IT Leadership is the Key to Transformation Copyright 1996 CAUSE. From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ magazine, Volume 19, Number 1, Spring 1996, pp. 12-20. 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 technology in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact Julia Rudy at CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA; 303-939-0308; e-mail: jrudy@CAUSE.colorado.edu IT LEADERSHIP IS KEY TO TRANSFORMATION by Donald M. Norris and Michael G. Dolence ABSTRACT: If colleges and universities are to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the growth of the learning industry into a truly global market, they must transform themselves from Industrial Age educational institutions to Information Age learning enterprises. What are the significant transitions that will need to be made? What are the leadership challenges, planning strategies, vendor roles, and new economic and financial paradigms that will be necessary to make these transitions? And what are the emerging models of information technology leadership in these changing times? In our book, _Transforming Higher Education_: A Vision for Learning in the 21st Century,[1] we presented a vision for the opportunities awaiting higher learning in the Information Age. We proposed that learning will be a growth industry in the Information Age. While society's investment in traditional higher education has stabilized or is even declining, the percentage of our nation's gross domestic product (GDP) invested in higher learning will increase. Moreover, a truly global market will develop for Information Age learning products and services. This will provide significant opportunities for colleges, universities, and other learning providers. The Information Age will be the Age of Learning-or more aptly, the Age of Learners. But the dividends from the growth in higher learning will be reaped by those providers and intermediaries who focus on the needs of learners-especially perpetual learners-who will fuse work and learning throughout productive careers that will span fifty or sixty years or more. If they are to capitalize on these opportunities, colleges and universities must transform themselves from Industrial Age educational institutions to Information Age learning enterprises. TRANSITIONS OF PROFOUND SIGNIFICANCE The transformation to an Information Age model will involve several transitions of profound significance, as illustrated in Table 1. (TABLE 1 NOT AVAILABLE IN ASCII TEXT VERSION) Studying these families of transitions yields several insights for planners. First, the essential nature of higher learning will change dramatically, but with substantial variations between different learning settings. Transformation is for everyone, but not every campus will transform equally. Moreover, other, more transformative learning intermediaries and providers will emerge to capitalize on perpetual learning opportunities. Second, IT infrastructure is a fundamental enabler of this change. Without advanced IT infrastructure, Information Age learning is impossible. Third, the complexity of the IT options will expand considerably. At the same time, the rate of change will accelerate, and even greater uncertainty will prevail concerning the future of particular technology pathways. These emerging conditions will change both the nature of Information Age planning and the roles of the IT leader in campus planning for the transition to the Information Age. In the Information Age, planning never ends. No more "plan, implement, celebrate success, and rest," but continuous whitewater. It's like climbing a mountain whose crest is shrouded in mist. As the planning team zigzags its way upward, the mist moves higher. The longer-term future remains hidden, unknown and unknowable. Occasionally, through a break in the clouds, they catch a glimpse of their future: the mountain has no crest, no final destination. Information Age planning is perpetual for the rest of our professional lives. Information technology infrastructure is the fundamental ingredient enabling transformation to Information Age models of learning. However, more than the push of new technology is needed to create Information Age learning. A genuine comprehension of the power of the learner-centered transitions must be present to generate "learning vision pull." This is one of the important transitions to the Information Age. Coupled with "technology push," learning vision pull elevates technology planning from a six-month-to-two-year time horizon to a five-to-ten-year horizon, or more. Learning vision replaces a technology project mentality with a perspective shaped by the enabling learning infrastructure. Learning vision pull focuses on learning innovation and synergies, not just technology innovation and function. Learning effectiveness is the driver, not narrow project decisions. Learning vision pull can only be generated if academic leadership embraces the concept of a learning vision for the institution, based on the application of technology--and if academic leadership participates fully and knowledgeably in the planning process and assumes ownership of an IT-based learning vision. Put simply, the potential of IT infrastructure and the tools of transformation can only be realized by mobilizing academic leadership and IT leadership in an aggressive partnership to establish the Information Age learning enterprise. THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE IN TRANSITIONING TO THE INFORMATION AGE Transitioning to the Information Age demands a different type of leadership. Higher education is not looking for messianic leaders to appear bearing stone tablets containing the ten commandments of transformation. Rather, we need leaders who can engage broadly participatory groups of academic and administrative leaders in developing shared visions for learning in the Information Age. The shared vision on each campus will be different, even distinctive. These shared visions will provide the unifying themes around which highly diverse constituencies can unite. The term "visionary" often earns a pejorative connotation. It conjures up a picture of a lone seer with special insight which only he or she can generate. While Information Age leaders may begin with clearer and more perceptive vision than other academics, their success depends on their capacity to work with diverse planning groups and fashion an even more perceptive shared vision. This process calls for raising the consciousness of disparate groups on campus. Quite often it requires the leader to reach out to many whom other planning processes have ignored, in order to: * calm the anxious; * energize the inert; * enable the supine to raise themselves; * help the sightless to discover their vision; * collaborate with the isolated; * repatriate the self-exiled; * take prisoners along the way; and * give all the credit to them. These are the personal challenges of the Information Age leader. PLANNING FOR THE INFORMATION AGE Information Age planning will be perpetual, fast-paced, and inclusive. Planning processes must be crafted to enable leaders to work with planning groups to fashion shared vision. Successful planning will display the following characteristics. Adopt a Learning Vision Planning that is driven by a shared vision for learning in the Information Age will have a longer vision horizon. It will place meeting the needs of learners at the center of the planning process. Such processes will provide a basis for raising the consciousness and developing the vision and commitment of faculty, instructional support staff, and others involved in supporting learning. For most institutions, developing a shared learning vision for the Information Age is its most important act of strategic thinking. We encourage the campuses which we assist in planning for their transition to the Information Age to craft such a shared learning vision, as an act of strategic thinking, before they proceed with strategic planning. The learning vision can and should be reshaped throughout the planning process, but it must be created at the beginning to guide planning. This elevates the vision and the sights of subsequent planning. Plan for Beyond the Horizon Successful Information Age planning requires the capacity to see beyond the horizon, around the curvature of the earth, then to apply that vision to today's decisions, adjusting the course of existing programs and initiatives. Planning beyond the horizon enables a planning group to better gauge the "futurity" of current decisions and to be guided by desired futures which they wish to create or enable. Combining a vision of the future with the practicality of today's decisions requires the planning group to operate "where the blue sky meets the road." An inclusive planning group, properly facilitated, can utilize the different perspectives of its participants to bring the insights from beyond the horizon to bear on current decisions and initiatives. Ensure Migration Paths As we climb the mountain, moving upward through the mist, it is difficult to know which of many paths to follow. This is especially true when dealing with information technology, where the pace of change is frenetic, the stakes are high, and marketplace competition is powerful. Who can tell, with any real precision, what combination of technologies and applications will emerge by the twenty-first century as the IT infrastructure supporting higher learning? More to the point, it is the task of planners to ensure that their institution can prosper under any reasonable scenario that may emerge. Put in a positive way, the task of leadership is to position the institution to ensure a variety of migration paths. Expressed in the negative, the task of leadership is to avoid painting the institution into figurative and literal corners. Ensuring migration paths requires the planning group to favor open systems, non-proprietary solutions, and to continually ask itself, "What flexibility does this option or decision provide?" Maintaining flexibility may require delaying a decision or opting for a temporary solution until a more strategic and transformative option becomes available. For example, take an institution establishing a new branch campus and using that opportunity to introduce a new, distributed information systems base to the new and existing campus. This institution may choose to install a temporary solution on the new campus until a new, more transformative suite of software products becomes available, a year after the new campus opens. Redirect Existing Processes to Transformative Ends The most attractive opportunities for positioning your campus to achieve its Information Age learning vision often can be found by redirecting current processes, not by creating new initiatives. Existing processes of strategic planning, budget planning, facilities planning, promotion and tenure, fund raising and institutional advancement, campus advisory boards, and program review can be reshaped and recharted to direct the campus into transformative waters. The cumulative effect over five to ten years of a ten or fifteen degree alteration in course can be exceptional. True synergy can be achieved when several existing processes are combined and redirected. The University of Delaware leveraged its opportunities by combining the design and renovation of an historic schoolhouse into a student services building, the introduction of a new suite of academic/administrative software, and organizational realignment. Their creation was a distinctive, one-stop shopping student service facility and a new culture for customer-focused student service. Examples abound of other distinctive campus approaches to transformation. We are working with a campus that has redirected its planning and budgeting exercise, which was dealing with substantial declines in government appropriations. By focusing on strategic enrollment management, new revenue opportunities, and productivity improvement, this campus is countering the spiral of decline. Over time, these new directions will yield cost savings, productivity enhancements, and new revenues sufficient to substantially mitigate the declines in appropriations. Other campuses are redirecting their fund raising and institutional advancement activities to focus on developing Learning Age capabilities, targeting their alumni and other stakeholders who are working in the information technology industry. An Information Age learning vision, enabled by technology, will attract donors who would be uninterested in merely supporting the laying of fiber on campus. In some cases, the most ill-advised tactic for campus leadership is to announce, "We're transforming this campus," or to proclaim that a project or initiative "is a transformative endeavor." Often it is best to be stealthy, or to focus on the learning vision rather than the intention to transform. Tailored strategies and tactics are required for each setting. Select Leverage Points for Action In choosing which processes to redirect or which new initiatives to launch, the planning group should assess the leverage afforded by different processes. High profile, high visibility processes provide great symbolic value. For example, new facilities are important symbols. A traditional or insufficiently innovative design can limit new approaches to learning for decades, or require expensive retrofit. Building planning committees can introduce new concepts and generally raise the consciousness of the campus to new approaches to learning. Broaden Participation Information Age planning requires the involvement of a broad range of academic and administrative participants. Research has demonstrated conclusively that complex decision-making, dealing with uncertainty and requiring many perspectives, is best accomplished by a diverse planning group. This is especially true of Information Age planning, the purpose of which is to raise consciousness and vision, prepare for perpetual change, and position the institution for assured migration paths. Participants in the core planning group should be selected, in part, for their capacity to "think out of the box." Statements of vision, preliminary plans, and scenarios for the future should be discussed broadly with other groups, as a means of refining plans, raising vision, and "taking prisoners along the way." The Information Age is forging new relationships among stakeholders in the learning process. Figure 1 suggests a new era of interactions involving learners, providers/intermediaries, and IT vendors. New types of providers and intermediaries will enter the competition for the attention of learners. Moreover, IT vendors and the new providers and intermediaries can go directly to the many different types of learners to find out what they want and need--and to customize their offerings to the styles and standards of the learners. Traditional colleges and universities need not be involved as interpreters and intermediaries in that process. To avoid being disintermediated, colleges and universities need to aggressively understand and represent learner needs. (FIGURE 1 NOT AVAILABLE IN ASCII TEXT VERSION) EMERGING MODELS OF IT LEADERSHIP In this context of leadership and Information Age planning, new models are emerging for the successful IT leader. Raise the Institutional Knowledge Base The IT leader is in a unique position to raise the knowledge base of all stakeholders on campus about the potentials of information resources and of Information Age learning. This consciousness raising and knowledge building is best done in collaboration with other academic and administrative leaders, but IT leaders bring special expertise to the process. Several focal points deserve prominence: * Develop and share a knowledge base on future technologies and on the impact of IT resources on learning. This knowledge base should consist of books, monographs, articles, and clippings on emerging technology trends and forecasts, research on the impact of technology on learning, and examples of best practices as they apply to transformation using information technology. A synthesis of these materials should be made available to interested parties across campus--faculty, administrators, and learners. At some level, the scope should encompass not just traditional higher education, but also K-12 learning and perpetual learning in the workplace. * Collaborate with academic and administrative leaders in establishing IT training. Training is essential to optimizing the use of IT. Optimizing the use of existing systems through improved training and changed practices is an untapped opportunity for improvement in most organizations. * Provide distribution and dissemination mechanisms for institutions to learn about themselves. Given the pace of change in technology trends, campus applications of technology, and campus IT plans, special provisions must be made to provide up-to-date, online access to information about IT plans and developments. IT leaders should establish bulletin boards, WWW sites, or groupware to display syntheses of information, IT plans, and the campus learning vision in some form that is available to the entire campus community. Changes and additions, the status of implementation, and other information can be regularly updated. Fuse Academic and Administrative Systems The separation between academic and administrative systems and organizations must be eliminated. Period. It is one of the greatest impediments to the achievement of an Information Age vision for learning. This separation leads to unnecessarily redundant systems, divergent investment strategies, competing personal agendas, and other fragmenting influences. Serve As Navigator, Guide, Interpreter, Mentor, and Learner The IT leader must play many roles to meet the challenges of leadership in the Information Age, including: * Navigator. IT leaders must work with other leaders to craft a shared vision and chart ensured migration paths for the institution. While this collaboration will lead to shared ownership, IT leaders will be counted on to be the chief navigators on many technology-related and many application issues. * Guide. Using the ensured migration paths as templates, many IT leaders can serve as guides, helping many campus stakeholders find their way into the future. * Interpreter. IT leaders must interpret and explain many aspects of technology and applications to others who range from the relatively uninitiated to the expert. Often there are conflicting interpretations, and the IT leader must face the challenge of expressing or accommodating alternative views. * Mentor. In the recent past, we would have expressed this role as teacher or instructor. But the IT leader must provide for training and development opportunities that empower users. Users must be able to acquire basic skills mastery in IT subjects at the time and place of their choosing, often in collaboration with other groups of learners at the same relative level of skill. Then IT leaders can mentor technology learners in the utilization of those skills in higher-order applications. * Learner. IT leaders must never lose sight of the fact that all knowledge workers are always learning. The greatest expert and mentor is at the same time a learner. On some subjects, his or her mentor may be the most junior member of the staff. This collection of roles requires a highly collaborative, approachable IT leader. It also requires that IT leaders develop a high tolerance for competing expertise. In the Information Age learning organization, expertise in IT and IT-based applications will be spread throughout the organization. IT leaders and staff who were used to being regarded as the experts must cultivate a healthy regard for and appreciation of the expertise of faculty, other administrative staff, and even learners who have developed first-class expertise. This is a great challenge to many IT staff who were acculturated in traditional IT organizations. Work Collaboratively to Set Expectations, Chronicle Progress, and Establish the Benefits of IT One of the most pervasive problems in today's colleges and universities is a culture of diminishing expectations. The recurring cycles of retrenching, restructuring, reorganizing, and reallocating resources have created a spiral of decline. IT leaders must work collaboratively with institutional leadership to use a vision for learning in the Information Age to break the back of this deleterious cycle. They must make a reasonable case for how to raise performance expectations and then deliver on the promise. One key expectation: learning can be a growth industry again. One of the consistent shortcomings of IT leadership is to fail to chronicle the organization's progress and mark the improvements in performance that have been achieved. Otherwise, the organization's IT position is expressed in terms of what is missing rather than what has been accomplished and improved. IT leaders should document decisions and progress. This documentation should be posted and shared with the campus community along with plans for the future. IT is no panacea. But an enhanced IT infrastructure is fundamental to Information Age learning. IT leadership must engage other academic and administrative leaders in understanding and agreeing on the benefits of IT and communicating those benefits to the campus community. Serve as Architect for the New IT Infrastructure This is perhaps the most significant role for IT leaders. Figure 2 portrays a cross-section of the information technology infrastructure for the Information Age. (FIGURE 2 NOT AVAILABLE IN ASCII TEXT VERSION) * Network Layer includes voice, data, and video telecommunications networks, anchored by cable, fiber, and/or microwave infrastructure. * Enabling Layer consists of multiple layers of machines, systems, and facilitating applications. These layers enable the networks to serve as powerful applications platforms. Many of these enabling capabilities may in future reside on the network. The enabling capabilities include integrated administrative/academic systems, client/server-based applications, groupware, powerful smart card systems, development tools, and enhanced input/output capabilities--such as information kiosks, workstations, personal digital assistants, notebook computers, and knowledge navigators. * Applications Layer requires the first two layers to be successful. This layer includes digital portfolios, personalized systems of instruction, learning management systems, interactive, multimedia learning tools, knowledge navigation tools, text-on-demand, and collaborative research tools. The applications layer will contain user-developed and -owned applications, which will be pervasive in the Information Age. * Human Layer consists of the human resources necessary for the information technology infrastructure to be utilized effectively. The successful development of human resources depends on training and continuing skills development. Perpetual learning, where work and learning are fused for the knowledge worker, will be key to the development of human resources utilizing the IT infrastructure. In the Information Age, we will come to regard this IT infrastructure as a continuous structure, spanning the entire learner universe, including preschool, K-12, higher learning, and perpetual learning. While IT leaders serve as architects of this infrastructure, their design and development work must be highly collaborative. In the Information Age, the outer two layers- applications and human resources-will be largely "owned" by users, with IT leaders playing an advisory and consultative role. In the past, IT professionals working in institutions and with vendors in the IT industry accepted a variation on the concept of "fiduciary responsibility" for planning and developing the IT infrastructure in higher education. This "stewardship" role carries on in the Information Age in the role of architect. The primary difference, however, is that the stewardship is shared and collaborative. FROM IT INFRASTRUCTURE TO KNOWLEDGE INFRASTRUCTURE In the Information Age, the success and value of organizations are based on their effective use of knowledge. The Information Revolution is really a Knowledge Revolution. To tap the potential of this revolution requires more than IT infrastructure. It requires other information resources, human skills development, and knowledge tools that facilitate the use of the IT infrastructure. The combination of all of these factors creates a knowledge infrastructure, made up of the following: * Skills and training. The weak link in the knowledge infrastructure in most institutions is the skills and training in Information Age tools and processes for learners, faculty, staff, and other participants. Campuses must invest more extensively in the training and development of their knowledge workers. * Knowledge bases. Knowledge bases are the accumulated bases of data, information, and synthesis available for learning, research, and the management and operation of the institution. Given the proliferation of data and information on campuses today, the tools to synthesize, cull, and sort information are critical to the capacity of the organization to create and use information. * Navigation tools and measures. Knowledge navigation tools are essential elements of the knowledge infrastructure. Measurement tools are also essential to the information synthesis and knowledge generation process. * Networks. Networks are the circulation systems of the knowledge infrastructure. They link everything. The network is a metaphor for the knowledge infrastructure: pervasive, ubiquitous, powerful, and adaptive. THE VENDOR'S ROLE IN THE KNOWLEDGE INFRASTRUCTURE Vendors are not merely commercial entities serving higher education for profit-seeking purposes. The relationships between technology companies and higher education is multi- faceted, involving marketing and sales, research and development, training and professional development, philanthropy, and leadership. IT vendors have been instrumental in developing the IT infrastructure in higher education. The nature of the partnerships between IT vendors and higher education has evolved over time and will continue to change. In the Information Age, IT vendors will play significant roles in the development of the knowledge infrastructure, albeit in different ways than in the past. * Learning vision pull = vendor vision pull. It should not take IT companies long to understand that incorporating learning vision pull into their vision and their products will serve as a powerful source of competitive advantage. But the vision must be genuine. And it must be grounded in a ready appreciation of the range of needs of different learners. Perceptive vendors will work aggressively to understand the needs of emerging learners, new providers and intermediaries, and traditional colleges and universities. * Institution stakeholders = vendor stakeholders. This is another way of a vendor saying, "Companies will succeed by meeting the needs of their clients' clients." IT products that are tailored to meet learner needs and be customizable to the needs of the full range of stakeholders should dominate the marketplace. Vendors need to approach and understand stakeholder needs both by direct means and through working with institutional intermediaries. * Fused academic and administrative capacities. Just as IT leadership must obliterate the distinction between academic and administrative systems, IT vendors must reconceptualize their products and services to fuse academic and administrative capacities. This will require new generations of powerful systems. Table 2 illustrates a possible configuration of families of integrated systems to achieve this end and to position higher education for twenty- first century challenges. * Maintaining migration paths. IT vendors must play a leadership role in defining and maintaining migration paths for their clients. This, too, is a collaborative process. As more institutions embrace the new models of Information Age planning, they will raise their standards for vendor performance. Institutions will demand that winning vendors be able to present a compelling vision for serving Information Age learners and for maintaining ensured migration paths into the future. * Training, training, training. Training is thrice important to the IT vendor: (1) the initial training of implementation to install products and services and prepare a central core of users; (2) the training of the remainder of the base of institutional users and stakeholders; and (3) training in the use and application of the capabilities of the products, to optimize their application in meeting learner needs. Training design, development, and implementation will become an even greater core competency of the successful IT vendor. DEVELOPING NEW ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PARADIGMS IT leadership has a special opportunity and obligation in the development of new financial paradigms for IT in higher education. This is a critical component of the transition of higher education into higher learning. Without new economic and financial models, we cannot afford to develop the knowledge infrastructure necessary to achieve transformation. Nor can we reach the legions of perpetual learners without new means of accessing and paying for learning. Establish a Broader Vision of the Economics of Learning Our existing economic paradigms for learning and intellectual property must be expanded on several key dimensions. First, the existing model of lump-sum, front-end payment based on the length of the academic process will remain appropriate for some learning experiences. But perpetual learning will require an economic model based on point-of- access payment for the exchange of intellectual property based on some accounting of the value added of the content. Second, learning and certification of mastery will need to be unbundled and treated as related, yet separable, issues for many learning experiences. Third, the existing publishing paradigms will need to be augmented by a number of transitional modes of print-on- demand textual materials, access-controlled and print- protected electronic books, and electronic cash payment for online materials. These transitional stages will begin the process of reconceptualizing Information Age publishing. They will also enable the emergence of new models for the valuation of intellectual property. Fourth, electronic commerce must be introduced to the world of learning. Integrate the Knowledge Economy into Higher Education Many leaders of academe and the publishing world view the knowledge economy as a formidable threat. Often, their instinctive reaction is to delay and to seek to protect their existing franchise for the delivery of intellectual property and the valuation of intellectual product. But if the current providers do not actively participate in the integration of the knowledge economy into higher education, new models will be developed directly by vendors and new providers who can access the intellectual property in our colleges and universities. Rather than remaining aloof and having their intellectual property cherry picked like some Third World commodity-based economy, higher education must aggressively participate in the integration of the knowledge economy into higher education and the application of the resulting new tools to serving new learners. Electronic commerce must be integrated into higher learning. This does not suggest that colleges and universities can ignore the financial implications of the new knowledge economy, and just let the chips fall where they may. Higher education must protect its capacity to serve existing and new learners. Therefore, it must determine which parts of the value chain for knowledge will command the greatest value in the marketplace and position its offerings to address those high value needs for learners. We cannot maintain our franchise by building higher, thicker walls. We must understand what it will take to succeed in a world of digital learning and commerce and become competitive. Establish An "Investment Paradigm" for the Knowledge Infrastructure Currently, the components of the IT and knowledge infrastructure are treated as capital expenditures. In the Information Age, the knowledge infrastructure must become an investment that can pay for itself in full, or in substantial part, over a reasonable time period. IT leadership must play a fundamental role in redefining IT infrastructure as an investment. Working with other academic leaders, they can identify cost reductions, productivity enhancements, and new sources of revenue that are made possible by the knowledge infrastructure, and relate these to the investment model. Create New Working Relationships Between Academic Leadership and Other Stakeholders The introduction of new economic and financial paradigms to Information Age learning will provide IT leaders with the need to work with academic leaders and stakeholders in new ways. For example: * Introducing electronic commerce to the campus will require IT leaders to work with book store managers, library professionals, other academic leaders, and business officers. Many IT leaders are not aware of the excellent work of the National Association of College Stores (NACS) in considering the potential for electronic commerce. Partnerships between these individuals on campus, and by the professional associations interested in these issues (CAUSE, Educom, ARL, NACS, and NACUBO, for example) could yield some fruitful insights. * Developing investment pools for knowledge infrastructure could partner IT leaders with development and institutional advancement professionals to craft fund- raising initiatives using as a centerpiece the creation of a knowledge infrastructure investment pool. This pitch could be especially attractive to alumni and other stakeholders working in the IT industry, and to other donors captivated by the vision of Information Age learning. * Crafting new models for the valuation of intellectual property could become a central theme for academic leaders, with the expert consultation of IT leaders. In many of these initiatives, IT leaders will not play the primary role, but they should be active participants. The time has come to elevate the issue of building and utilizing the knowledge infrastructure to the stature it deserves in higher education. ============================================================= FOOTNOTE: [1] Donald M. Norris and Michael G. Dolence,Transforming Higher Education: A Vision for Learning in the 21st Century (Ann Arbor: The Society for College and University Planning, 1995). For ordering information, contact SCUP, 313-998-7832. ************************************************************* Donald M. Norris (stratinit@aol.com) and Michael G. Dolence (miked@cucmail. claremont.edu) have helped many organizations develop strategies to meet the enhanced performance challenges of the Information Age and have assisted scores of institutions in strategic planning and organizational transformation. They have also written and spoken extensively on transforming higher education. Before establishing their consulting firms, both Norris and Dolence gained experience in a variety of research, administration, and planning capacities in higher education. Norris has served at the University of Houston, University of Texas at Austin, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Currently, he is a fellow at the Institute for Educational Transformation at George Mason University and President of Strategic Initiatives, Inc., Herndon, Virginia. Dolence has served at The California State University-Los Angeles and the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities for the state of New York. Currently, he is President of Michael G. Dolence & Associates, Claremont, California.