The Seminars in Academic Computing: A report on this year’s conference in Snowmass, Colorado
Each year, high up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, a small conference of
educators meets to discuss issues common to those involved with academic computing.
The first conference, held in 1970, was initiated in by a handful of individuals
who had determined that directors of academic computing needed a training seminar,
because most had been recruited from faculty with little management experience.
Since then, the conference has run each summer and now provides not only executive
training, but also a forum for professional communications and a key meeting
around which some of the most important and far-reaching initiatives in higher
education technology develop. The combination of leadership representation and
small size makes SAC a powerful and strategic conference.
In 1997, the Seminars on Academic Computing became a CAUSE affiliate, and it
became an EDUCAUSE affiliate the next year with the consolidation of CAUSE and
EDUCOM. EDUCAUSE vice president Richard Katz spoke about the transition and
about the nature of SAC: “For me SAC is one of the most important conferences
within EDUCAUSE and in the higher education constellation of conferences; first,
because it’s quite small and the setting contains and constrains the size—I
think the capacity is about 250-300 people—and second, SAC was created
by the community, for the community, and has been operated by the leadership
of higher education technology for its purposes. And it has really remained
true to that.” Katz noted that initially, there was some concern that the
historical reason for being and the spirit of the conference might be compromised
in the affiliation with EDUCAUSE, mostly because of the large size of EDUCAUSE
and of some of its other conferences. But such fears proved unfounded. Katz
explains, “We at EDUCAUSE have always felt that the best way to make these
affiliation relationships succeed is to honor what made them successful in the
first place, and second, to remove from the shoulders of those who have made
[the conference] a success the myriad logistical minutia that successful conferences
are all about. EDUCAUSE exists in part to deal with those kinds of things.
Today, SAC is structured in three parts: a University Executive Seminar, a
New Directors Workshop, and the Directors Seminar—the main event. The 17-member
SAC program committee selects topics and invites presentations for the Directors
Seminar with input from others, including SAC board members. “This is a
conference of volunteers”, says Paul Gandel, current SAC board chair and
dean of university libraries at the University of Rhode Island. “The reason
the conference exists is because people want to come here and exchange ideas.”
The program committee, which is representative of the range of SAC attendees,
reflects upon the topics of immediate interest on their campuses, thereby developing
highly relevant program topics. This year, topics ranged from wireless technologies,
to security, electronic portfolios, eLearning systems, portals, bandwidth issues,
video-over-IP, open source, and legacy systems, to budget cycles, decision making
strategies, career moves, and developing leadership. Many of the papers from
this year’s conference are published on the EDUCAUSE Web site at www.educause.edu/conference/.
Every year, the Clair Maple Address is the featured plenary session. Opening
keynoter Graham Spanier, president of Penn State University and this year’s
Clair Maple speaker, reminded attendees that universities need to understand
their customers better, and that “The expectation levels of both faculty
and students have dramatically risen as technology has changed educational opportunities
for everyone.” This theme was reflected in numerous other presentations
as technology leaders recognized the demands created by a changing technological
environment.
Some sessions attempted to capture or characterize some of the areas where
technology needs to be especially watched or researched. A panel on the EDUCAUSE
Center for Applied Research (ECAR) asked attendees to suggest some of these
potential research areas, and a session titled “What Technologies Should
We Watch?” also solicited input from attendees.
The value of SAC g'es well beyond the formal sessions. Attendees are continuously
involved the exchange of information, and breaks and evening time when attendees
can get together are as key to this process as the published sessions. Many
groups, including other EDUCAUSE affiliates and groups with interests in specific
technology projects or areas—examples are such areas as OKI, PKI, or broadband
costs—plan their meetings surrounding SAC, given the number of their members
attending the conference.
SAC serves a dual function, both as a forum for experienced CIOs, as well as
a place for newcomers to get their—footing. This year, one of the “newcomers”
was Julian Lombardi a new assistant director of learning solutions at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, a veteran biology faculty member of 13 years, a developer
and early adopter of technology for education, as well as an entrepreneur in
technology for knowledge architecture and complex self-organizing systems. Lombardi
attended the University Executive Seminar as well as the Directors Seminar.
Lombardi’s goal was “...to listen and try to gain an understanding
of what the issues are.” The strategy worked for him: “It was very
satisfying to see that the thought processes that go into a lot of the decisions
that are made are so well-crafted and well-defined.”
“SAC works”, says Gandel. “Someone once described it to me as
magic. Who would have thought that three computing directors saying, ‘Let’s
get together this week’ back in 1970 would have created something that
would continue this long. You don’t find many things that just keep going,
based essentially on interest.”
SAC generally meets in late summer, around the first week in August. Next summer’s
dates are August 1-6. For further information, visit www.educause.edu.