University Business articles from March 2002

University Business archives from March 2002

The [**deleted**] domino effect. (Editor's Note).
March 1, 2002... TWO DAYS AGO I WAS AT A GATHERING OF PARENTS, many of whom were discussing their children's apprehension about college acceptance and rejection. "I just don't understand it," said the father of an intelligent, attractive young woman who...

Correction.
March 1, 2002... Due to an editing error in an article in your February 2002 issue, Paul Knight of TouchNet Information Systems (www.touchnet.com) was misidentified as president of that company. He is product manager at the e-commerce and e-integration solution...

Finding strength in budget cuts: why "feeling your pain" might not be so bad. (Viewpoint).
March 1, 2002... I TALKED TO A FRIEND WHO RUNS THE TEACHING CENTER AT A major research university the other day. She wasn't happy. Word had just come down that she'd have to cut her budget to the bone--the sort of message that educators and administrators at...

Endowments and the shifting economy: diversification and discipline have their rewards. (On The Money).
March 1, 2002... AFTER AlMOST TWO YEARS OF disappointing market returns, trustees and business officers are asking, "When are we going to grow again?" Endowments are shrinking because of market declines and normal spending. The markets of the 1990s, when...

Questionable connections: activist group calls for investigation into Harvard's Enron ties. (In The News).
March 1, 2002... What did Harvard's governing board know about the collapse of Enron, and when did they know it? That's the question being asked in a report by HarvardWatch (www.people.fas.harvard.edu /~skomarov/harvardwatch), an activist group concerned with...

McKeon gets fed.up: federal legislator urges administrators to head to new Web site, speeding changes in higher ed regulation. (In The News).
March 1, 2002... When the Hon. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) took the podium at the recent NAICU (National Assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities) conference in Washington, D.C., it was not merely to accept the Award for Advocacy of Higher Education. It...

Steal this idea: university patent-infringement suits flourish. (Update).
March 1, 2002... Xerox is synonymous with copying, but when it comes to copying patented software, that falls under infringement laws. Xerox would probably prefer to keep its name out of such references to copying, but too late for that: In a suit filed in...

Inquiring minds want to know: Montana higher ed faces "open meetings" challenge. (Update).
March 1, 2002... How much should the public have a right to know about your school's business dealings? Fourteen Montana news organizations are suing that state's commissioner of Higher Education over his refusal to allow public access to a meeting with state...

Disaster planning 101: from presidents and provosts: the lessons of disaster. (In The News).
March 1, 2002... On the heels of September 11, a recent audio conference presented by the Society of College and University Planners (www.scup.org) provided some serious disaster-planning insight--and highlighted gaping holes in many IHEs' strategic planning....

Do you know who works for you? To (background) check, or not to check, that is the question. (Update).
March 1, 2002... In mid-January 2002, Casmier Zubrowski, a fiscal administrator at Naugatuck Valley Community College, was arrested in the New Year's Day stabbing murder of his wife. It soon came to light that he had had a previous conviction of second-degree...

Beyond the Campus: how colleges and universities form partnerships with their communities. (Between the Lines).
March 1, 2002... Beyond the Campus: How Colleges and Universities Form Partnerships with Their Communities by David J. Maurrasse: Routledge, 2001. 214 pp. $19.95. Town-and-gown relations have long been a topic for conversation among academics, but what...

Gift baskets for studying? Condom sales balloon at campus pharmacy. (Update).
March 1, 2002... The University of Arizona campus pharmacy is promoting safe sex by selling condoms in bulk. In the program that began last fall, students can purchase condoms in packages of 100 for $10, or 250 for $25. "We're not promoting promiscuity,...

CNBC's Insana: endowment warning: top market analyst urges "balance" in endowment investing. (Update).
March 1, 2002... What's wrong with the way many colleges and universities are managing endowment funds? According to CNBC financial analyst Ron Insana, plenty. Responding to independent college and university presidents recently convening in the nation's...

AOL adds to virtual campus: higher ed/adult learning portal expands. (Update).
March 1, 2002... For at least the past year, AOL has been offering its members a link to online adult and higher education. But in late 2001, the Internet service provider created an "official" portal--dubbed AOL Online Campus--inside its Research & Learn...

MIT's OpenCourseWare: almost ready for prime time: University debuts internal pilot of new system; worldwide launch in fall. (Update).
March 1, 2002... Students around the world will soon be able to find out what's behind an MIT education. Nearly a year after the school announced that it would make materials for all its courses freely available on the Web in a system called OpenCourseWare, the...

Reauthorizing HEA now critical: tackling student aid issues head-on, Rep. Holt `champions' the cause. (Update).
March 1, 2002... Claiming that at least 218 votes will be needed to pass the HEA (Higher Education Act) Reauthorization, the Hon. Rush Holt (D-NJ) recently warned educators meeting on Capitol Hill that they need to "keep up the drum beat" by working to get the...

Lobbyist lockdown: higher ed associations shut out of student aid negotiations. (Update).
March 1, 2002... Representatives from national higher education organizations are alarmed at the precedent set by the U.S. Department of Education's decision to shut them out of two negotiated-rule-making panels dealing with student aid regulations. Typically,...

The economics of marketing: in a poor economy, marketing should be a finely tuned resource allocation tool. (Marketing).
March 1, 2002... I'D LIKE TO SPIN A BRIEF "What if" marketing scenario for you: You're charged with the marketing effort behind the recruitment of next year's class. The economy is dreadful, and money is tight. But you need to buy 150,000 four-panel search...

Virtual roundtable: is this the end of early decision? (Discussion).
March 1, 2002... MENTION "EARLY DECISION" TO A GROUP OF 10 COLLEGE-FOCUSED individuals and you'll likely get 10 different opinions of that admissions procedure. It's an issue that has lingered on a back burner of higher education for several years--that is,...

There's a hole in the bucket: exactly how schools will close the gap between budget cuts and spending is the question of the day. (Special section: the economy).
March 1, 2002... It's still the economy, stupid. In our nation's history, there have been times of recession, and there have been times of international crisis and war, but never has there been a direct historical equivalent to the combination of...

Fundraising in tough times: award-winning fundraisers are locking in more dollars than ever--even in a recession. How do they do it?
March 1, 2002... How has higher ed fundraising been affected by the decelerated economy? The jury is still out until June, at least, but a preponderance of private and public institutions are reporting that they continue to attract dollars as if the country...

Student aid fundraising: is it the answer to the loan/grant imbalance? (Special section: the economy).
March 1, 2002... The escalating imbalance between availability of financial aid grant money and reliance on student loans is now a serious point of pain for higher ed administrators, as well as for the college students cowered by unprecedented financial...

2002 guide to financial aid lenders. (Special section: the economy).
March 1, 2002... 67 COMPANIES YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW WHEN IT COMES TO PAYING FOR COLLEGE, students have more options available to them than ever before. Today, almost three-quarters of higher education financial aid comes from federal appropriations or loan...

Presentation power: improvements in display screens and projectors offer colleges new ways to `show their stuff.' (Technology).
March 1, 2002... NOT LONG AGO, A STATE-OF-THE-art presentation system was a bulky overhead projector wheeled around on a primitive metal cart. Using one meant waiting for it to arrive in a classroom, sweating through awkward moments of setup, and trying to...

Seeing things a different way. (New products: looking for higher-education and technology products and services? Start here).
March 1, 2002... Do limited space and too much ambient light spoil your presentations? NEC Technologies offers the RT50X, a compact rear-screen projection system to address these problems. NEC claims the system is the only 50inch, 4:3 display on the market...

Look ma, no cables. (New products: looking for higher-education and technology products and services? Start here).
March 1, 2002... Virtual Ink's new Mimio Xi is a state-of-the-art digital whiteboard solution, with enhanced flash memory, power options and added modules. Company spokespeople say Mimio is the only product of its type that doesn't require cables or resident...

Adjuncts wanted. (New products: looking for higher-education and technology products and services? Start here).
March 1, 2002... A new Web site helps colleges and universities around the world locate and retain top-notch adjunct faculty. National Education Association statistics reveal that parttime faculty now exceed 43 percent of all U.S. post-secondary faculty; what's...

Does this web site work? Albion College (www.albion.edu). (First Click).
March 1, 2002... BEST FEATURES * MyAlbion (www.albion.edu/myalbion/) is a special section of the overall Albion site; it encourages prospective students to set up their own personal pages. Once visitors have entered their e-mail addresses and set up...

The lumina foundation misses its opportunity: the fallacy of Lumina's claim is evident to anyone who has looked at Education Department enrollment data. (Controversy).
March 1, 2002... DESPITE THE BEST INTENTIONS OF ITS AUTHORS, the lumina Foundation report "Unequal Opportunity Disparities of College Access Among the 50 States" fails to offer a valid measure of, or any meaningful insight into, the state of access and...