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Opinion
Follow the Money
9/26/2003
Another interesting number in the report involves the funding for professional development in IT organizations. Across all sectors, from community colleges to research universities, the FTE professional development expenditures are, as stated in the report, “surprisingly consistent” at about $1,000/FTE.
Less surprising is that the Core Data Report confirms with a number what many have known from experience: A significant portion of campus IT spending comes from the budgets of academic departments and operating units, including research labs. This “independent” money—independent of central IT operations and budgets—ranges from about 30 percent of total campus IT spending in research universities to about 10 percent in community colleges. In other words, academic departments and operating units spend a lot of their own money on information technology resources.
The new report also documents the degree of campus dependence on student workers in IT operations, particularly IT user support. Across all sectors, part-time student employees represent about half of the total FTE support personnel for instructional technology, user support services, and public help desks that serve students, faculty, and staff.
Finally, the report documents the age of—and rapidly aging—administrative software that remains a core component of the campus infrastructure. Across all sectors, large numbers of institutions remain dependent on student information systems and financial software developed or purchased more than a decade ago. This aging software was not designed for a Web-centric world and would seem ready for immediate replacement. However, the budget cuts and financial problems currently affecting most institutions will force many campuses to defer or delay replacement for a few more years.
The new EDUCAUSE Core Data Summary Report warrants a wide reading, and not just among individuals in the campus IT community. It provides both interesting and useful information. And future editions of the report will be even more valuable because of the emerging trend data.
As much of the campus discussion about money and technology is often based on sum ergo expertise, the EDUCAUSE Core Data Summary Report is an important contribution to better, more informed planning campus efforts. It should also help inform the continuing, informal hallway conversations and more formal policy discussions about a broad set of key IT issues that affect American colleges and universities.
[Editor’s note: Casey Green will co-anchor a special Ahead
of the Curve broadcast session, “An Open Discussion About Open Source”
from the Syllabus fall2003 conference in Cambridge, Mass. on December 8. For
updates, visit www.syllabus.com.]
Kenneth C. Green, visiting scholar at The Claremont Graduate University, is the founding director of The Campus Computing Project, a comprehensive, continuing study of the role of information technology at higher education institutions in the United States (www.campuscomputing.net).
View more articles by Kenneth Green.
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