Campus Briefs

TECHNOLOGY HAPPENINGS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

NEWS

A VIRTUAL LOCKER?
Higher ed IT pioneer and University of Wisconsin-Madison CIO Annie Stunden is seeing her visions become realities at UW-M: Everyone should have a Web space for file storage, sharing, and collaboration. This fall, as a new crop of freshmen enter the university, along with their My UW-Madison Web portal they'll have better- than-ever access and storage for digital files. My WebSpace, a system for Web-accessible file storage, retrieval, and sharing, debuted last year and proved so popular that, this fall, the university plans to ratchet up service to accommodate 10,000 new users. (Add that to last year’s level of 19,000, with close to a million files and folders.) With more than 40,000 students attending the university, and over 13,000 faculty, the content management and file-sharing system is poised for even more expansion. But Madison’s “DoIT” staff is confident that the Xythos-based system (www.xythos.com) will be scalable enough to handle the expected growth. FCC SEEKS ADVICE FROM HIGHER ED. Tamara Closs, president of the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (www.acuta.org), and associate director of Enterprise Product and Service Development at Georgetown University (DC), has been named to serve on a 55-member Consumer Advisory Committee that advises the The Federal Communications Commission on the impact of new and emerging technologies, consumer protection and education, and access for people with disabilities. GOOD ENOUGH? IT leaders from more than 350 colleges and universities contributed their thoughts to a recent Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR) study of business-process performance and technology investment. Educause says the study “corroborate[s] the subjective impressions that trustees, regulators, and others have that colleges and universities lag behind the leading sectors of the economy in the performance of business processes.” But could it be that level of performance is adequate when IT investment must be considered across a range of institutional priorities? Check out the study, titled “Good Enough!” ( www.educause.edu/ers0504).

PEOPLE
NEW PRESIDENT, NEW CHANCELLOR
. The University of Redlands (CA) has identified a new president, Stuart Dorsey, to begin his term this coming fall. Dorsey will join Redlands after completing his role as vice president for Academic Affairs at the University of Evansville (IN). Current President James R. Appleton becomes Redlands’ chancellor. NEW PRESIDENT. Loyola College (MD) trustees have elected Rev. Brian Linnane as their 24th president. Linnane has left his role as assistant dean and associate professor at the College of the Holy Cross (MA), and started his new post at Loyola this past month. INTERIM PRESIDENT . William H. Harris took the reigns this past month as the Fort Valley State University (GA) interim president, and will serve during the Fall 2005 semester. Harris previously held presidential posts at Alabama State University, Texas Southern University, and Paine College (GA). PLANNING RETIREMENT. James E. Walker has decided he will retire after the 2005-2006 academic year, completing six years as Southern Illinois University’s president. OUT OF RETIREMENT? The Haywood Community College (NC) board of trustees has called upon Donald S. Stanton to emerge from retirement for a six-month stint as the college’s interim president. Stanton retired in 1999 from his post as president of Oglethorpe University (GA). The appointment will be contingent upon his acceptance, and the North Carolina Community College system’s final approval

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