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Trust, but Verify
9/30/2004
Is it any wonder, then, that Miami University’s Garland reports that he and his presidential colleagues feel IT costs are “out of control”? Admittedly, desktop and notebook computers cost significantly less today and do more than the products we purchased five or 10 years ago. But campuses are buying more computers, and more of other “stuff”—software, digital content, user support services, etc.—as well as upgrading aging, if not ancient, administrative systems (student information, finance, human resources, etc.) that, on many campuses, may be a decade or more old (according to the 2003 Educause Core Data Report Survey).
Managing Expectations
The lesson of the “trust, but verify” message may be a variation on the “do more with less, and do it better” mantra espoused by many college presidents during economic downturns. After all, in the case of IT, there’s no question that we are doing more, and we often are doing it better.
Yet, in addition to our efforts to control costs, we also may need to manage our IT aspirations and expectations. (One of the key lessons of the 1990s dotcom economy, for instance, was that the Internet changes many things, but not everything.) Consequently, for those of us who work in or with IT, the “trust, but verify” message means that while we can still trust with our hearts (“I believe in IT”), we will need to verify with our heads (document that the technology will produce and perform as promised). Our goal should be to align heart and head, aspirations with implementation.
To sum it up, we can certainly trust, but we also must verify.
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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