Mark Greenfield

Yesterday the DOW closed at 7,552.29, losing 5.56% of its value for the day. We are hearing this news all too often over the last few weeks. This is the worst economic environment we have seen in quite some time. And it’s not just the financial institutions and the automobile industry that are suffering. Higher ed is feeling the pain as well.

SUNY just announced a tuition hike effective this January. There are numerous stories about budget cuts, hiring freezes and no money for travel. The Boston Globe recently wrote an article on how Financial Chaos Threatens to Besiege Universities. I am feeling the effects myself. My operating budget this fiscal year is 32% less than the previous year, despite a significant increase in workload. And I am being told it will be worse next year.

Yet, for all the pain caused by the current financial meltdown, it is only the warning shot across the bow.

The true paradigm shift is just around the corner. The tipping point will happen shortly when stealth fighter parents will replace helicopter parents on college campuses. Gen X parents are coming and they will demand that colleges reexamine their entire operation from a price and value perspective. They will look at the college their children attend as a calculated market choice. They will view colleges as one of many providers in a large marketplace as new competitors emerge providing alternative choices for much of what college provides.

All of this will put increasing pressure on colleges to provide value and to focus on efficiencies. Consider the following from a recent survey on the rising costs of higher education:

• 64% of respondents do not believe higher college costs are leading to more learning on campus
• 44% believe that waste and mismanagement significantly factor into increasing college costs

I spent much of 2007 writing about how higher education web development will get flattened. The premise is that the same forces of globalization that have flattened the business world will soon flatten higher education and that their will be repercussions for higher education web professionals. What happens when web development becomes a commodity? The services we provide will be disaggregated, distributed, produced and reassembled with amazing efficiency. It may well be that many of our services will be outsourced in the relatively near future.

I recommend we approach this coming storm proactively. Become a web evangelist. Focus on how the web can provide value and how it provides a sound return on investment. Use valuation methodologies like ROI to provide the framework for prioritizing projects and accountability.

Many people who hear my presentation on “Higher Ed Web Development Gets Flattened” leave thinking that none of us will have jobs five years from now. That is not my intention and I don’t believe that will be the case. In fact, I think the opposite is true. The role the web plays on college campuses is undervalued. When the time comes to disaggregate the functions of the university, the forensic accountants will quickly see that the web provides true value and should get more resources, not less. That being said, I do think our jobs will change dramatically. The best approach is to start to think about this now. To quote Will Rogers:

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Using Social Media to Enhance Student Services
Wednesday, December 3rd- 1:00-3:00 EST

Come join Brad Ward, Todd Sanders and I as we explore  how higher educational institutions can leverage the full power and potential of social media to enhance student services. While much of the focus of social media in higher education is on student recruitment, these same tools can be used to provide services and enhance relationships with current students.  The webinar will provide an overview of social media tools, why they matter in higher education, and how they can be applied to student services. In addition, several case studies will be reviewed.

Presenters:

Mark Greenfield (See my bio)

Todd Sanders gets paid to play on the Web and discover new ways to engage both prospective and current students online. For the past six years he’s been the Student Affairs Webmaster at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where he continues to design for the Web and get his hands dirty.

Brad J. Ward has been working in the Higher Education setting for 5 years, After serving as the Marketing and Recruitment Specialist at the University of Illinois-Springfield for 1.5 years, he has now been at Butler University since June 2007, serving as the Electronic Communication Coordinator in the Office of Admission.

If you have any questions or just want to engage in some conversation prior to the webinar, feel free to drop us a line.

I’m embarking on an exciting new project that will help create awareness about web accessibility and begin training the next generation of web accessibility advocates.

First the backstory:

Last year my daughter followed the Iditarod as part of a 2nd grade class project at her school.  We had adopted our new dog Rafe earlier in the year and given his lineage, my daughter was fascinated by the Iditarod.  Part of the class project included choosing a single musher to follow throughout the race.  My daughter chose Rachael Scdoris.

Rachael is legally blind. She made history in 2005 becoming the first visually impaired athlete to compete in the Iditarod.  Rachael’s story of hope, courage, and determination has attracted national and international media attention. She has been featured in numerous newspapers, magazines and national TV and Radio shows, and has been formally honored for her accomplishments by numerous groups.

In typical Millennial style, my daughter e-mailed Rachael to wish her good luck.  In this e-mail I added that Rachael’s website did not meet web accessibility standards. Thus began a conversation that sets the stage for my new project.

Over the next couple of months, I will be working with a group of 3rd graders at my daughter’s elementary school  to develop a new site for Rachael that will focus on accessibility.  Rachael, in addition to being a world-class athlete, is an advocate for people with visual disabilities and hopes this project will help raise awareness about web accessibility and the many myths that prevent people from fully understand accessibility.

The goals for this project are to teach the students about people with disabilities and how they use computers, teach the basics on how to create a web site with an emphasis on accessibility, and have the students help me create a new site for Rachael that will be fully accessible.

This should be a great experience for all involved. The students are excited and hopefully this project will help create awareness about web accessibility.

I will leave you with a 30 second introduction to Rachael and the incredible courage and determination it takes to complete in the Iditarod.

Rachael Scdoris, Iditarod Visionary