Campus Profile: Kenyon College 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 Campus Computing Environment KENYON COLLEGE ************************************************************************ This article is based on a visit to Kenyon College by editor Julia Rudy. The Campus Computing Environment department of CAUSE/EFFECT regularly focuses on the computing and information technology environment of a CAUSE member institution, to promote a better understanding of how the information technologies are organized, managed, and used in colleges and universities of various sizes and types. ************************************************************************ Founded in 1824, Kenyon College is the oldest private institution of higher education in the state of Ohio. Located on an 800-acre campus in Gambier, with a full-time student enrollment of 1,485, Kenyon's mission is to be "a distinctive liberal arts college of the highest quality, residential in character, engaged in undergraduate education in an intellectual community of men and women with diverse backgrounds and perspectives." Information technology infusion Within the framework of its historic, steeped-in-tradition culture, Kenyon made rapid strides in the late 80s to incorporate information technology (IT) into the campus infrastructure and liberal arts curriculum. Of ten basic goals identified in the College's strategic plan, two relate to IT--to introduce new technologies for both academic and administrative functions, and to provide access to information in all forms as a strategic asset. With the recognition of the strategic importance of IT to both the mission and administration of the College, an information and computing services division (ICS) was created in 1988 as a vice-presidential responsibility, one of six major divisions reporting directly to President Philip H. Jordan, Jr. Before the creation of ICS, academic and administrative computing were separate departments, reporting to different senior officers, with very little cooperation or communication between the departments or their users; resource allocation was highly politicized and there was very little coordinated campus planning for networking or campus information systems. The computing environment was characterized by little access to central computing resources from faculty and staff offices; no campus network and no connections to off-campus networks; very little use of electronic mail or campus-wide information systems; few facilities for classroom use of computing; little support for microcomputers; and no library automation. That picture has changed dramatically in less than four years. According to ICS Vice President Thomas Moberg, today Kenyon is in a position to use information technology in "new and creative ways which can substantially enhance education." ICS efforts since 1988 have focused on access to computing and network resources, the most outstanding achievement being the completion of a campus-wide fiber optic, FDDI backbone network connecting all major buildings on campus and providing Internet connectivity. Centralized IT management Moberg believes that much of the progress that has been made can be attributed to the new approach to managing IT. With information and computing issues represented at the senior staff level, resource allocation has been de-politicized and planning and budgeting are much more consistent, efficient, and manageable. In the new organization, ICS staff work as a team, with a functional perspective. Combining academic and administrative operations has meant some operations staff were able to advance to positions elsewhere in the organization where their skills could be enhanced for the benefit of the user community. ICS staff is more cohesive and motivated, serving the entire campus, with no constituencies ignored. This highly centralized approach to IT management has allowed campus-wide standards to be set for hardware, software, wiring, equipment acquisition, and applications support. According to Moberg, centralized management has allowed network development and management to a degree not possible without central authority. An excellent working relationship has been established with the College's physical plant staff, who have come to view the campus network as a utility that they assist in developing and maintaining. All renovation or new construction on campus is automatically coordinated with ICS in terms of wiring specifications and network connectivity. Although no formal computing planning committee exists, ICS works closely with various interest groups and with the Computing and Information Technology Committee of the Kenyon College Board of Trustees, made up of several forward-looking individuals who bring an important perspective from the corporate world about the strategic importance of IT. IT funding In the late 80s, Kenyon was fortunate to have a budget surplus that coincided with identification of the need to invest heavily in access to information resources. A successful capital campaign that raised more than the target amount, as well as several years of greater-than- expected enrollments, provided most of the $3 million needed for the IT infusion. President Jordan believes, "It was important to move as rapidly as we could to create a technological infrastructure. Kenyon has the advantage of not being rich; we have to make our choices very carefully and decide where the emphasis should go. Therefore we have to think strategically all of the time, because we can't afford not to. In retrospect, making access the first priority was exactly the right direction. Now the challenge is to provide the funding flow that will maintain it at an appropriate level." Kenyon's approach to financing IT is simple and straightforward. All computer-related acquisitions anywhere on campus are approved and paid for through ICS, and all computing and IT equipment is thus owned by the College. Besides the general funds allocated in the budget, ICS and Kenyon faculty actively seek gifts and grants for special projects and hardware purchases from external sources, such as NSF and the Pew Foundation. The College's budget process includes a "funded depreciation" approach, i.e., a line item for reserve funds earmarked for replacement of worn-out or outdated equipment. According to Provost Reed Browning, one of Kenyon's strengths is its outstanding fiscal management; the College has had an "in the black" balanced budget for 21 consecutive years. Networking Ron Griggs, director of network, systems, and technical services, believes Kenyon was fortunate in some ways to come late to networking: "We were able to skip the local area networking stage and move directly to a campus-wide network." In planning the network, the strategy was to provide a long-term solution--wiring and cable decisions had to carry the campus into the next century. Kenyon's physical layout made fiber optic cable, FDDI technology, and subnetworking the most appropriate strategy. Current protocols include Ethernet, DECnet, and TCP/IP. Fiber optic cable now connects nearly all campus buildings, including residence halls. More than 2,000 lines of unshielded twisted- pair wire for data transmission have been pulled throughout campus and, with the decision to provide phone service to all Kenyon students via Centrex, 600 phone lines were installed in student dormitories last summer. In addition, the new Student Network Access Program (SNAP) is offering dormitory network connections for students with their own microcomputers, for a small monthly fee. According to Griggs, Kenyon's approach to networking was congruent with ICS's philosophy in general: "Rather than concentrate efforts and acquisitions in a few areas, we have consciously done the opposite. Our motto is 'service for everybody.'" Administrative computing Glen Turney, director of administrative computing applications, says that ICS's philosophy toward administrative computing is to "put the tools in the hands of the users as much as possible, and let ICS staff work on the big-picture, campus-wide issues." To date, applications have been built based on departmental needs and functions (using the POISE software platform on a VAX 4500) and administrative user office personnel have been thoroughly trained in this environment. This approach has been furthered through the creation of "computer records supervisor" positions in admissions, college relations, student affairs, and the financial and registrar's offices. These personnel have received special training that allows them to function as highly skilled, front-line departmental computing staff, responsible for liaison to central administrative computing and for their respective departments' computing operations, controls, security, and data entry. This kind of decentralized operational support allows central administrative computing staff to focus on strategies for the future. Turney is working closely with the newly created Administrative Advisory Group--made up of key senior administrative managers--to plan for the integration of administrative information systems at Kenyon. The network has opened up many new opportunities for administrative departments to "reengineer" their systems to function as part of a cohesive, campus- wide information system. A pilot project that involved building an "employee master file" last year with the cooperation of ten different departments on campus proved that the approach can be very effective. Turney says it is becoming more the case that "our job is not to deliver the applications we think administrative offices need, but to be the people with the broader view who can tie it all together for the good of the campus community." Faculty and student access and use Academic computing resources at Kenyon are delivered to every faculty office, primarily from a VAXcluster including a VAX 4300, VAX 3100, and VAX 4200 dedicated to the library. Nearly all faculty are using microcomputers--largely purchased through a special discount program--rather than terminals, so the VAXes are increasingly used to support student computing applications and for special purposes such as library and Internet resource access. Access and use have increased dramatically, according to Director of Academic Computing Scott Siddall--usage figures for one week recently reached an all-time high, with 131 of 135 faculty (97 percent) and 1,209 of 1,416 on-campus students (85 percent) using the VAXcluster. The student-to-terminal/micro ratio is now 10:1, and the College's strategic plan calls for the development of ten new computer-equipped classrooms over the next 5 years. With the implementation of the network, there is heavy use of electronic mail by faculty and students, with great interest in Internet discussion groups, bulletin boards, and library resources. Given that more than 75 percent of incoming Kenyon students have access to microcomputers at home, plans are on the drawing boards to provide guest accounts on the VAX to their parents within the next year. Kenyon faculty have been very receptive to using computing and information technology to teach. For example, biology professor Kathryn Edwards has had tremendous success using VAX Notes, a conferencing program, for online class discussions, and Art Leccese, assistant professor of psychology, is finding computer animation a powerful tool in presenting neuroscience course material. Faculty in nearly every department have applied for and been awarded computing grants through the Academic Computing Award Program, an annual program that enables ICS to fund faculty proposals for new applications of computing technology in teaching and research. Three years ago the program began with $2,000 in grants; next year, ICS will have a budget line-item of $35,000 for ACAP awards. The 1992 award recipients included faculty in chemistry, drama, music, French, anthropology, biology, philosophy, mathematics, psychology, and art. The academic computing department also supports faculty computing through the services of three student summer interns, who are assigned to work with specific faculty members on computer-related projects. Olin Library The need to plan strategically for all College information resources has led Kenyon's administration to view library management as a collaborative responsibility of the academic and information technology divisions. Many benefits accrue from library automation being a function of ICS--for example, being able to bypass stand-alone library automation and move directly to an online automated catalog with the implementation of the network. In response to many emerging issues surrounding scholarly information management, ICS and the library are planning to involve faculty and other members of the campus community in a summer workshop to develop an information management policy for Kenyon. With the resignation of the library director last year, the president appointed a four-person oversight committee to provide interim management for the library. This "quartet" of the provost, academic dean, chair of the faculty, and ICS vice president meets weekly to do long-range planning, address long-range resource issues, and undertake major interdivisional tasks . Academic Dean Anne Ponder sees this strategic management of the library as critical to Kenyon's academic program and to its understanding of information as a strategic asset: "The differences between the institutions that figure out the Information Age and those that don't are going to be major." President Jordan sums up the College's philosophy about information technology thus: "Kenyon has chosen to invest heavily in information technology because it is such an integral part of contemporary society and of most productive endeavors that our students need to have some real conversance with it and understand its power, its limitations, and its utility, and because it enables us to do things that we couldn't do otherwise. I simply have come to believe that this is a great resource that we must have if we're going to be a good college preparing our students for the 21st century." ************************************************************************