Task Force on
Academic Information Technology |
Strategic
Recommendations
The following items detail the strategic priorities
identified by the Taskforce on Academic Information Technology of the Strategic
Planning Advisory Committee (SPAC).
The membership of this taskforce consists of the Steering
Committee of the Teaching and Learning with Technology Roundtable (TLTR).
Committee members believe this document highlights the central role information
technology must play in furthering Saint Mary’s educational mission and
insuring the college’s financial health.
I. Placing
information technology within the context of teaching and learning
A. Description of the proposal
Information
technology (IT) has become an essential component of College operations. All aspects of the College,
whether pedagogy, student life, or the daily administration of the institution,
are now shaped in substantial ways by the ubiquity of information technology. The TLTR Steering committee therefore
concludes that any Strategic Plan for the college must include a firm
commitment to information technology.
Furthermore, this level of commitment must be substantial enough to
support the high level of technical capabilities necessary to keep the College
competitive in providing IT services to students, faculty, and staff.
Two key components
of such an effort involve supporting the professional development of faculty,
staff and students in the uses of technology and the acquisition of necessary
hardware. To insure the continued availability of funding for these two important
areas, the Steering committee recommends establishing two endowed funds. One endowment will be used for the sole
purpose of supporting developmental IT work among faculty, staff, and
students. The second endowed fund will
be dedicated to funding the College’s continuing need for hardware and annual
software costs such as site licenses.
Once these endowments are established, the funding of these two areas
will be removed from the general operating budget.
B. Justification for the proposal
Information
technology is now central to teaching and learning at Saint Mary’s, as indeed
across the country. Many students now
arrive at college expecting to find the tools of information technology at
hand. Not only are these technologies
taken for granted in their lives, students also know that proficiency with IT
is an important aspect of their studies and that fluency with these tools will
help them become leaders in their chosen fields after graduation. Consequently, a lack of adequate funding for
information technology will make it increasingly difficult for Saint Mary’s to
attract and retain both students and faculty.
Information
technology must be a central component of the college faculty’s professional
and pedagogical development. Without
access to such training and support for pedagogical experimentation and
innovation, it will be difficult to integrate information technology into our
educational mission and develop the proficiencies needed to guide students’
experiences with information technology.
IT is both a tool
and a resource for faculty development, and to maintain its leadership role,
the college must support a range of opportunities for faculty development with
an ongoing commitment to its technology infrastructure. Yet the scale of this
commitment poses a significant challenge to Saint Mary’s because it is
expensive as well as vital. Accordingly,
the creation of a set of endowed funds is an excellent response to this
dilemma. These dedicated accounts will
enable Saint Mary’s to fund information technology at appropriate levels while
keeping the costs for development, hardware, and annual software from straining
the operating and capital budgets.
C. Relation of the proposed program to the Strategic Plan
To maintain and
augment its position as a leader in higher education, Saint Mary’s must commit
to funding information technology at the level necessary to offer our students
a competitive and even innovative IT environment. This commitment cuts across the Strategic
Plan’s four areas of focus: Educate Women, Cultivate Leadership, Recruit and
Retain, and Develop and Focus Resources. Fulfilling this commitment will
profoundly affect our graduates’ ability to make a difference in a complex
world, to cultivate their ability to be leaders and effective communicators,
and will help Saint Mary’s recruit and retain students. Finally, by its very nature, this proposal
offers a strategy to develop resources.
More specifically,
this initiative relates to the Strategic Plan by:
l Funding faculty and student development
(Resources 3.2) aimed towards placing “IT within the context of teaching and
learning” (Resources 3.3 and Educate 3.3) and which will “support student IT
fluency” (Educate 3.4)
l Maintaining the “currency of our electronic
environment to ensure optimal information technology capabilities for Saint
Mary’s College” (Resources 5.1-5.4)
D. Specific outcomes of the proposal
We foresee many
important and concrete outcomes of the creation of these endowments. The developmental IT endowment will provide
the necessary funds to:
l make the ICUT and
DCUT grants permanent
l provide additional
research/teaching grants as technology evolves
l provide support for
workshops, roundtables, speakers, etc. to examine teaching and/with
technology. Such workshops in the past
(for example, the Minerva program) have helped move Saint Mary’s forward.
l provide support for
new and innovative teaching ideas. The
ITRC plays an important role in helping faculty obtain training and support for
new and innovative teaching ideas. This
funding would support continuing education and training for ITRC staff and
student employees, and would provide for software upgrades when necessary.
l support
collaboration between ITRC, CFAI and the Library
As an essential
complement to these development goals, the funds from the second endowment
would allow for:
l the maintenance of
technology
l a reliable IT budget
that does not put undue stress on the operating and capital budgets
l the ability to
acquire/maintain specialized hardware and site licenses
II. Establish a Leadership Role in Women and Technology Issues
A. Description of the proposal
The College needs
a multi-faceted effort to ensure that our students graduate as IT empowered
women. Furthermore, one of the ways we
can make Saint Mary’s more prominent within higher education is to create a
unique identity as an institution that supports critical inquiry into the
relationship between gender and technology.
To further these goals, we
propose establishing an Office within the
Examples of
innovations that this Office could pursue include:
l periodic conferences
and workshops exploring the topic of women and technology and featuring experts
from across the country
l a student IT fluency
requirement
l experiential forms
of IT learning
l internal IT
apprenticeships
l IT internships
B. Justification for the
proposal
There is no doubt
that Saint Mary’s pursues its ideal of “honoring tradition, pioneering change”
every day. There are many pedagogical pioneers teaching in our classrooms. Also, many college-wide achievements over the
years, such as our writing requirements, the Play of the Mind, the Center for
Academic Innovation, and the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership
testify to Saint Mary’s continuing tradition of innovation. Clearly, the best and most profound way we
have honored our tradition is by continuing to pioneer change.
Today, this
commitment to excellence and innovation is being tested by the rapid
transformations brought about by technology.
As a women’s college, our pioneering efforts are greatest when they
address an issue specific to women, when we help dismantle obstacles that
hinder or disempower women, whether it be an auto
mechanics course or a graduate program in theology. Such an opportunity faces us today; our
Mission Statement tells us that all members of the College must constantly take
into consideration how we respond to “the complex needs and challenges of the
contemporary world.” The world that our
graduates enter today and tomorrow is a complex, challenging, and ever-changing
technological world. Information
technology has seeped into all aspects of modern life, whether it be professional or personal.
This rapid pace of change would have been unimaginable only a few
decades ago.
To an important
extent, this technological world is divided by gender. Recent research suggests that many women do
not learn, feel about, or use information technology in the same way as men
(For instance, see Dale Spender, Nattering on the Net: Women, Power &
Cyberspace, 1995). This moment calls
for Saint Mary’s to recommit to its heritage of pioneering change by becoming the place to explore and understand
this technological gender divide and become reflective and able participants in
a technological world. No effort could
better empower our students as women to “make a difference in the
[technological] world” in which they live.
Our mission has always called for Saint Mary’s graduates to be life-long
learners, and this call is even more critical in the context of information
technology, both because of the rewards that adept use of information
technology can deliver and the consequences of being marginalized by a lack of
skill and knowledge.
C. Relation of the proposed program to the
Strategic Plan
An institutional
commitment to faculty and student development in the area of women and
technology will help the College pursue the third focus area of the Strategic
Plan, i.e. “Cultivate Leadership.” The proposal also encompasses specific points
within two of the Strategic Plan’s focus areas:
Educate Women and Focus Resources.
This proposal
expressly addresses the following action details in the Strategic Plan:
l Place information
technology within the context of teaching and learning (Educate 3.3)
l Support student IT
fluency (Educate 3.4)
l Determine how Saint
Mary’s College can be a leader in the area of women and technology (Educate
3.4.1)
l Improve and expand the
role of information technology in teaching and learning (Resources 3.3)
D. Specific outcomes
of the proposal
If the College
commits to this exploration of gender and technology issues, we can expect that
our students will be women who leave Saint Mary’s feeling empowered rather than
indifferent or intimidated by technology.
We can expect that our students will be women who are comfortable with
the pace of technological change and can embrace this aspect of their world
with enthusiasm and creativity. We can
expect our students to be women who having reflected on the complex
intersection between gender and technology emerge from their education as more
capable leaders.
The often
expressed idea that technology won’t replace teachers is a truism, but teachers
who use technology will replace those who don’t. Similarly, technology won’t replace leaders,
but leaders who avidly use technology will replace those who don’t.
As our students
pursue the adventures that Saint Mary’s primes them for, they will be called to
leadership roles in a variety of settings and contexts, and part of that
leadership will involve being the persons relied on – as community members,
administrators, citizens, volunteers, and parents – to judge the worthiness of
new technologies, to imagine the possibilities and the perils they present, and
to have the talent and sense to put them to good use. Can there be any better emblem of a Saint
Mary’s Woman?
Cost/Benefit
Analysis of Task Force Proposal
Submit to: Patrick A. Pierce Director of Strategic Plan
I. Please submit a brief
narrative of the proposed request that addresses the following criteria:
A. Description of the proposal including title of Task Force and
proposal
The
proposal from the Taskforce on Academic Information Technology has two
parts.
The
first part of the proposal recommends creating two endowments to sustain the
uses of Information Technology (IT) at Saint Mary’s. The first endowment will generate funds to
support student and faculty IT development.
The second endowment will create a stable source of funding for the
college’s computer hardware and software needs and will remove these items from
the operating budget of the college.
The
second part of the proposal recommends creating an Office of Information
Technology Programming and Development to be housed within the College’s Instructional
Technology Resource Center (ITRC).
This office will be charged with coordinating and developing programs
that will further reflexive and innovative uses of information technology at
Saint Mary’s. As part of the ITRC, the
core mission of this Office will be to have Saint Mary’s bring leadership to
the issue of “women and technology.”
B.
Justification for the proposal.
1. Why is this activity particularly important to the College?
Both
components of the proposal address the current financial crisis of the
college. The proposal creates new,
stable financing streams for a key component of the operating budget. Second, the proposal creates programs to
support curricular innovations that will be key to
securing the financial health of the college.
Third, the proposal charts commitments that must be made for the college
to continue to meet its core mission to educate women and to emerge as a
national leader in this regard.
2. What would be the impact if this proposal is not funded?
If Saint Mary’s doesn’t make a strong commitment to support
information technology as described in this proposal, the college will quickly
fall out of the educational mainstream for comparable institutions. This will have a major impact on the
college’s ability to recruit and retain students and faculty as well as its
ability to support curricular innovation.
It will consequently become increasingly difficult to realize the
college’s educational mission. As information technology becomes a more
pervasive feature of the college environment, both within and outside of the
classroom, Saint Mary’s will simply be unable to compete with institutions that
maintain contemporary IT environments on their campuses. Without doubt, this dynamic will increasingly
endanger the college’s financial health.
C. Relation of the proposed program to the Strategic Plan. Relate
to specific action detail.
This proposal responds to action
details of the strategic plan: 3.3, Place information technology within the
context of teaching and learning, and 4.2, Support student information
technology fluency, of the strategic plan.
D. Specific outcomes of the proposal:
1. What results to you anticipate?
We expect Saint Mary’s to be able to rededicate itself to the
creation of a robust IT environment that will foster curricular innovation and
reflection on the educational uses of information technology. We also expect
Saint Mary’s to become increasingly prominent as an institution that examines
the relationship of women and technology.
2. How will you assess your results?
The Coordinator of the Office of IT Programming and Development
will conduct regular program assessments to monitor and judge the effectiveness
of its programs. Other measures of
effectiveness include 1) rates of faculty, staff, and student participation in
programming, 2) measures of student IT fluency, 3) documentable
curricular innovations and developments, such as the creation of new programs
with substantial IT components, 4) measurable increases in student recruitment
and retention, 5) the development of stable funding streams for information
technology, 6) the creation of external funding sources for IT, principally
through grant development.
II. Please list the
significant items in each of these categories needed by your proposal.
See attached spreadsheet
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Expenditures |
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Savings
and Revenues |
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Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
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|
Office of
IT Programming and Development |
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|
|
|
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|
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Position |
Coordinator
of IT Prog/Dev |
42,000 |
43,260 |
45,550 |
Faculty
Retention and Recruiting |
e* |
e* |
e* |
|
|
|
Benefits |
12,600 |
12,980 |
13,370 |
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|
|
|
|
|
Capital
Equipment |
|
6,000 |
6,000 |
6,000 |
IT Related
External Grants |
25,000 |
100,000 |
250,000 |
|
|
Development
|
Conferences |
a* |
a* |
a* |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grants |
b* |
b* |
b* |
Student
Enrollment and Retentions |
e* |
e* |
e* |
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Telecommunications |
|
125 |
125 |
125 |
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Contractual
Services |
Consultant |
7,000 |
7,000 |
7,000 |
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Materials
and Supplies |
Media |
3,500 |
3,500 |
3,500 |
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Paper |
300 |
300 |
300 |
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Travel |
|
4,000 |
4,000 |
4,000 |
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Other |
|
500 |
500 |
500 |
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Endowment
1 - Student/Faculty Dev. ($2,000,000) |
d* |
d* |
d* |
|
f* |
f* |
f* |
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|
Endowment
2 - Hardware/Software ($15,000,000) |
d* |
d* |
d* |
|
c* |
c* |
c* |
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Total |
76,025 |
77,665 |
80,345 |
Total |
$25,000 |
$100,000 |
$250,000 |
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Notes |
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a* |
Series of
conferences and similar programs to be funded through Endowment 1 @ approx
$60,000 yielded annually at 3%. |
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b* |
Existing
DCUT and ICUT & cultivation of other grants to be funded through
Endowment 1 @ approx $60,000 yielded annually at 3%. |
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c* |
Revenue
from Endowment 2 reduces recurring capital budget for IT by $450,000. |
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d* |
Office of
Development reports that it can coordinate this initiative with its current
budget. |
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e* |
We expect
this initiative to improve faculty recruiting and retention as well as
student enrollment and retention, but cannot estimate by how much. |
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f* |
Revenue
from Endowment 1 sustains DCUT and ICUT grants as well as other development
programs relating to academic information technology. |
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