Ever since the first customer relationship management (CRM) tools found their way onto North American campuses around 2002, higher education administrators have cringed at the mention of the word "customer," preferring to substitute "constituent" for the more sales-driven term. Yet, with competition for qualified candidates…

When it comes to dealing with cyber attacks, there's no silver bullet. Ironically, however, college educators are already accustomed to wielding what may be the best weapon of all--education. Assaulted by the myriad species of spam, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, viruses, and other diseases that so easily infect and sometimes devastate campus…

Colleges and universities worldwide are turning to the hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) model and saying goodbye to issues like patch management and server optimization. Generally, SaaS involves applications (such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and e-mail) offered by a hosting provider. In this…

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…

Emergency notification has become a critical component of every higher education institution's overall emergency plan, as incidents across the country have galvanized campus safety officials to find more ways to notify their campus populations. Emergency notification systems can help get and keep students, faculty members, and staff out of harm's…

The IT department has become so enmeshed in the interests and activities of the entire institution that, these days, IT requires a good deal more than an overseer. While the executive charged with leading IT is often called the chief information officer, chief information leader would now be a much better title. And that's because leaders can…

This article features the winners of this year's "Campus Technology Innovator" competition. The winners are: (1) Drexel University, Pennsylvania (outsourcing); (2) Darton College, Georgia (3D); (3) Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (ePortfolios); (4) University of Michigan (the Web); (5) University of Tennessee College of…

When it comes to Administrative IT solutions and processes, best practices range across the spectrum. Enterprise resource planning (ERP), student information systems (SIS), and tech support are prominent and continuing areas of focus. But widespread change can also be accomplished via the implementation of campuswide document imaging and sharing,…

For years, doing laundry at Columbia University (New York) was just as labor-intensive as it is at most universities. Fortunately, as of last spring, laundry life at Columbia has changed dramatically. Today, with the help of a real-time Web-based service called LaundryView, students can log on to the system via the LaundryView Web site from a link…