This morning’s general session began with some announcements from the NERCOMP (Northeast Regional Computer Program) leadership. NERCOMP is an affiliate organization of Educause, and has been for the past ten years. While Educause and NERCOMP are two separate organizations, NERCOMP serves as the regional organization for Educause in the Northeast. This year’s NERCOMP regional meeting of Educause is the best attended so far, with nearly 600 attendees from 18 states. There are also 152 vendors participating in the conference.
The general session program was a panel discussion about how college presidents view technology. Three college presidents were on the panel: Cheryl Norton, president of Southern Connecticut State University, S. Georgia Nugent, president of Kenyon College, and Susan Scrimshaw, president of Simmons College. The moderator was Joanne M. Kossuth, CIO and Associate Vice President for Development of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.
Kossuth mentioned that one of the biggest challenges she sees in higher education technology is getting faculty to learn and adopt technology. Norton concurred, saying that it is a challenge to get faculty to keep up with the students in their use of technology. She said another big issue is the tendency for students to want to be connected 24/7 with cell phones and texting, and the problems this poses for some faculty. She mentioned one example of a faculty member who confiscated a student’s cell phone.
To the common complaint of faculty that students’ always “go to google first” when doing research, Scrimshaw said, “get over it…even faculty go to google first!” (Good point.) At Simmons, they have combined IT with library services, and have generally found this has helped keep IT policy more aligned with the academic mission of the college.
Norton expressed a concern with students’ understanding of intellectual property and plagiarism. Students need to understand what constitutes fair use and academic honesty. She also briefly mentioned the need to manage the cost of IT.
Should academic computing be separate from administrative computing? In most cases, probably not. Scrimshaw said that in most cases, the division is the result of personalities and traditions, rather than a particular advantage in keeping administrative computing distinct from academic computing.
IT leaders need to focus on effective communication with administration. Norton argued that too often IT leaders use overly technical language, when they really need to be communicating in plain, direct words. It’s important that an institution’s leadership have a clear understanding of the benefit of IT investments.
It was interesting to hear from this group of college presidents about how they view technology. In particular, I enjoyed their candor in talking about their own personal journey in academic leadership. All of them shared some insights into their personal strategies for dealing with the stress of their position…regular exercise, eating right, keeping job and family in balance. Nugent said the best advice she can give someone who aspires to leadership is to be honest: be honest with yourself, be honest with others, and be honest about what you can do. Norton and Kossuth concurred, saying that a leader should always take the high road. The confidence and trust people have in you are a president’s most important assets.