Technology and the CEO: The Role of Portals in Higher Education

By Dr. Jake B. Schrum,
President
Southwestern University

Editor's Note: President to President: Views of Technology in Higher Education (2005), published by SunGard SCT (www.sungardsct.com), is the source for the following article. We've excerpted Chapter 6, below, which gives a president's view of portals. We think you'll enjoy this article on portal decision making at the highest level.

In August of 2004, a mythical university president, Archibald Jones, became intrigued with the concept of a campus portal. Knowing that portals are personalized views of information, he decided to garner input from Superior University’s various constituencies including alumni, different types of students, faculty, and staff. The chief information officer was aware of the president’s interest in portals and his desire for input. Consequently President Jones also received a letter from the ITS department. President Jones has graciously (and magically) shared his letters with us. His thoughts and reflections on the letters are presented for your consideration.

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The Feeling Is Mutual

Indiana University and Purdue University (IN) IT leaders have announced their plans for mutual wireless connectivity: By the beginning of 2006, IU and Purdue University students, faculty, and researchers will be able to visit each other’s campuses, physically, anytime, and still have a convenient and seamless wireless connection to their home campus networking environment. For example, if you're an IU researcher working in a lab at Purdue for the day, just bring your laptop or PDA-your stuff's right there on the network, as though you were on your own campus. "The way I prefer to describe it is that we are merging the networks," Michael McRobbie, IU's VP for Research and Information Technology told CT, stressing the goal of facilitating collaboration.

Getting a Sense of RFID

With its new RFID Research Center in full swing, the University of Arkansas is not passive about RFID technology. University researchers from disciplines such as engineering and computer science have joined forces with the Sam Walton School of Business and 30 companies to test radio frequency identification systems and related wireless and supply chain sensor technologies. The research laboratory, which opened this past spring, has just received EPCglobal Performance Test Center accreditation, making it one of the first EPC/RFID-accredited research labs worldwide and the first academic lab to earn certification. The center has attracted about $2 million so far from corporate sponsors, including Deloitte Consulting, AC Nielsen, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, and others.

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In Memoriam
Howard Strauss, Princeton University

Campus Technology is saddened to learn of the untimely death of IT leader-visionary Howard Strauss this past Monday. We remember him for his work in technology strategy and outreach for Princeton University, his technology anchor role in the CREN TechTalks, and most of all for us at CT and the Syllabus conferences, his professional speaking, writing, and invaluable work on our own Syllabus conference advisory board. We know that the higher education community will miss his energy, brilliance, and the immeasurable contributions he made to his field. The family is encouraging those who wish to remember Howard to send donations to the American Cancer Society or to the ACLU.

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New Prez at Prince William Sound CC

Douglas Desorcie, who has served as interim president since November 2004, has been appointed president of Prince William Sound Community College (AK). Desorcie began his career in the University of Alaska Statewide System, at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 1987. He joined PWSCC in 1992 and was appointed dean of instruction there in 1996. PWSCC's main campus is in historic Valdez, and along with its two extensions it serves about 44,000 square miles.

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