One More on Katrina--the Emergence of CampusRelief.org

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One More on Katrina--the Emergence of CampusRelief.org

9/14/2005

By Terry Calhoun

First, I heard that during a teleconference of the Council of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA), that the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the American Council on Education (ACE) were working to create just such a centralized disaster assistance site as I had called for in my column.

Then, I think it was on Friday, I received a call from Anne Gross of NACUBO who told me more about the project and informed me that the first stage of it was being populated from the offers being sent to the scup-katrina site and elsewhere. What a relief! At least going into that hectic weekend I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sure enough, very early the next week, NACUBO and ACE flipped the switch on campusrelief.org and I was able to direct new offers of assistance and queries for assistance to that site. Whew!

Now, campusrelief.org is currently no technological marvel . . . yet. It’s still serving up downloadable Excel spreadsheets rather than through online interactivity, but it’s going to become what we need, and it is intended to be a permanent resource, currently funded by the graciousness of TIAA-CREF.

Later last week, we in the SCUP office in Ann Arbor participated in a teleconference, which included senior staff from a huge number of higher education association organizations, many of whom were physically present in a meeting room in Washington, DC, and others, like SCUP, at offices all over the United States but participating virtually. I am confident that what NACUBO and ACE are building, with support from TIAA-CREF will be what we need; and it will link to the more specialized sites from some institutions like the EDUCAUSE site; and the folks who do financial aid work.

It’s all very heartwarming, and all that has been done so far has been very helpful, but I read an article just today by Jennifer Granick of the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, Open Internet, We Hardly Knew Ye, wherein she warns/notes that many of the current changes that government agencies and corporations, and others, are trying to impose on the laws that regulate information exchange

Some of her points:

What happens with access if the courts continue to rule that it’s illegal to access a wireless access point that is unsecure without obtaining permission first? D'es that deter victims from getting online whenever they can? In future disasters will we see people ‘looting’ someone’s access point for connectivity?

What would have happened if I had had to get ‘permission’ before taking related Katrina posts from various lists before including them on SCUP’s Website? I didn’t ask – although at least one other organization called to ask me, NAICU, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. But the folks creating campusrelief.org didn’t ask me for permission, either, and that was/is fine with me. That’s probably because they already knew me, but even if they didn’t, quick response to urgent situations must not be delayed with layers of permission to penetrate.

I believe, along with Granick, that “The law should treat the internet as open by default.” It’s all about having to ask permission, or not, and once again circumstances have made it clear that the internet works best when it is open and free, as Granick puts it, “a public resource rather than a gated community.” Something to not only think about, but to keep constantly in mind.

Share your ideas and opinions on the CT Disaster Planning and Recovery forum.

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, "One More on Katrina--the Emergence of CampusRelief.org," Campus Technology, 9/14/2005, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=40497

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