The annual Campus Technology Innovators awards recognize higher education institutions that take true initiative--even out-and-out risk--to better serve the campus community via technology. These top-notch university administrators, faculty, and staff demonstrate something more than a "job well done"; their vision and leadership have…

There's no question that in airports, train stations, and student unions alike, digital signage solutions have become efficient and effective ways of communicating important information directly to broad bases of users. The solutions are affordable; they're eco-friendly; and they're growing in popularity every year. Still, particularly in the…

Not that many years back, portals were nothing more than splash pages from which users could click on links to navigate a school's web-based resources. Today, however, they are much more: single sign-on gateways that easily enable users to do everything from pay tuition and view transcripts, to purchase parking permits, and sell used books. Still,…

Today, "lifelong learning" encompasses a wide range of student profiles and curricular designs, but a growing subset of the nation's life-long learning programs are non-credit and designed specifically for students over the age of 50. The good news is that "over 50" does not mean "out of the technology loop." In this article, the author discusses…

Original research and content creation in the university environment have historically been the domain of faculty and their graduate students. Nowadays, however, undergraduate programs at universities across the country are putting undergrads in the center of the action. This article describes some of these programs--at Duke University (North…

Back in the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was president and the internet was still a novelty, college recruitment was remarkably low-tech. Most prospective students visited high school guidance offices, wrote away for information about schools, attended college fairs, and visited campuses they were considering. Most admissions and recruiting activities…

Building access control (BAC)--a catchall phrase to describe the systems that control access to facilities across campus--has traditionally been handled with remarkably low-tech solutions: (1) manual locks; (2) electronic locks; and (3) ID cards with magnetic strips. Recent improvements have included smart cards and keyless solutions that make use…

Nowadays, college and university auxiliary services departments are turning to text messaging types of technologies to move a host of programs and offerings into the mobile environment. A July 2007 study by Youth Trends indicated that 95 percent of college freshmen come to school with a cell phone or other handheld device, and 78 percent of them…