OPINION

One more on Katrina--the Emergence of CampusRelief.org

By Terry Calhoun

A little more than two weeks ago, many of us watched in alarm as the floodwalls in New Orleans breached and it became apparent that Katrina was bringing hurricane disaster on a new scale-–especially on a new scale for colleges and universities. Never before had so many institutions been so seriously impacted by a disaster. (Note that I do not call it a ‘natural disaster’ as in fact it was the result of decades and decades of mismanagement of the Gulf environment.

But it seemed that the federal government and even the news media were slow to realize the long-term consequences of the shifting situation: Things were not going to be back to normal soon. So my boss at the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), and I came up with a low-tech, short-term method to get higher education connected around this disaster; and I wrote my column that week about the need for higher education to “come up with a plan for an always-on Internet-based resource for assistance to institutions that have met with disasters.”
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IT NEWS

BellSouth Says Rebuilt New Orleans Could Be Cutting Edge

If it can be afforded, replacing 120-year-old copper wire with state-of-the-art fiver-optic lines is just the beginning. (USA Today) Read more

Indiana State University To Require Laptops

Indiana State University, after gaining support from student government leaders, is moving forward with its initiative--the first in Indiana-- to require all incoming freshmen, starting in 2007, to have laptops. (TriStar.com) Read more

Seton Hall Web Site Launch Faces Difficulty

Attempts to launch the new website on August 19 and then again on September 1, failed. The problems are at least in part from too much traffic and from interaction of the new site with older pages. (The Setonian) Read more

Security Measures Safeguard Penn State's Computer Networks

Its security strategy, detailed here, is three-pronged: education and awareness, incident response vigilance, and technical controls. (Penn State Live) Read more

RESOURCES

Computer Scientist Sees San Diego's Future

Larry Smarr, quoted on various topics relating to the "collaborative relationship" that should exist between universities and their surrounding communities: "the modern economy has one source of fuel, which is to take the incredible innovations occurring everyday in universities and translate them into new jobs, rising prosperity, and better quality of life for its citizens." (Voice of San Diego) Read more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

Columbia Gorge Community College Deploys IP Telephony

This Oregon community college is using Cisco CallManagers supporting IP telephone handsets with a Unity voice messaging server. Apparently the deployment went without a hitch. (BusinessWire) Read more

Harvard Business School Selects Intelliworks for CRM

Intelliworks, Inc., (www.intelliworks.com) which sells collaborative CRM products for the higher education market, announced this week that Harvard Business School (MA) has selected Intelliworks to support admissions and marketing processes for its Executive Education Programs.

Southeastern University Grows With Jenzabar

Jenzabar, Inc., (www.jenzabar.net) a vendor of Total Campus Management (TCM) products for higher education, announced this week that Southeastern University, (FL), has selected the Jenzabar EX ERP system to help meet increasing information technology needs as a result of the university's growth.