A recent article in University Business entitled, "The Changing Face of IT Executives" has a unique snapshot of perspectives from some CIOs, directors, and other senior managers in higher education IT environments. According to the article, when asked where they are taking their institutions next:

"A common response was that their institutions had already gone through their first one or two phases of heavy technology adoption, and they were now interested in taking it to the next phase and broadening the reach of the hardware and software."

And a quote by Gard Meserve, chief information officer (CIO) at Clarkson University (N.Y.):

"We could lose 10 percent of our budget and still continue to support the needs of Clarkson, but we could not lose 10 percent of the people and do the same," said Meserve."

So capital investments are not as important broadening reach it seems. And people seem to be the scarce resource these days in university IT environments, if the University Business and Meserves' comments are at all representative of the general sector.

These are important issues which inevitably affect IT support organizations. As it turns out, HDI has let me know that the current attendees in the current quarterly Higher Education Forums are expanding participation from its current, 15-some member base to 25 executives and managers. These Forums are perfect events and networking assets for you to explore IT-related issues in the higher education sector.

Topics at each Forum are decided by Forum participants.

Example benefits of the forums include:

• World-class presenters
• Focused and in-depth coverage of topics
• Motivation and challenge from peers
• Benchmark and best practice ideas
• Year-round personal executive advisory board and networking

Meet up in Glenwood Springs, CO for the next Forum. Explore Higher Education Forums now!

BTW - The picture is of my alma mater. We infrequently saw weather like that when I was there!

Steve Shu