We Have a Plan

Terry Calhoun, Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan

In this issue of IT Trends, Princeton Internet Guru Howard Strauss shares with us his observations based on a 216-year-old information technology plan—the U.S. Constitution.

A Guest Opinion by Howard Strauss

Given that more departments have found it valuable to hire their own educational technology support staff, larger centralized servers are being retired, and given that the proliferation of student-owned computers has reversed the trend of software delivered by servers, what role is left for a central IT organization?

Insight on the answer to this question may be found in the preamble of the Constitution of the United States (Sept. 17, 1787). It established some of the functions that a central government must provide, which are similar to the functions that a central IT group must continue to provide, even in the face of a secessionist movement on the part of university departments that IT groups traditionally supported. Here’s the preamble and a quick look at its implications to central IT departments …

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Students to Pay Settlements for Bootleg File Swapping

Students to Pay Settlements for Bootleg File Swapping Four college students, one from Princeton, two from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and one from Michigan Tech, recently found themselves agreeing to legal payments from $12K to $17K each over four years. They didn't add to their student loan debt by choice, they settled out of court with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which is on a campaign to stop bootleg file swapping of music … (San Jose Mercury News)
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Aggressive Measures Devised to Fight Music Bootlegging

Meanwhile, the music industry might introduce measures that "take a more extreme -- and antagonistic -- approach" to solving the problem of bootleg music swapping. How about a denial of service attack on a specific dormitory’s network connection? How about a program that uses the Internet to finds music files on students' computers and deletes them without asking first? Or maybe it g'es "easy" and just freezes their computer for an hour or two? … (The Christian Science Monitor)
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Academic Advising Hoax Under Investigation at Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins University is investigating a series of false e-mails that went out to incoming freshmen last month as an April fools hoax, appearing as though they were from the Office of Academic Advising. The e-mails informed students of (fictitious) problems with their transcripts or registration. Investigators linked the e-mails to a foreign ISP address. The Internet investigation is still ongoing one month later, and is "a lot more difficult than we had hoped it to be," said John Bader, the department's assistant dean … (The Johns Hopkins News-Letter)
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Bradley U. Students Charged with Online Election Tampering

Three students at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., face internal judicial charges of tampering with an April 16 online student election … (The Bradley Scout)
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War Driving in New Hampshire

With obvious implications for colleges and universities, New Hampshire "House Bill 495 would, experts say, effectively legalize many forms of what's known as war driving -- motoring through an inhabited area while scanning for open wireless access points." The bill "defines an operator's failure to secure a wireless network as a form of negligence." … (Wired)
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CollegeSource Online:
A virtual library with 24,376 college catalogs in full cover-to-cover, original page format representing two-year, four-year, graduate, professional, and international schools …
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The Urban Universities Portfolio Project (UUPP): A collaboration among six urban public universities to develop prototype electronic institutional portfolios. The portfolios capture a shared description of "urban public university," measures of effectiveness, and models for documenting learning outcomes …
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Lockheed Martin Announces $1.1 Million Gift to Penn State University

Systems integrator Lockheed Martin Management & Data Systems Inc. announced a five-year, $1.1 million gift to Penn State University to help fund research and development, diversity programs, scholarships, fellowships and design excellence awards. In addition, funds will help Penn State recruit graduate students in critical technology areas. Lockheed Martin employs more than 1,000 Penn State graduates throughout the corporation. During the 2002-03 school year, it hired more entry- level engineers from Penn State than any other college or university …
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University of Utah Health Sciences Center Taps ZixCorp for Secure Mail

The University of Utah Health Sciences Center (UHSC) has contracted ZixCorp to provide secure e-mail management for 12,000 physicians, students, and staff. The Center is using Zix Virtual Private Messenger (ZixVPM) for e-mail protection with encryption and management of inbound and outbound mail in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). UHSC is also using ZixPort, an integrated secure e-messaging portal that mimics the look and feel of the organization's Web portal …
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