Campus Profile: The Citadel Copyright 1990 CAUSE From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 13, Number 1, Spring 1990. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its dateappear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-449-4430, e-mail info@CAUSE.colorado.edu THE CITADEL ************************************************************************ This article is based on a visit to The Citadel by editor Julia Rudy. The Campus Computing Environment department of CAUSE/EFFECT regularly focuses on the information technology environment of a CAUSE member campus, to promote a better understanding of how the information technologies are organized and managed in colleges and universities of various sizes and types. Established in 1842 in Charleston, South Carolina, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, today is located on a 108-acre campus and has an enrollment of just under 3,000 fulltime students, 2,000 of whom are men in the Corps of Cadets. A four-year, public, comprehensive liberal arts college, The Citadel offers several masters degree programs and an Evening College and summer sessions open to both men and women. Three years ago, all of the college's administrative computing and much of its academic computing were accomplished through a service contract with the University of South Carolina (USC). There were no central computers at The Citadel, administrative systems were homegrown and inadequate to meet the needs of core user offices, the only microcomputers on campus available to students were a handful of aging Apple IIe's, and academic and administrative computing were separate and uncoordinated. Today the college has its own computer center, a campus-wide computing network with international connections, and a total of 550 Apple Macintoshes, IBM PS/2s, and DEC VAX terminals. There are nine public computing laboratories, and 90 percent of the faculty have microcomputers or terminals on their desks. An on-line, interactive, integrated administrative software package has been installed to serve the college's administrative functions, a fourth-generation tool for information retrieval and report generation is in use, and the implementation of a relational database management system is in the planning stage. Finally, a new organization -- Information Resources Management (IRM) -- has been established to manage both academic and administrative computing and the networking needs of the campus. Leaping into the 1990s According to Isaac Metts, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, to whom the IRM organization reports, the decision to combine the management of academic and administrative computing was the key to the college's successful leap into the "information age." The consolidation -- and its placement in the line organization of the Vice President for Academic Affairs -- made possible a single, concentrated effort to identify, plan for, and fund the campus's information technology needs. By the fall of 1986, careful analysis and planning by a Computer Advisory Committee had led to a decision to seek commercial administrative systems software and supporting hardware as a first step toward building the campus infrastructure for information resources management. Working with a consulting firm, the committee carried out an RFP process that resulted in the selection of Information Associates' Series Z software, to run on a Digital VAX 8530. Several creative funding mechanisms made possible the near- overnight arrival of computing on the campus. The college is fortunate to have access to grants from the Citadel Development Foundation (CDF), an independent, private foundation whose mission is to enhance academics at The Citadel. CDF grants of $750,000 contributed heavily to the to- date total investment of $3,000,000. The college raised more than a million dollars through bonds and budget reallocations, and another $300,000 was contributed by the Self Foundation. In addition, Apple Computer, Inc. donated a hundred Macintosh computers. When Robert E. (Rod) Welch came on board as the new Director of Information Resources Management in the fall of 1986, the college was poised to proceed with the administrative computing installation, but there was no plan in place for academic computing. One of Welch's first recommendations was to discontinue the USC contract to provide for academic computing needs and use the "administrative" VAX for academic computing during the systems implementation, when the load on the computer would be minimal. With the significant savings from eliminating USC maintenance and service fees, Welch pointed out that the college could purchase a second VAX for academic computing the next year, when the administrative systems would be up and running. The proposal met with immediate and enthusiastic approval and the college's information technology transformation was under way. IRM -- Emphasis on Management and Service Today, all of the central components of Series Z have been installed, and three subsystems (purchasing, fixed assets, and degree auditing) are slated for implementation this spring and summer. Welch believes that using a team approach to implement the systems contributed to their relatively problem-free installation. Four teams (made up of administrators and staff in user offices) were established, one for each of the four main modules of the package -- FRS (financial), HRS (human resource) SIS (student), and ADS (alumni/development) -- and those teams have remained active after installation, meeting at least once or twice a month. Welch also attributes the project's success to an impressive cooperative spirit among team members: once decisions were made, everyone lived by them and worked hard to do his or her part and not let the other team members down. Another key to smooth implementation was the users' agreement to accept the "plain vanilla" systems of the vendor and to live with them through one full cycle before requesting any customization. Two years later, few changes have been made. According to Metts, this policy forced user offices to examine the way they were doing business, and most now work better as a result. Two fundamental decisions have enhanced service to the user community and effected better use and management of campus information resources. The first was standardization, i.e., establishing standards for hardware and software and supporting only those standards. The second was a commitment to purchase rather than develop all software applications. (An exception to the latter is the college's merit-demerit system for the Corps of Cadets, which IRM personnel had to build since such a system is not commercially available.) Standardization not only means staff can offer better training and documentation, but IRM approval of all computing- related purchases has allowed the establishment of a sound tracking system for all campus hardware and software, negotiation of better licensing agreements, guidance for users to make better decisions, and recycling hardware and software when appropriate. According to Welch, these management practices have maximized the scarcest resource on campus -- people -- and make it possible to carry out the IRM philosophy that the primary function of computer personnel is to support users. Since they are not building applications, the five analysts in the Administrative Information Systems unit spend more than half their time helping and teaching Series Z and FOCUS users, including faculty. The four Software Support Services personnel spend virtually all of their time developing and revising users' guides; teaching Macintosh, PS/2, and VAX training courses; answering users' questions; helping them solve problems; and installing new personal computer software. And the three staff in Hardware Support Services spend most of their time installing, moving, and repairing personal computers and VAX terminals. With the installation of a new software package called HOTLINE (from Target Systems), anyone on the network will be able to request computer and procurement services on-line and the request will automatically be forwarded to the person responsible for providing the help sought. In coming months, the system will be expanded to many other services at The Citadel, providing an excellent campus-wide communication and management system. Campus-Wide Network One of the most convenient features of The Citadel computing environment is the single campus-wide VAX network. About 400 of the college's desktop computers are connected to the network; all communicate at 19.2 kbps. Because all of these devices are connected to the network through terminal servers, users can easily access both of the two clustered VAXes (an 8530 and 6420) from any device on campus, or by modem from off campus. Thus all faculty and staff have access to Series Z, and all faculty, staff, and students can access campus electronic mail, BITNET, and the library's ATLAS system (see library section, below). The heart of this network is an Ethernet backbone in the main administration building that connects the VAXes with four computer labs and the central telephone switch room. Nearly all of the 1,500 phones on the AT&T System 85 PBX, including those in the cadet barracks, have been wired with four extra wires for data, so connecting most users to the network is relatively easy. IRM chose not to use the System 85 for data switching, opting instead to bypass it by connecting the four data wires from each phone jack to the Ethernet through an Equinox data switch and DEC terminals servers located in the telephone switch room. Significant savings have resulted. Plans include extending the Ethernet backbone to other campus buildings, especially those occupied by faculty likely to migrate to UNIX workstations. Faculty and Student Computing Students and faculty use microcomputers for word processing, spreadsheet and database applications, graphics, and an increasing number of discipline-specific instructional packages. In addition, through the network they can access a variety of programming languages, statistical packages, and other academic software on the VAX. Nine computing labs are available in various locations throughout the campus, providing students access to Apple Macintoshes, IBM PS/2s, and VAX terminals. Most computers on campus, including those in the labs, are equipped with a hard disk, and even the keyboards are standard, i.e., all as close as possible to the Digital keyboard. All of the PS/2s have also been set up with a standard menu for easy use of DOS 4.0. Students use the menu to select the software they want to use, including instructional and simulation packages for business, humanities, social sciences, math, natural sciences, and engineering that have been specified by their professors for out-of-class assignments. To provide security and manage the use of the hard drives, Disk Manager PC software (from Cooke Publications) has been installed on the PS/2s in the labs. This software prevents copying of software from the hard drive, prevents alterations to the hard drive, and automatically erases all work from the hard drive when the student has finished his work session. Thus far, students have not been required to purchase micros, but a 40 percent discount off the retail price of Macintoshes and PS/2s available through the campus bookstore (to faculty and staff as well) promotes microcomputer ownership. Last fall, the college invited students with a Mac or IBM compatible to apply for a free connection to the VAX network through their barracks room. More students taking advantage of this opportunity should slow the establishment of public- access labs in coming years. Library Technology Keeping Pace According to Daniel Library Director Richard Wood, it was just ten years ago that The Citadel's library purchased only books. Today the library has advanced as rapidly as other campus units with respect to information technology. Last year a CDF grant made possible the implementation of ATLAS, a library system marketed by Data Research Associates (DRA) that automates most library functions, including acquisitions, cataloging, and circulation. Since the library's database was loaded onto the VAX, students, faculty, and staff can electronically search the library's catalog of holdings from almost anywhere on or off campus. The Daniel Library and IRM, which have an excellent working relationship, recently submitted a joint proposal to the CDF to fund the purchase of the hardware and software necessary to support a campus-wide information retrieval system based on CD-ROM technology on the VAX. The library hopes to make CD-ROM subscriptions available on the VAX to such resources as the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, ERIC, and Books in Print. With a computing allocation equivalent to 6 percent of the E&G budget, continued support for information resources at The Citadel seems likely. According to George Meenaghan, Vice President for Academic Affairs: "We have learned that we can't go to the state for this kind of support, so we have devised a strategy to continue the commitment. It's called 'take it out of hide,' meaning we set priorities in the budgeting process. Information technology needs will continue to have a high priority. Attitudes are just as important as funds, and I see them continuing to be very favorable." ************************************************************************ Campus Profile: The Citadel