The NREN: Opportunities for College and University Administration Copyright 1992 CAUSE FROM _CAUSE/EFFECT_ VOLUME 15, NUMBER 2, SUMMER 1992. 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 date appear,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 NREN: OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION by Richard P. West ************************************************************************ Richard P. West is Associate Vice President-Information Systems and Administrative Services for the nine-campus University of California system, with overall information and telecommunications responsibility for academic and administrative purposes for the UC system. Since 1990 he has chaired the Steering Committee of the Coalition for Networked Information. ************************************************************************ ABSTRACT: While the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 was developed and supported in the context of teaching, learning, and research, the National Research and Education Network (NREN) will present administrative computing and communications organizations with unprecedented opportunities to benefit from the anticipated new levels of network capacity, connectivity, and reliability. On December 9, 1992, President George Bush signed into law the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (the Act). Passage of PL 102-194 was hailed by colleges and universities nationwide and culminated years of determined lobbying efforts by higher education interests. While full funding and governance and management issues will require ongoing vigilance and action, PL 102-194 recognizes and authorizes the research and development of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) as one of four programmatic objectives of U.S. high performance computing. The funding for FY 93 NREN and related activities, totaling $122.5 million in the President's budget,[1] will be invested towards enhancing the existing national backbone and towards the long-term goal of developing a national data communications infrastructure supporting gigabit speeds. While this legislation was developed and supported in the context of teaching, learning, and research--the typical domain of academic computing organizations--the NREN will present administrative computing and communications organizations with unprecedented opportunities to benefit from the anticipated new levels of network capacity, connectivity, and reliability. NREN status and current issues The program elements of the Act relating to the NREN will be coordinated by the Federal Networking Council (FNC) which consists of federal agency representatives. Higher education's interests, and those of other constituencies, will be facilitated by the Federal Network Advisory Committee which was established to promote collaboration among those interested in the NREN. The Supplement to the President's FY 1993 budget describes two components of the federal NREN activity. First, investments will continue to be made in existing operating federal networks such as the NSFNET, DOE's Energy Sciences Network, NASA's Science Internet, and other networks supporting education and research. This existing infrastructure, referred to as the Interagency Interim NREN, will be expanded and enhanced to meet the eventual goal of a gigabit NREN. Second, funds will be invested to develop the technology base needed to achieve "at a minimum gigabit speeds and advanced capabilities in the NREN."[2] While we are gratified at the success of higher education's efforts to bring NREN funding and development to the forefront of the nation's research and education agenda, we cannot rest on our laurels. At this writing, a number of issues will continue to command our attention as the national networking program moves ahead. First, it is not yet clear how much the federal funding commitment to the NREN will be. While the Act defines the program and authorizes federal expenditures, actual funding depends on the federal budget process and its constraints and competing priorities. Also, even if appropriations total the levels anticipated in the Act, the mechanisms for allocating these appropriations between (1) upgrading existing network operations, and (2) pursuing advanced network research and design, have not been specified. These tradeoffs and priorities will have to be balanced among the federal mission agencies through the FNC, but ongoing vigilance by and input from higher education will be required. Second, and pertinent to any proposed administrative use of the national network, is the issue of acceptable commercial use of the NREN. Currently, NSF policy restricts traffic on the NSFNET to bona fide research and educational purposes. Clearly, the advancement of administrative use of the national network will require access, by college and university trading partners, to the NREN. A new era in higher education As budgets shrink, demographics change, and demands for accountability rise, American higher education in general will be faced with major changes in the decade of the 1990s. As colleges and universities organize to address these changes and challenges, the administration--as always--will be expected to shoulder a disproportionately larger share of the burden. The good news is that the trends in technology, particularly in networking, present us with new opportunities to "do more, with less." * The shift from paper-based and batch-oriented campus operating environments to network-based and cooperative-processing-oriented environments will make it possible to leverage the historical investments we have made in administrative computing. * Through improvements in campus data communications networks, many colleges and universities are witnessing the leverage of staff time--as networks enhance employees' ability to communicate easily via electronic mail, and as interactive and interconnected administrative systems reduce the redundant creation and management of institutional data. * As our networks grow more robust and our architectures mature to take full advantage of the client-server model of computing, we will witness greater opportunities for leverage; that is, leverage of the campus installed base of computers, printers, storage devices, fax machines, and others. * The bandwidth and connectivity promised by the NREN create yet another opportunity for economic leverage: the leverage of information (read: someone else's time!) and of technological capabilities and resources nationwide. As technological progress is made, colleges and universities that have made strategic investments in their intra-campus network infrastructures will witness the emergence of new opportunities for sharing resources among themselves and their business partners. Significantly, the ultimate beneficiaries of such resource sharing will be students and faculty who will be faced with fleeter-of-foot and better-integrated administrative environments. Before proceeding, I offer a word of caution. To date, the data nationwide suggest that the massive American investments in computing and communications over the past two decades have had very little positive effect on white-collar productivity (see Figure 1). (Figure 1 not available in text-only version.) Productivity in higher education administration has a similarly equivocal track record for the period, witnessed by the failure of the college and university tuition price index to remain at, or below, the American consumer price index (CPI). The reasons for the muted impact of information technology (IT) on white-collar productivity are unclear. One reason, I suggest, is that the history of IT for the past two decades reflects a focus centered more on technology, than on information. While bigger and faster computers, software, and networks are important, the questions of how-- or even whether--we should use and manage information technology must remain at the forefront of our thoughts, discussions, and plans if we are to really reap the benefits anticipated by the NREN. A robust and richly interconnected national network for higher education only creates the opportunities for leveraging resources in the manner described. How we exploit this opportunity will depend on our willingness and ability to alter those attitudes and values that form barriers to inter- institutional cooperation and resource sharing. The NREN and higher education administration The administrative opportunities presented by the national commitment to the NREN are considerable and cannot be described here in exhaustive detail. On the level of infrastructure, the NREN--through improved connectivity--will enhance the use of electronic mail. E-mail has emerged as a key network capability and function and has direct administrative benefits by enhancing the quality and ease of communications between and within organizations. Universal administrative connectivity to campus networks and the NREN will enable broader spans of managerial control by reducing the number of other--more time consuming--exchanges between managers and staff. The enhanced ability of our employees to consult with their professional peers across the country will help develop these staff into the sophisticated problem solvers we will need to face the 1990s. In some cases, the need for certain meetings and for travel may be obviated through enhanced network accessibility and directory services. Telecommuting, which offers to mitigate certain pressures for campus work space, parking, and other resources, will also be fostered by the NREN. A high capacity network such as the NREN will also add to the campus alternatives vis-a-vis disaster preparedness. During the California earthquake of 1989, campuses of the University of California affected by the quake were able to communicate across data communication networks at a time when telephone service had been interrupted. Additionally, expanded network capacity, connectivity, and reliability (as well as value-added services) will open possibilities for us to share unused computing or storage capacity or to share specialized production facilities such as printing, binding, and reprographics. Such capacity could even create opportunities for live backup sites for our key application systems. More interestingly, perhaps, new network capacity and function will create new opportunities for electronic data interchange (EDI). These opportunities are enormous and create the possibility of transforming the very nature of how colleges and universities are administered. For example, the purchasing process is a particularly onerous and costly one at most colleges and universities owing to the strict accountabilities imposed by trustees, regulators, auditors, and others. This process is complicated further by the need for a large cast of facilitators and controllers who mediate campus purchasing activity. This cast can typically include: * a "customer" * a departmental purchasing facilitator * a departmental accounting person * a department chair (to sign) * a dean (to sign) * a campus buyer * an equipment or property manager * a receiver * a delivery person * a campus general accounting person * a campus accounts payable person * a vendor. This is quite a cast! Typically, a college or university purchase is initiated on a purchase requisition that is sprinkled with signatures authorizing the requestor to purchase the goods specified. A central campus official conducts product and vendor research and verifies fund sources or grant terms and issues a purchase order to the selected vendor. This process, as well as those activities associated with receiving, delivering, and paying for goods purchased, is mediated by forms which move slowly across the desks of this large cast of characters. As the national information network emerges, colleges and universities will be able to contract for goods with suppliers who offer "just-in- time" delivery capabilities through sophisticated inventory control and manufacturing practices. Purchase orders, under such agreements, can be made, authenticated, filled, invoiced, accepted, and paid across the NREN. Such a scenario could improve processing speed and accuracy tremendously, while: (1) maximizing campus negotiating leverage; (2) reducing staff effort; (3) reducing campus storehouse inventories; and (4) freeing professional purchasing staff to concentrate their efforts on complex and high-dollar transactions. That's "doing more, for less" through the NREN! The NREN will enable similar administrative improvements across the board. In the student services area, many onerous administrative transactions that degrade students' impressions of the campus will be improved through expanded network access and services. Eventually, students will be able to make application for admission and financial aid through high schools with NREN access. Transcripts, too, will be exchanged and authenticated over the NREN, as will letters of support. Online access to class registration and scheduling systems will also simplify student life while reducing demands on administrative staff. Class grades and college transcripts will be reported, posted, and distributed--possibly certified--over networks, including the NREN. The opportunities abound. Links with chemical manufacturers' databases will help central campus administrators ensure employee access to health and safety information. Links with banks will help expedite campus payrolls and other funds transfers. The administrative possibilities presented by the emergence of the NREN are limited only by our resolve to invest in the needed technologies and by our imagination and creativity. The creation of a robust physical network will make possible the creation of inter-organizational business networks of unprecedented character and scope, changing dramatically--and for the better--the administrative character of American higher education. ======================================================================== Footnotes: 1 Committee on Physical, Mathematical, and Engineering Sciences, "Grand Challenges 1993: High Performance Computing and Communications," Supplement to the President's 1993 Budget (Washington, D.C.: 1992), p. 28. 2 Ibid., p. 20. ========================================================================