Be a Web Site Hero, Put Stars in Their Eyes(1)

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Be a Web Site Hero, Put Stars in Their Eyes(1)

5/11/2005

By Terry Calhoun

We had e-mail. We had Usenet. We had Listservs about Star Trek (STREK-L), mystery novels (DOROTHYL), the 1992 presidential election, and every facet of librarianship. Many of us probably have the first issue of Wired and that first O'Reilly edition of Zen and the Art of the Internet around someplace (and we might have it printed out on greenbar paper too). Gopher was named for one of us, and the best Gophers were at universities (besides Minnesota, I still remember an amazing one at Washington & Lee, and I used to rely on the one from the grants office at UTK for information to put [out] a newsletter of funding opportunities for faculty).(3)

Traditional colleges and universities are such different animals than for-profit entities, or even from other not-for-profit entities. I was reminded of this last week during a panel discussion at the Education Writers Association conference. At the panel was a writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, an attorney who is involved in the law suit against the for-profit Corinthian University, and a representative from a large, quite successful for-profit higher education institution.

Our institutions do not look at the quarterly bottom line and it is one of the reasons that what we do is so successful. It means we can plan, plan comprehensively and in an integrated way, and that we can take the time to nurture programs and resources without constant concern that if they don't prove their way in three months then well have to kill them. This is one reason that the infamous Harvard Review article, "IT D'esn't Matter," from 2003, has little application to higher education. (Even though it was taken as gospel by many big corporations, some of whom are now recognizing that to have done so was a mistake.)

Being so different, though, means lots of complexities (thus the integrated planning my employer association, the Society for College and University Planning, focuses on). And few people at a higher education institution sit in positions where they have to know as much about everything that is going on, and make productive, strategic decisions about nearly everything, as do webmasters. In fact, Id say that the three Ps: presidents, provosts, and planners, are joined by webmasters and CIOs as those who need to be the most connected and have the broadest understanding of a college or universitys mission.

So, my conclusion for this week: Webmasters are in fact her'es, more so than the authors of that white paper realize, because they accomplish important, strategically-aligned work in one of the most complicated and important working environments that exists.

My recommendation is that others on campus should realize these bright, connected, big picture folks are there on campus and put their skills to other uses as well. Some webmasters despair over the lack of strategic thinking on their campuses and desperately want to help make things better. Find them, use them!

Just couldnt resist mutilating those lyrics from Foreigners Juke Box Hero; which can be found at http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/foreigner/54920.html

Her'es of the Web, by Lance Merker of Website ASP, Inc., at www.omniupdate.com.

Molly Ives Brower, on UWEBD, May 10, 2005

About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.

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Terry Calhoun, "Be a Web Site Hero, Put Stars in Their Eyes(1)," Campus Technology, 5/11/2005, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=40255

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