News 08-09-2002
Sponsor: Plan Now to Present at Syllabus fall2002
Share your expertise with education technology's leaders when you present at
the Syllabus fall2002 conference, November 3-5. At this, Syllabus' 4th annual
autumn visit to the Boston area, faculty, administrators and IT professionals
will gather at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel to explore the latest applications
of information technology in higher education institutions. Compelling technology
topics presented in a collegial atmosphere is the hallmark of Syllabus' Boston
conferences. Be there to set the tone with your presentation. Proposals to present
at the main conference or to lead a full- or half-day seminar during the pre-conference
are due by August 15.
Submission guidelines, content areas and complete details can be found online
at http://www.syllabus.com/fall2002/papers.asp
Educause Names 2002 Achievement Awards
Educause yesterday announced the name of people and programs it has chosen
to receive its 2002 achievement awards. The association, dedicated to advancing
higher education through the use of information technology, will honor the eight
winners at its annual conference next month in Atlanta, Ga. This year's winners
are:
1. Douglas Van Houweling, president of Internet2, received the Excellence in
Leadership Award "for extraordinary effectiveness, influence, statesmanship,
and lifetime achievement, on both individual campuses and the wider higher education
community."
2. A posthumous award for Leadership in the Profession went to Diane P. Balestri,
former vice president, computing and information services, Vassar College, "for
exceptionally effective leadership in campus information technology use and
management, and the mentoring of other professionals."
3. Kenneth C. Green, director of the Campus Computing Project, won the Leadership
in Public Policy and Practice award for "prominence in the arena of national
and international technology agendas, and the linking of higher education to
those agendas." The Campus Computing Project http://www.campuscomputing.net,
is the largest continuing study of the role of information technology in American
higher education.
4. James P. Frazee, associate director, Instructional Technology Services,
San Diego State University, won the Educause Quarterly Contribution of the Year
Award, for an article, "Charting a Smooth Course for Portal Development," published
in Educause Quarterly, Volume 24, Number 3, 2001.
5. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine won the award for Systemic
Progress in Teaching and Learning. Educause said WFUSM "has positioned itself
as a leader in the integration of technology into undergraduate medical education
with its Prescription for Excellence Curriculum. This ubiquitous computing initiative,
seamlessly integrated into the school's educational goals, is predicated on
a belief in the growing importance of information technology in medicine as
well as curricular goals of self-directed, life-long learning and information
management skills."
6. The College of Mount St. Joseph will receive the award for Excellence in
Networking for MERLIN: Media-Rich Learning Through Wireless Thin Client.
7. The award for Excellence in Administrative Information Systems went to the
University of Minnesota, Paperless Financial Aid Office. The Office "allows
the University of Minnesota and its 33,000 students who receive financial aid
to perform all transactions and process all information without a single piece
of paper."
8. The award for Excellence in Information Technology Solutions went to the
Intercollegiate College of Nursing / Washington State College of Nursing Medically
Indigent Rural Area (MIRA) Psychiatric Nurse-Practitioner Program. The program
allows graduate nursing students in rural areas to obtain supervised hours required
for licensure without relocating.
For more information about the initiatives, visit: http://www.educause.edu/awards/
Drexel Taps Wind to Meet Energy Demand
With nearly 10 percent of its total energy usage being generated by wind energy,
Drexel University leads the country's universities in the percentage of its
total electricity supply provided by wind energy. Through the agreement with
Community Energy, Inc., a Delaware County, Pa.-based green electricity marketer,
Drexel will purchase the entire energy output of a 220-foot tall wind turbine,
approximately the energy required to power 500 homes for a year. "We are excited
to be in the vanguard of alternative energy users, because our university takes
pride in applying tomorrow's technologies today," said Drexel President Constantine
Papadakis. The energy supplier said Drexel's wind purchase will eliminate the
4.5 million lbs. of carbon dioxide, the primary contributor to global warming.
NEC Targets Higher Ed for Telephony Suite
NEC America, Inc. recently introduced a suite of telecommunications applications
it says it developed specifically for the education market. The EdConnect system
is composed of five applications: a business attendant system to automate call
handling; a security application that manage on-site 911; a phone application
that eliminates hard copy directories; an in-building wireless application;
and a service management program to manage telephony related costs. The company
said it believes campus administrators are considering telecommunications as
a vehicle to simplify call handling processes and streamline campus-wide communications,
as well as to help increase security.
Stevens Institute Offers Online Security Courses
Stevens Institute of Technology said it would offer next month a four-course
online graduate certificate in "CyberSecurity" through its WebCampus online
unit. The course will be directed by IEEE fellow and former Bell Labs staffer
Manu Malek. The course will cover the basics of cyber security, including authentication,
confidentiality and message integrity. The first class to go online this fall,
"e-Business Security and Information Assurance," will explore application, server,
and database security and will cover virtual local area networks (VLAN), secure
access, backup and disaster-recovery techniques. Stevens offers about 100 graduate
e-learning courses. It says more than 1,000 students have studied in the school's
online graduate programs.
For more information, visit: http://www.webcampus.stevens.edu
Awards, Deals, Contracts, in Higher Education
-- Drexel University has chosen TMX, a provider of digital direct marketing
services, to help its student recruitment efforts. The digital direct mail campaign
will focus on recruiting students for Drexel's College of Media Arts and Design.
The campaign is being designed to promote candidates to campus-based events
such as open houses, tours, and workshops, as well as to drive online traffic
to the Drexel University website.
-- Columbia University licensed SunGard BSR, constituent management system
Advance to support its development and fundraising needs. Columbia becomes the
sixth school in the Ivy-Plus consortium, which includes Stanford and MIT, to
license Advance. The system will help the school manage over 400,000 entity
records, 175 end users, and fund-raising support for 15 active schools.
