The high cost of building and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to support information is nowhere near the price schools will play if they do not develop this strategic asset.

By the end of 1998, all students living on the campus of Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) will have the capability to access the Internet from their dormitory rooms. Just last spring, only a small percentage of students living on this North Carolina campus had such online access.

Although Dr. Joyce Williams-Green, the vice-chancellor for academic affairs at WSSU, says the dormitory networking project represents a noteworthy accomplishment for the small, historically Black university, she adds that the university is struggling to stay current with the computer networking revolution that is sweeping American higher education.

"For us to provide a quality educational environment, we have to build a quality computer network," Williams-Green says.

For years, colleges and universities nationwide have provided computer labs for their students and have automated many administrative functions with computer networks. However, a more recent wave of computer networking, such as the WSSU effort, represents what many see as the most expensive and most far-reaching technology initiative ever undertaken by American colleges and universities.

Schools that serve significant minority student populations are facing a considerable struggle to build and upgrade their campus networks. Yet, those that fail to do so, will find it increasingly difficult to compete for students and faculty.

For Black, Latino, and Native American students attending predominantly White schools, there is evidence to suggest that, on average, they come to campus with less computer exposure and fewer of them own computers than their White and Asian American peers.

A new study released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that nearly 41 percent of White households own a personal computer in comparison to 19.3 percent of Black households and 19.4 percent of Hispanic households. The study found that the disparity is consistent across income levels.

The Push to Network

The $2 million WSSU technology effort includes fixing the year 2000 computer problem, upgrading the campus network, and providing all 165 faculty members with personal computers that can access the Internet, according to Williams-Green. Campus network upgrades will provide administrators with new financial management and student information systems. Administrators are also getting a computerized campus scheduling system, along with upgraded financial and student management systems.

What differentiates the current information technology push from previous ones is that it uses Internet technology to create an entirely new learning and teaching environment for students and faculty. Advanced networking also integrates the transmission of voice, video, and computer data across a single network.

Such networking enables students, faculty, and administrators to collaborate and communicate with each other in powerful ways. Faculty members can use the Internet to interact with students via e-mail and to publish curriculum materials. Students can access instructional software tailored to individual learning styles from the campus network. Course registration and financial aid can be handled online, reducing paperwork and bureaucracy. Distance-learning opportunities become possible when schools develop them with sophisticated computer networks and videoconferencing technology.

In 2007, an Estimated 25 million people will being experiences, including traditional degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students. The majority of that group will not be pursuing a degree, but instead will be updating their skills in response to the changing economy, according to Dr. Carol A. Twigg, vice-president of Educause, and Dr. Robert C. Heterick Jr., former president of Educause's predecessor, Educom. Educause is an association of information technology professionals in higher education.

"The network has become a strategic asset. It's now strategic to the mission of the university," says Ted Evans, associate director of telecommunications and networking at Georgetown University.

Evans estimates that only 5 to 10 percent of American colleges and universities can be considered to be completely wired. The job of networking a school is expensive, starting around $1,000 per computer terminal he says. That means a school has to wire its campuses with expensive fiber optic cables to have the capacity for massive data networks.

The task of wiring American colleges and universities to handle sophisticated computer communications, video transmission, and telephone traffic is expected to cost millions of dollars. Although it's inevitable that richer schools have an advantage in financing advanced networks, higher education IT professionals say campus leadership is as critical a factor as money in an institution's capacity to use and deploy information technology.

Yippie Yi Yahoo!

One prominent index hailed by some administrators and criticized by others is the Yahoo/Internet Life magazine survey of the 100 Most Wired campuses in America. Launched in 1997, the survey ranks 100 campuses considered to have the most advanced computer networking infrastructures and services (see BI The Numbers).

Schools are assessed by their capacity to offer Internet access, computer connections in dormitories, online registration, student and faculty computer training, and many other criteria.

"The way that colleges use network technology -- the way that they admit the Internet into their classrooms, dorm rooms, and offices -- is already an important measure of their success and will become increasingly vital in future years," according to Yahoo's America's 100 Most Wired Colleges Web site.

The Yahoo Web site also claims that as "a result of last year's rating, several schools accelerated their campus wiring initiatives." Yahoo notes that in 1997, "only 28 percent of our Top 100 offered online registration" to their students. In 1998, that number jumped to 64 percent.

In both the 1997 and 1998 ratings, no historically Black institution ranked in the Yahoo survey. However, three institutions that ranked in tile Top 100 for the production of Black undergraduate degrees, as compiled by Black Issues In Higher Education this year, made Yahoo's 1998 survey. These schools were Temple University, University of Maryland-College Park, and Michigan State University.

Dr. Melvin Johnson, vice-chancellor for information technology at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, says colleges and universities are using the Yahoo survey as a marketing tool to attract students and parents. In an economy where there's a shortage of information technology workers, having elaborate networking technology on campus can be an effective marketing tool, according to Johnson.

But Johnson cautions that such surveys have the capacity to lead institutions into making hasty and ill-advised IT decisions.

"It's the glitter phase and [to some institutions] glitter matters," he says.

Forward any questions or comments to ronald@cmabiccw.com

RELATED ARTICLE: Technology's Transformative Impact

Having proficiency in computer use is becoming an increasingly important skill set in the national economy. Job growth in the information technology sector is highest among all work categories, and use of information technology is' expected to increase for all occupations.

Sixty-five percent of American workers use some form of in formation technology (IT) in their jobs. In the year 2000, 95percent of workers will use information technology at work, according to researchers affiliated with Educause, an association of information technology professionals' in higher education.

RELATED ARTICLE: Tech Gurus As Senior Administrators

Nationwide, administrators such as Dr. Joyce Williams-Green -- vice chancellor for academic affairs at Winston Salem State University (WSSU) -- and Dr. Melvin T. Johnson -- vice chancellor of information technology at North Carolina A&T State University (A&T) -- are guiding their schools in the upgrade and construction of campus computer networks. In the process, they've been promoted to the highest levels of university administration and now play a critical role in university governance.

African Americans working as IT professionals in the senior ranks of colleges and universities are largely found at historically Black institutions. A few high-ranking Blacks coordinating IT development work at predominantly White schools.

Earlier this year, WSSU administrators hired Williams-Green away from Virginia Tech. It was at Virginia Tech, the state's flagship university for engineering and technology education, that Williams got experience working as an administrator with responsibility for IT development.

Williams-Green says WSSU faces considerable challenges in the effort to catch up to schools such as Virginia Tech. She currently has responsibility for coordinating both academic and administrative computing management on campus.

"It's a juggling act," she says.

At Georgetown University, Ted Evans occupies an unique niche as one of a few of African American IT executives at a predominantly White college or university. Prior to joining Georgetown two years ago, Evans spent his career working for telephone companies as a telecommunications network manager. He went to Georgetown primarily to acquire experience developing networks that combine video, data, and voice transmission.

"It's been a challenge" adjusting to academia, says Evans, adding that academia requires more of a consensus-building approach than that required in the business world.

The task of managing IT development has unique set of challenges for the IT manager at a college or university. Figuring out how to develop incentives to entice faculty members to use computers in their courses is one such challenge, according to A&T's Johnson.

Striking a balance between the construction of an appropriate number of public computer labs and establishing network connections in dormitory rooms is another. At a certain point, campuses have to stop building computer labs and focus on establishing network connections for students who bring computers to schools, Johnson added.

Catherine Smith, director of computing at Carleton College in Minnesota, says IT managers have to walk a delicate line between integrating centralized computer networks with decentralized networks controlled by autonomous academic departments. She says IT managers at large universities confront that dilemma more so than those at smaller schools.

Smith also notes that IT professionals have had to overcome considerable resistance from school administrators unwilling to accept them at the highest ranks of the college or university. Historically, because many professionals came from technical areas such as the computer science departments, there was a perception that IT professionals "did not think broadly or deeply enough to be at the highest levels of the university."

Smith says that perception has changed over the past decade because the ranks of IT professionals have become populated with more well-rounded managers who have developed reputations for providing quality service.