Opportunistic Planning for Information Technologies: Upside Down or Downside Up? |-------------------------------------| | Paper presented at CAUSE92 | | December 1-4, 1992, Dallas, Texas | |-------------------------------------| OPPORTUNISTIC PLANNING FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES: UPSIDE DOWN OR DOWNSIDE UP? Richard A. Detweiler President, Hartwick College William Beyer Director of Technology Systems, Drew University Davis Conley Director of Computing, Hartwick College Ellen F. Falduto Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Director of the University Research Center, Drew University Reid Golden Provost's Liaison for Academic Computing, Associate Professor of Sociology, Hartwick College INTRODUCTION Liberal arts colleges often have difficulty justifying an investment in information technology (IT): they do not have the technology curriculum which requires a substantial hardware and software investment and they are not large enough to require significant information systems merely to successfully administer the school. As such, opportunistic planning strategies (identifying non-technology goals of priority concern to the school for which information systems investments can be justified) are frequently the only way to build the information systems infrastructure. In this presentation the experiences of two liberal arts colleges that utilized opportunistic planning are compared. One institution began with a formal institution-wide agreement, including faculty, senior administrative officers, and trustees, that information technologies could be used as a primary strategy to accomplish essential non- technology goals. The other institution began with an information systems familiarity component of a new core curriculum, and relied on individuals involved in technology operations and key faculty to lead the college's implementation efforts due to the virtual absence of high- level advocacy. PLANNING STRATEGIES Information technology planning is typically seen as a formal process in which the first step must be to have the institution commit to some form of a technology future for itself. The reasons for such planning are many and various (see Badagliacco, 1992; Coopers & Lybrand, 1990; Johnson, 1989; Boyer, 1987; Ferrante et al, 1988). These reasons argue for formal planning for IT in higher education institutions. "Formal" planning connotes adoption of a process with responsibility for planning assigned to a committee of faculty and senior administrators. Planning follows a traditional model with its roots in the corporate sector -- whether it be long-range planning, strategic planning, reactive planning, budget planning, or a mix of these -- and a series of defined steps (as described by Cope, 1987 or Bryson, 1988, for example). In simplest form, such planning begins with the institution's mission, followed by identification of strengths and weaknesses, development of assumptions about the future, development of a vision of the future and goals consistent with the institutional mission, development of a timeline for achieving these goals (and specific timelines for implementation of various steps along the way), and a provision for assessment and feedback on the plan's progress. Opportunistic models recognize the limitations of these traditional approaches to planning in higher education, namely, that the products of traditional approaches to planning are often just that -- traditional. Liberal arts institutions by virtue of their limited resources cannot be everything to everyone; thus, they first and foremost must identify and create a distinctive and coherent identity for themselves, and implement programs and initiatives, including those for IT, to establish and reinforce this identity. In opportunistic planning, people seek to identify and implement interesting programs that are likely to attract student (and other) interest in the college and that are related to overall institutional purposes. Opportunistic planning, however, runs the risk of creating a range of individual initiatives -- including IT ones -- which, although related to an overall institutional purpose, are not coherent with each other. Such instances point to the importance of a clear vision for the role of IT in the college. This is not simply in terms of educational purpose, which is the primary reason for IT in a liberal arts environment, but to maintain perspective and provide for the allocation of limited resources to appropriate IT initiatives. Ideally, this sense of need comes from within the campus community and is championed by the president of the institution with the support of trustees and other senior administrators. Liberal Arts Colleges Liberal arts colleges' experience with planning for IT following either traditional or opportunistic models is limited. Data on CAUSE member liberal arts colleges illustrates this point: of the 123 liberal arts institutions that are CAUSE members, 57 have a plan for IT on their campuses. Further, only 38 have included IT as part of their institution's strategic or long-range plan (CAUSE, 1992). While it is altogether possible that IT planning has not occurred at some institutions due to a lack of resources to undertake any IT initiatives or projects, another reason for lack of any planning for IT may be that institutions simply do not know where to start since they are faced with a range of choices of planning processes (see Falduto, 1992 for a discussion of these alternatives). Further, planning is thwarted by the fact that models for both planning and technology implementations which worked in larger, research or technical institutions, may not be appropriate for a liberal arts environment. It appears that successful IT initiatives in liberal arts colleges -- those considered to have positive impacts on teaching and learning, that provide access, and where use is encouraged -- emphasize consideration of institutional characteristics and trends (including culture), the potential usefulness of the technology, and users' characteristics. In other words, knowledge and understanding of people (individually and as the institution) and conscious consideration of how technology can be effectively used (a purpose) are important ingredients in an IT implementation which has positive impacts on teaching and learning. Further, this approach leads to the perception that faculty, students, and staff are being supported in their desire to employ IT tools in teaching, learning, and educational program support activities (Falduto, 1992). Both of the institutions involved in today's presentation began with a goal of furthering the use of IT within their respective liberal arts environments. Drew University began with a formal institution-wide agreement, including faculty, senior administrative officers, and trustees, that information technologies could be used as a primary strategy to accomplish essential non-technology goals. Hartwick College relied on individuals involved in technology operations and key faculty to lead the college's implementation efforts due to the absence of an institutional technology plan. Drew University. Drew University is an independent university of 2,100 students including an undergraduate college, a theological school, and a graduate school whose setting is a 186-acre wooded estate in Madison, New Jersey. Once described as "militantly liberal arts," Drew has a reputation for innovation in higher education, and its emphasis on "technology in service to the liberal arts" is one of these innovations. Indeed, Drew University has demonstrated that a university need not be a large technical nor research institution to effectively employ IT in its educational program. Drew's pervasive IT infrastructure provides PCs for every student, faculty and staff member, a campus-wide voice/data/video network, telecommunications services and voice mail, library automation, electronic mail, a campus-wide information system, access to academic and administrative computing centers, and access to Bitnet and the Internet. Hartwick College. Hartwick College is a selective liberal arts undergraduate college with 1,500 students and 115 full-time faculty members. The college is located on a 375 acre campus in upstate New York in Oneonta. The college has a well articulated general education requirement titled Curriculum XXI which was instituted in 1988. Curriculum XXI is premised on the simple fact that those students currently entering Hartwick will spend nearly all of their productive careers in the twenty-first century, and Hartwick wants them to be ready. Clearly a major component in the preparation of students for the twenty-first century is an environment which promotes the use of information systems (IS) in accessing, processing, critically evaluating and disseminating information of all forms from and to myriad sources. IT at Hartwick has been implemented through a series of carefully planned and negotiated stages, and although implementation efforts continue, most faculty have PCs, students have access to PC and Mac labs, a fiber optic network provides faculty, administrators, and students with access to academic and administrative computing resources, electronic mail, library automation, and the Internet. CASE STUDIES Drew University: Pervasive IT through Institutional Initiative The pencilled line across the quadrille-ruled paper told the story. Was it merely another yet-to-be-proven prognostication by those university researchers? Or, had Drew University held the demographic declines of the early 1980s at bay long enough, and it was clearly time to confront the challenge? Opportunistic planning for IT at Drew University is indeed an example of the "upside down" variety. Faced with a projected decline in first year student enrollments through 1995 that would shrink Drew's College of Liberal Arts from 1,400 to 900 students, the university stood firm in its "commitment to an idea (the liberal arts for us)," as the Dean of Drew's College of Liberal Arts wrote at the time1, and "ventured to the outer edge" by implementing distinctive programs which strengthened Drew's position against its competitors. Drew University seized the opportunity of the demographic declines of the 1980s to: + strengthen its position against its competitors + exploit the strengths of its liberal arts program + develop a series of related, dramatically innovative programs Planning for IT during the 1980s was based on these overall university strategies. However, a philosophy stemming from the purposes of liberal education and recognition of the potential for IT in support of these purposes guided Drew's efforts. In sum, given that the fundamental goal of a liberal education is to teach people to think and that a liberally educated person systematically, logically, and creatively assesses available information, Drew chose to focus on the integrated use of computer and networking technology to access, process, and communicate information. The goal was not to make liberal arts students technologists, but rather, to make them capable, thinking people who can make use of technological tools in their everyday lives. Specifically, the objectives of Drew's technology initiatives were: + to provide access to IT resources (initially personal computers and software), and + to provide access to knowledge and information through a sophisticated campus-wide voice/data/video network. Information technology planning and implementation followed a consensus-based approach which involved hundreds of faculty, administrators, students, staff, and trustees. With the authorization of Drew's Board of Trustees, Drew's senior administrative officers, recognizing the importance of IT in a liberal arts environment and the opportunity to advance Drew towards achieving its strategic goals, encouraged the campus community as it undertook two major IT initiatives: the Computer Initiative (1983-84) and the Knowledge Initiative (1987-88). THE COMPUTER INITIATIVE While Time was recognizing the IBM PC as the magazine's "Man of the Year," the Drew faculty was sensing the impending "information age." Acknowledging the importance the computer was beginning to assume in almost every aspect of life, the faculty redefined "liberally educated" to include the use of the computer as a tool -- the PC would be an important tool for learning, and it would be important for an educated person of the future to be "computer fluent." The first evidence of this took a traditional form: a computer literacy requirement, the purchase of PCs for some faculty and the central academic computing center, and the creation of a computer science major. During the summer of 1983, the university researchers (two psychology department faculty members) proposed a program called "Countless Computers" as one possible response to the impending demographic doom. The dramatically innovative program, later to be officially known as Drew's "Computer Initiative" ("CI"), had surprisingly few technological objectives. Viewed as a prime opportunity to counter the demographic decline and build Drew's reputation, the CI was expected to: + increase Drew's applicant pool and yield (estimated 40 to 50 additional enrolling students per year) + attract more academically qualified students + increase net tuition revenues (to cover cost of computers and financial aid) as cost of computing equipment declined in the future (increases in tuition at Drew at the time were tied to specific improvements in educational opportunities) + give Drew national attention (as the first liberal arts college to provide its students with computers outside contract or required purchase programs) + introduce word processing and improve writing + have advantages in "hard" and social sciences + enable Drew to drop its general education requirement for computer science course. The success of this program depended on: + making computers available to all faculty and staff who wanted them + students and faculty previous experience with computers (which was positive from the university's providing a limited number of personal computers in 1982) + that this type of equipment would not turn into "a dead end" within the next few years. With the enthusiastic support of the faculty and senior administrators, Drew's trustees authorized the CI program. The enthusiasm permeated subsequent implementation activities as task forces of faculty, students, and administrators tackled issues of student access, student ownership policies, what personal computer to issue, security measures, training, dorm furnishings, locations of PC clusters (for sophomores, juniors, and seniors), curriculum development, and upgrading the central academic computing system. Computer Initiative Implementation. + 1984 - First CI funded desk top computers and software provided to incoming class, faculty and administrative offices The CI set a standard for hardware and software on campus. Drew could now support this package 100% with training, documentation and a no cost hardware warranty as long as the student was enrolled at Drew (excluding user damage). The overall CI plan considered the amount and type of staff needed to make it work. Students also would play a key role by working the help desk and within offices supporting the technology on campus + 1985 - CI funded computer package is rounded out with the inclusion of a personal printer One printer per room was provided the first year of the CI. Unlike the computers which the students owned, many of the printers were abused. We learned that ownership plays a key role in how the equipment is maintained and treated. + 1988 - First CI funded portable computers provided to incoming class Drew took a bold step with its plans to provide portable computers since at this time they were not considered "real" computers. The portables traveled to class, training sessions, the lab and were used under the Drew oak trees. Student and faculty reaction to the Zenith dual floppy system and "portable computing" was extremely positive. So much so we've continued to provide a portable computer. + 1990 - The Drew Graduate School decides to join the CI The success of the College of Liberal Arts CI program and the belief that graduate students could benefit from this program convinced the Graduate School to join the CI program. + 1992 - First CI funded notebook size computers given out to the incoming class The package consisted of a Digital equipment 386sx notebook with 2400 baud modem, 2mb memory, 52mb hard drive, Epson printer, Wordperfect 5.1, Quattro Pro (AE) spreadsheet and other software utilities. THE KNOWLEDGE INITIATIVE The planning and implementation of Drew's next logical step -- the connecting of the 2,000 personal computers on campus to information resources -- built again upon the philosophy and purposes of IT at Drew. The opportunity to implement another innovative program in the case of Drew's "Knowledge Initiative" ("KI") was provided by a second round of demographic declines, the community's desire for a library automation system, and an obsolete and inadequate telephone system. In 1987, two planning activities were occurring simultaneously. In the first, the campus community was undertaking a capital campaign needs assessment. In the second, administrators were considering alternatives to an obsolete telephone system. The initial outcome was that Drew would replace its telephone system in the near term, and in the longer term would install a campus-wide network and library automation system. As bids for a new telephone system were reviewed with vendors, it became apparent that Drew had an opportunity to not only replace its telephone system, but to install a campus-wide communications system and data network. Again, Drew's senior administrators enthusiastically backed the project, and enlisted the support of Drew's Board of Trustees as well as corporate partners for the project. Drew recognized the importance of an active and on-going relationship with IT vendors to develop system enhancements appropriately and keep the system reasonably current for the longer term. Practically, Drew could not afford to be supporting the needed development activities alone but wanted vendors who would be willing to use our system as a location to cooperatively develop and test software and hardware. Thus, Drew sought vendors for the project who were interested in forging a partnership with each other and a liberal arts institution to demonstrate not only the application but the importance of IT in a liberal arts environment. Knowledge Initiative Implementation. + FALL '87-WINTER '88 - Approval of project and selection of consultant to help in the RFP process and vendor selection + SPRING '88 - Vendors selected + SUMMER '88 (10 weeks) - Installation of Intecom PBX, Octel voice mail, fiber optic cable, VAX network server, cabling, telephone billing system, phones & data devices begins---Student programmers put together network system menus and wrote the many network programs. This provided the students with tremendous learning experiences and let them feel the network was from them, not thrown at them. + FALL '88 - Systems up and working. Hand out about 1,800 phones to all students with documentation and training sessions scheduled---Voice mail was an instant success with students. E-mail took longer to catch on but typically a faculty member would send a homework or lab assignment via e-mail with a notification of the assignment sent via voice mail. + FALL '89 - New features added to the Network system including library automation (DRA), Internet access. Efforts started to provide more on- line information. + SUMMER '90 - Broadband Cable System Installed---The campus was wired with broadband cable with over 1,000 cable outlets in residence halls and classrooms. Four satellite dishes were installed for reception of SCOLA, CNN, C-SPAN, ESPN, MTV. Drew Movie and educational channels established for educational and entertainment broadcasts. + FALL '92 - Network System officially becomes a Campus-Wide Information System with on-line services including a calendar program for Drew events, budget reports, campus directory, committee reports, class and final exam schedules, office hours, software and documentation distribution, newsletters, TV listings, Drew Catalog listings, and Human Resource policy manual Voice mail system now offers job listings, baby sitting service, directions to the Drew campus, voice mail forms mailbox used to order computers, snow closing and other emergency information, and other information mailboxes (office hours, weekend events). Impact of the Computer & Knowledge Initiatives What impact did these "countless computers" and campus-wide network have on the traditionally liberal arts Drew campus? Applications for admission increased by 42% (and have remained at that level despite a shrinking pool of applicants and increased competition for students), entering classes increased by approximately 40 students, and combined with other activities the average total SAT of entering students increased approximately 125 points as well. The use of these personal computers and the voice/data network is overwhelming. Faculty, students, and administrators believe in the value of these IT tools, and use has become routine -- so much so that "people were about as excited about PCs as they are about chairs -- they are absolutely essential but unworthy of too much attention" (Mills, et al, 1988). Educationally, four out of five graduating seniors report a high level of satisfaction with Drew's computer services and facilities, and one out of two reports that his or her undergraduate experience has greatly enhanced his or her ability to use quantitative tools (Drew University, 1991). And the Computer and Knowledge Initiatives continue to attract students to the Drew campus: admitted students for fall 1992 gave these programs the highest ratings as a distinctive feature of Drew (Drew University, 1992). HARTWICK COLLEGE: GRASS ROOTS OPPORTUNISTIC PLANNING As noted earlier, Hartwick had instituted a new curriculum which had the avowed goal of preparing students for the twenty-first century. Mastery of information systems (IS) technology was not explicitly included in the new curriculum, but was implicit both in the science and technology portion of the curriculum as well as in its stated goals. During the period in which the new curriculum was developed and implemented reports critical of the IS component of the college were issued both by a private consulting firm and the college's accreditation association. The combination of the new curriculum and the two critical reports promoted a receptive political climate for revamping of IT at the college. Implementation of an IT upgrade path would address a major criticism contained in the college's accreditation report as well as tangibly demonstrate support for the new curriculum. At that point, three and one-half years ago, computing at Hartwick consisted of a nine-year old IBM 4331 connected to a laboratory containing twenty-six VT terminals, a laboratory of 26 dual floppy PCs, and a laboratory of 26 Macintosh + computers. The only networking capability was a primitive Janet network in the PC lab. Less than five percent of the faculty had PCs on their desks. The administrative computing system was an IBM System/38 of which major components had been donated by a local bank in lieu of scrapping them after an upgrade. The Opportunities A small group of faculty on the Academic Computing Committee realized that constant, active advocacy at the faculty level was the only means by which change would occur. Taking advantage of the political climate created by the factors previously mentioned, this committee convinced the administration that support in implementation of IT was critical at this point in Hartwick's history. Monies were made available from a reserve fund to update the mainframe and its associated laboratory. Just after requests for proposals (RFPs) were solicited from vendors, the Director of Computing quit with no notice whatsoever. Ironically, this became a crucial factor in widening the opportunity structure to the degree that has led to our successful implementation of wide-scale IT on campus. The lack of a "gateway," in the form of a Director of Computing, between computer advocates and senior administration created a climate of creativity and opportunism that would have been otherwise stifled. In order to maintain forward momentum, a troika was formed among the Director of Academic Computing, the Chair of the Computing and Information Sciences Department, and the Chair of the Academic Computing Committee. Each brought different forms of expertise which allowed for an efficient and very effective division of labor. The two technologists focused on ascertaining and implementing the "best" and most cost effective solutions for the college. The Chair of the Academic Computing Committee, a sociologist, focused on garnering political and fiscal support from senior administrators as well as on long-range planning. In essence, this troika became the driving force in implementation of IT at Hartwick due to the virtual absence of high level advocacy. Its success was due to detailed planning, the appeal of the vision of IT as it related to perceptions of quality at the college and a political strategy that was simultaneously very aggressive yet sensitive to the fiscal state of the college. The process of seeking and receiving funding for each project was essentially idiosyncratic and outside the normal budgeting process. Senior administrators were "sold" on the merits of each project and, then, monies were "found" to proceed with them. As Pennings (1975) notes, an organization's environmental uncertainty can lead to decision making structures that are decentralized rather than formalized, opening the potential for opportunistic planning structures. In Hartwick's case, the environment is that of selective liberal arts colleges and the uncertainty stemmed from the competition engendered by the demographic shifts of the late 1980's. Actual implementation has proceeded in five distinct stages to date. Due to lack of any long-term implementation plan for IT, each of these projects had to be developed and funded as separate entities. Further, approval for each stage of development came under widely varying sets of circumstances, depending on the parties involved and current fiscal conditions at the college. Each project had a specific goal and a budget which merely reflected the specificity of each project's avowed purpose. Hence, any planning for system integration and institutional upgrade paths could only be an implicit part of each project. It was up to the parties implementing these projects to insure compatibility and flexibility for future upgrades while maintaining separate financial accountability for each project. To illustrate how dramatic strides have been made in the introduction and use of IT at Hartwick College on a project by project basis using this methodology, we describe each stage in the following section. Stage One (Summer 1989). The first stage was to replace the IBM 4331 with a mini-frame and PC lab to support faculty research and existing classroom and computer lab applications, allow for additional and more sophisticated applications, act as a network server, and improve student access to current PC and miniframe technology. Midway into Stage One it became obvious that there would be glaring differences between the new PC lab and the old, which was located in a different building. A supplemental proposal was developed demonstrating the feasibility of updating the old lab of 8088s served by an XT to a level of comparability with the new lab which would contain 386sx PCs. After receiving approval in the face of some opposition, we chose to serve this updated lab off of a new VAX 6410 via a fiber-optic connection. This connection became the basis and rationale for establishing a campus-wide network. Stage Two (1989-90). During the 89-90 academic year the inadequacies of the administrative computer (IBM System/38) became unsurmountable in a cost effective manner. There was a dramatic increase in requests for data processing capabilities far beyond what the system could handle. This led to an upgrade to an IBM AS/400 as well as the introduction of token- ring networking for some administrative offices. Stage Three (1990-91). Plans called for implementation of an automated library catalog in the 92-93 school year. A proposal was advanced suggesting that more rapid installation of such a system would prove beneficial for the college given the increasing competitiveness of small selective liberal arts colleges. A capital campaign had just been launched and, after considerable lobbying, this was one of the first projects that capital campaign funds were released to fund. A key part of the library system was demonstrating the increasing value of a campus network as a significant component of an education at Hartwick. The library system was installed during the 90-91 academic year. Stage Four (1991-present). Hartwick was planning a new academic building to open by the fall of 1992. Although initial plans called for the facility to house academic computing, the whole issue of networking was only peripherally dealt with by those most involved in planning the building. During the early months of 1992 several meetings were held suggesting the value of extensively networking the building as a demonstration of how the whole campus should, and could, be networked. To achieve this, we had to include the cost of networking in the capital costs of the building. Further, to acquire additional staff to assist in implementation we had to include a personnel line for a network manager as part of the capital costs of the building rather than a regular personnel item. Currently we have yet to complete all the goals contained within stage four. Stage Five (in progress). The final stage constitutes expansion of networking to a dormitory, an additional academic building, and the student center. Current funding allows us to fully connect the dormitory, provide limited connections in the academic building, and run the cable to the student center. The Outcome By emphasizing the implicit goals of a series of distinct computer acquisition projects, particularly those goals dealing with network connectivity, a troika of middle-level faculty and administrators succeeded in laying a substantial foundation for a campus-wide network at Hartwick College, in placing personal computers on virtually every faculty desktop, and in providing up-to-date public access personal computer laboratories connected to midrange academic, library and administrative servers. Because of a strict mandate that no project be allowed to go over budget, the college has benefitted from a number of cost effective measures, including limited use of outside contractors. By performing most of its own work, the college has built many new skills into its full-time maintenance and computer center staff. Long-term support is made considerably easier when the maintainers were also the installers and are thus intimately familiar with the workings of the entire network. The explicit goals of various stages of building the network have focused on hardware needs. Long-range strategies and mission impact have been buried in the implicit goals. As such, the impact of the computing facilities on the college mission have only been sampled casually. Recent first-year seminars have introduced over three-quarters of entering students to computerized word processing. The new IT facilities and "User-Easy" interface have made one hour introductory sessions feasible and sufficient to start new students using Hartwick's computing facilities. The assigning of permanent student accounts has allowed all students to use computing resources for any class and computer lab usage counts have shown dramatic increases. In summary, computing at Hartwick College started out as an activity strictly limited to a few computer science and similar courses as well as a limited research tool for faculty. There was no massive groundswell of demand that IT be implemented on a large scale. Yet the completion of each project fueled an ever increasing demand for access to hardware, software, and networks by students, faculty, and administrators alike. This ever increasing demand had consistently paved the way for cross-campus implementation of IT. Stages four and five are not likely to be completed until the end of this school year. With the uncertainties of a new president, albeit one who appears dedicated to proliferation of IS on a large scale, future development and expansion of IS at Hartwick College, no matter what direction it takes, will be predicated upon a system that was incrementally developed with the express goal of maintaining maximum flexibility for the future. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Both Drew University and Hartwick College made use of opportunistic planning strategies for IT. Drew, based on its institutional positioning and admissions needs, committed to IT with a formal institution-wide agreement. This was a proactive strategy which required that people be "sold" on the notion that the institution would be stronger (a higher education leader and more attractive to students) if a major IT implementation was undertaken. Hartwick, with no mission-related need for IT, instead began with the identification of specific technical needs (e.g., update equipment to lower costs; link two buildings for computer access; etc.). This was a reactive strategy in which people reacted to specific frustrations which could be solved by technology. The implicit goal of a broader IT implementation was accomplished through shrewdly including as much additional functionality as possible within the contexts of the specific technical need. Both of these strategies are viable, depending on the unique opportunities represented in an institution. Each method has advantages. The advantages of the approach with institutional commitment include: * major campus-wide implementations are possible * total costs are lower * connectivity/compatibility problems are minimized * the institution is better positioned competitively * it is easier to justify the additional staffing required to fully support implementations * it is easier to get significant vendor support for current and continuing needs The advantages of the approach without institutional commitment include: * equipment selection and installation is simpler because projects are more technical in nature and small * it works within the annual budget * it has a lower first-year cost * it is possible to use current staffing for installation because the projects are smaller and more focused * it doesn't require moving the entire organization to support IT * it doesn't require a new president Two final observations are worth note. First, both strategies require a champion--a person (or persons) who will take upon him/herself the responsibility to make it all happen. Without this, little is likely to happen. Second, the way one evaluates the success of the implementations is different. With the institutional planning commitment, the question to be answered is: "Is the institution's mission being fulfilled better by the implementation?" When there is no institutional commitment, the questions to be answered are: "Is the technical problem served?" and "Does the technology work?" "Upside down or downside up?" -- the answer depends on the challenges facing the institution. Either way, the first step in planning for IT in a liberal arts environment must be a thoughtful decision as to the purpose of IT for the institution, not just an assessment of the institution's current technological status. Unless the liberal arts institution aspires to become more like the research and technological institutions, it is likely that this purpose will be derived from the fundamental goal of a liberal education, which is to teach people to think. The IT implementation, then, will focus on the integrated use of computer, video, and networking technology to access, process, and communicate information with the goal of making our students capable, thinking people who can make use of technological tools in their everyday lives. NOTES 1 Robert K. Ackerman, (former) Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Drew University, memo to CLA faculty, December 7, 1983. REFERENCES Badagliacco, J. (1992). Planning for information technology resources: The methods. In M.D. Ringle (Ed.) Computing strategies for liberal arts colleges (pp. 29-67). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Boyer, E.L. (1987). College: The undergraduate experience in America. 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