new students.

If admissions enrolls large numbers

of at-risk students with little opportunity

to succeed, the institution could hemor-

rhage students after the first semester or

first year. So for retention, there are really

three major players sharing information,

problem solving, and developing data-

based intervention strategies. All three

should share ownership for retention, al-

though one area needs to champion the

effort and be held responsible for the re-

sults. Which area that should be, again,

is a function of each institution’s culture,

history, and past retention challenges.

CRITICAL PARTNERS

More important than the formal report-

ing lines, strong enrollment management

works through partnerships created on

campus. If a campus defined enrollment

management as admissions, financial aid,

orientation, and registration, for example,

a strategic chief enrollment officer would

also have critical partners: marketing,

academic advising, career development,

student accounts, and possibly athletics in

a DIII environment sit at the enrollment

management leadership table as associate

members or partners.

Enrollment management is about

working relationships more than formal

reporting lines. This is where leadership

comes in. A real test is leading those who

are not part of the formal department’s

organization because they believe, have

bought in, and want to follow.

Dolan Evanovich, vice president of

strategic enrollment planning at The

Ohio State University, says giving en-

rollment services a seat at the decision-

making table has worked. “When Ohio

State’s President’s Council, senior man-

agement, vice provosts, or deans meet,

enrollment services is involved in the

conversation. Our strategic goals are

represented when university leaders are

determining the allocation of resources,

... and other priorities. The result is broad

alignment of enrollment services within

the university structure.”

It’s also key that strategic decisions be

research-based and data driven, she says.

“Everyone has an opinion, but research

well done brings us as close as we’re going

to get to fact.”

Evanovich advocates for a team ap-

proach to enrollment management. Her

office has partnered with student life,

academic affairs, the office of diversity,

academic colleges, and regional cam-

puses. “We all talk about tearing down

silos, and I have seen some very real re-

sults from making connections across de-

partmental lines,” she says. “The team ap-

proach ... harnesses a diversity of thought,

ideas, strengths, and resources.”

The key point is how well enrollment

management is represented at the insti-

tutional decision-making table. Enroll-

ment management fails when critical

units work at cross purposes, withhold

information, and manage to the unit’s or

division’s agenda, instead of to what is in

the institution’s best interest. Enrollment

management succeeds when synergies

abound because the whole is greater than

the sum of the individual parts.

Enrollment management is about the working relationships more than the formal reporting lines.

James Scannell is president of enrollment management consulting firm Scannell & Kurz. He can be reached via www. scannellkurz.com.

ENROLLMENT MATTERS


Chances are, your institution is

or may soon be recruiting for

leadership positions, such as

president, chancellor, or vice president.

At Alfred University (N.Y.), for example,

the search is underway for a new provost,

and within the next five years, the insti-

tution plans to recruit two vice presidents

and a president, says Mark Guinan, HR

director at the private university, which

supports approximately 1,000 employees

and 2,300 students.

Retirements are a big factor to con-

sider. The 2012 American Council on

Education study of American college

presidents covered the gradual rise of

presidents’ ages over the years. In 1986,

42 percent were 50 years of age or young-

er while 14 percent were 61 or older. But

in 2011, 10 percent were 50 or younger

and 58 percent were 61 or older. The re-

port noted that the anticipated wave of

retirements could even cause a tempo-

rary leadership shortage.

When a changing of the guard is im-

minent, HR leaders should pay careful at-

tention to the onboarding process to avoid

transition issues. Soliciting employee and

community input during the recruit-

ment process—and helping new leaders

bridge the gap between administrators

and faculty —are two tactics being used.

Bringing new leaders up to speed on the

school’s culture and ensuring they engage

with community stakeholders is also key.

HR’s involvement can make the differ-

ence between a leader who stumbles or

one who hits the ground running. Here

are four areas in which HR can help.

1. Face time: Alfred University’s HR

department will host individual meet

and greets between the new provost and

administrators, students, staff, faculty,

alumni, and five schools—engineering,

art design, business, science, and profes-

sionals studies. “Everybody needs to get

time in,” says Guinan, adding that the

onboarding process may take six months.

“The new [provost] has to get in his or her

mind what the various constituencies are

going to be faced with.”

2. HR liaison: At Baylor University

(Texas), new deans and vice presidents are

each assigned a client relationship man-

ager who presents the “lay of the land”

of the division or unit the new hire is

overseeing. The manager will define the

organization’s culture, addressing hot is-

sues and identifying staff strengths and

key challenges, says John Whelan, associ-

ate vice president of HR at the university,

which employs approximately 2,400 and

supports almost 15,000 students.

The new leaders also share their visions

so the HR department can immediately

support their goals. Likewise, liaisons help

in completing “nuts and bolts” tasks—

such as benefits enrollment—so leaders

can better focus on their responsibilities.

“If [HR] waits around for the new exec

to call, then says, ‘Here are forms to fill

Forward Motion: Easing Leadership ChangesSmooth onboarding gets incoming campus leadership off to good start

By Carol Patton

HUMAN RESOURCES

out,’ that person’s opinion of HR is going

to be diminished. HR will live up to its

worst reputation of being a bureaucratic,

paper-pushing, administrative group,”

Whelan says.

3. Helpful resources. Last October,

when Clifton Smart was promoted from

general counsel to president at Missouri

State University, he was already familiar

with the schools’ people and culture, ex-

plains Penni Groves, general counsel at

the institution, which has approximately

3,000 employees and 20,000 students.

“As general counsel, he knew his job

very well,” she says. Smart met individu-

ally with each of MSU’s vice presidents to

address key challenges. But as president,

“he has different constituencies to con-

sider and a more big-picture job,” she says.

However, Smart was not familiar with

key online tools—such as the school’s

policy library and applicant tracking

system—that he would use as president.

“HR [was] very helpful when bringing up

practice tips that he didn’t deal with as

general counsel,” says Groves.

4. Current events: HR needs to en-

sure that all leaders, especially those new

to the community, receive a weekly list of

upcoming events and activities, ranging

from athletic games to off-campus fund-

raisers, says Lou Pisano, chief HR officer

at Central Connecticut State University,

which supports approximately 1,500 em-

ployees and 15,000 students.

“Leaders need to pick something, get

involved, experience something,” he says.

“It helps them build relationships with

people in the community, away from the

stresses of the workplace.”

At Baylor University, a client relationship manager from HR presents the “lay of the land” of a new campus leader’s unit.

Carol Patton is a Las Vegas-based writer.

MORE ONLINE @www.universitybusiness.com/hr

Case Study: Transition at the University of St. Thomas (Minn.)


End Note

If a college freshman stepped onto a

campus where it was obvious that

administration had spent months evis-

cerating each other over petty slights instead

of balancing the budget—or refusing to

name a dean because a faction of the faculty

resent his work on committees—the student

would undoubtedly run screaming into the

night looking for the fastest way out of there.

So, remind me, exactly why do we want

the federal government setting benchmarks

for higher education? This is, after all, the

same group that keeps making pennies at a

loss. As President Obama recently outlined

in a proposal called “The President’s Plan for

a Strong Middle Class and a Strong Amer-

ica,” the latest idea to improve our educa-

tional system is to hold “colleges accountable

for cost, value, and quality” and use these

criteria, plus affordability and student out-

comes, as prerequisites for receiving federal

student financial aid.

Explained simply, the president is propos-

ing to bring big government into the college

ratings game. Right now, colleges and uni-

versities are rated (or accredited, as we say

in higher education) by regional or national

education agencies. The proposal would add

some more consumer-related ratings such as

graduation rates, job placements, and salaries

to these accreditation criteria, and the gov-

ernment would possibly take over responsi-

bility for the entire system.

I’m one of President Obama’s fans (it’s al-

ways nice to have a former college professor

in the Oval Office), but in this case he must

have cut class for skeet shooting on the day

they studied logic in law school.

Let’s look at this the way Socrates might

have, although if he had to deal with fed-

eral oversight of his dialogues he might have

drank the hemlock out of frustration.

Budgets: Campus officials must balance

the budget every year, cutting services and

programs in lean years and expanding ser-

vices and programs in flush times. The fed-

eral government today can’t pass a budget at

gunpoint and the juvenile sniping and back-

stabbing on both sides make the chronically

late student begging for an extension look

like a Disraelian statesman by comparison.

Diversity: The U.S. higher education

system is the envy of the world. We are the

destination education for students from Asia,

Europe, and South America. In turn, those

international students help recover some of

the spending Americans do on foreign prod-

ucts. The strength of American colleges and

universities is that each one approaches its

mission to educate in a different way. Federal

accreditation means eventually all colleges

and universities would become cookie-cutter

institutions offering programs that will be as

differentiated as Johnny Cash’s wardrobe.

Competition: The soul of higher edu-

cation is building a campus that attracts

brilliant students with visions to change the

world. To do that, college and university lead-

ers look for innovation and experimentation

to get an edge on the competition. The fed-

eral government does not do well with com-

petition. Actually, it doesn’t do well without

competition either. See Amtrak. Or the U.S.

Postal Service. Higher education institutions

have been trying to outdo each other since

colonial times by recruiting the best students

through the balancing of affordability and

value. Bringing the government into the mix

would be the equivalent of asking to stage a

reasoned debate at the Salem witch trials.

There are some institutions that could

use marked improvement, of course. There

are a number of universities where students

try college for a year and fail to return. The

for-profit universities also have a few hurdles

to overcome before their style of education

reaches the lofty standards consumers have

come to expect from American universities.

In the long run, homogenizing higher

education to fit a set of preconceived “stan-

dards” will dilute one of the best products the

United States has ever created: the indepen-

dent, brilliant, inquisitive college graduate.

Do we really want Harry Reid, John

Boehner, Dennis Kucinich, and Mitch Mc-

Connell making decisions as to whether

our children go to Harvard, Stanford, or

Mankato State?

Only if we want the United States to

weaken its standing in the global commu-

nity—in one of the categories where we still

set the standard for excellence.

Thomas R. Kepple retired on May 31 after serving as president of Juniata College (Pa.) since 1998.

A Grade Z Idea: Federal Government in the Classroom

By Thomas R. Kepple

Why big government should keep away from college ratings and accreditation

Colleges could become cookie-cutter, offering programs as different-iated as Johnny Cash’s wardrobe.

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