The 2009-2013 Salisbury University Strategic Plan cites four specific goals:

1. Provide exceptional liberal arts education and academic and professional programs that are aligned with an increasingly competitive, global, knowledge-based economy (SUSP I)
    
2. Continue to attract and retain quality students (SUSP II)
    
3. Promote and develop a student culture that places the highest priority on academic engagement and personal growth by leveraging the SU “small school feel” and strong student/faculty/staff interactions (SUSP III)
    
4. Continue to build the resources--human, financial, physical, and external--that support student academic and engagement needs (SUSP IV)
    

The 2010-2015 University Technology Plan supports those goals by leveraging the many technologies and services added during the past several years and by identifying trends and innovations most relevant to those goals.

Introduction

Some of the significant trends and innovations affecting teaching, learning, academic research, personal and professional communications, and institutional management in the next five years include

• Growth in the creation and distribution of digital content, including film, audio, animations, and other academic content.
   
• The adoption of real time videoconferencing in the classroom and the capture of video and audio for distribution through the internet for asynchronous learning.
   
• Proliferation of social media/communications tools like Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, Skype, as well as blogs, wikis and various instant messaging tools. Although initially these web tools were simply “pop technologies”, they are finding their way into education and business.
   
• Growing amount of print academic material, formally residing in libraries, moving to the web and downloadable to portable devices. The growing interest in eBooks to help control student textbook costs.
   
• Mobility technologies, smart phones, laptops and netbooks, scientific instruments, and other wireless network connected devices.
   
• Large amounts of data storage, both in the cloud (web) and on personal storage devices.
   
• Many in higher education agree that although students are generally “technologically fearless”, their technological fluency is often spotty. Many career fields are redefining or clarifying basic technology employment skills.  The expectation for technology fluency in all career fields will become a new baseline.  The definition of technology fluency may vary depending on the career field chosen.
   
• Increasing internet bandwidth capacity and reliability which will allow more data to move faster over the internet, at lower costs.  Advances in small area wireless networks and large area wireless networks (WIMAX) will provide connections virtually anywhere.
   
• Software as a Service (SaaS) and storage in the cloud, or through the internet.  Services or computer programs no longer need to be run from the campus and data no longer needs to be stored on the campus.  The paradigm of campus centric computing will change for some activities.
   
• Virtual server technology enables the maximization of server resources by allowing server environments to be created quickly and “live” on the same physical device.
   
• Virtual desktops will allow the personal desktop to become “portable.”  Users will be able to access their home or business desktop applications and resources from any computer with internet access. 
   

Goal 1: Provide and promote a rich technology environment for the creation of digital media for all academic disciplines. Encourage collaboration among students and faculty.  

The university opened the Teacher Education and Technology Center (TETC) in the 2008. In addition to providing exceptional teacher education training facilities, the TETC is home to eight new computer labs, more than 35 SMART classrooms and the Integrated Media Center. Clustered in three areas of the building, labs serve many academic areas including teacher education and training, psychological statistics, social research, journalism, digital photography, new media, music technology, stage set design, audio production, video production and editing, accounting, management information systems, and a variety of writing courses.

While the labs are a hub of teaching with technology the Integrated Media Center (IMC) the IMC is one of the premiere digital media centers on the east coast. Built with the goal of encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration in the digital arts, it houses a professional level high definition video studio, a standard definition instructional video studio, a digital recording studio, fifteen video editing suites, five audio editing suites, two electronic music composition rooms, and two multiple media computer labs. Already, there is early evidence of collaboration.

Recommendations:

 
Goal 2: Technology Supported Learning - Provide innovative tools to support a high quality teaching environment

Thirty years ago when the phrase was first coined, academic computing was the province of a few disciplines in the sciences and perhaps social sciences and a campus may have had one or two mainframe computers.

The landscape has changed. In fall 2009, Salisbury University operated 14 computer labs, six specialty research computer labs, and 150 SMART classrooms. More than 1000 course sections use MyClasses (Blackboard/WebCT) in which all or a part of a course is offered over the internet from a campus supported learning management system. Each semester at least 25 course sections broadcast interactive video to four remote sites in Maryland. Several classes in Nursing and Respiratory Therapy are also using class capture systems to post lectures (video and audio) on class web sites for asynchronous learning. Distance learning courses are a very recent development for Salisbury University (2007). With the addition of additional distance learning rooms in the Perdue School of Business we expect the number of web based video courses to increase.

Developments:

In 2011, the new Perdue School of Business will open. This facility will include: a general computer lab; finance lab, enterprise computing lab, and advanced computing lab. It will also provide 23 additional SMART classrooms, a 200 seat auditorium, three video conferencing rooms and two portable video conferencing systems.
Between 2010 and 2012, four residence halls will be renovated and a new 600 bed residence hall will be completed (2011). Each will include one instructional classroom to support living/learning programs.

Recommendations:

Goal 3: Administrative Computing - Provide a growing array of web based services to students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Administrative computing has focused on the business systems of the university: student information system, Human Resources, and Financials. Between 2002 and 2004, SU replaced old legacy systems with PeopleSoft 8.0 enterprise systems. The Contributor Relations system was also brought online in 2004 to support the SU Foundation and Alumni Office. The student and HR systems were upgraded to the newest 9.0 version in late 2007, while financials was upgraded to 8.9 in 2007. Most software systems are now web accessible and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Although these are the major systems in use on campus, other systems support specialty areas including the Gull Card (debit, identification, and building access card), the internally developed parking management system, course evaluation software, student judicial management, and other services. One goal is to reduce the number of third party software tools hosted on campus by developing similar applications in People Tools. There will still be some externally hosted specialty tools in use for years to come.
In 2012, the university’s maintenance contract with Oracle/PeopleSoft will expire. The university, and other University System of Maryland campuses, will need to start considering their options in the 2010-2011 timeframe.

Recommendations:

Goal 4: Network Infrastructure - Provide a secure network that operates with great efficiency and reliability utilizing the latest technologies to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile campus community.

SU operates a data network with more than 8,000 network ports and 300+ wireless access points. All buildings on campus are now wireless enabled with either 802.11g or 802.11n wireless. Even the Wayne Street parking garage is included in the wireless network. Within the next five years the new Perdue School of Business will open, the Physical Plant department will move to the east campus, Caruthers Hall will be demolished, a new 600 bed residence hall will open, and the data center will move from Fulton Hall to dual locations in the Wayne Street Garage and the Perdue School of Business. The network will expand to meet the demand. The overarching theme is more connectivity, less downtime, and greater redundancy. All have implications for staffing and costs.

Trends that will guide the evolution of the network will be the growth in university facilities, a desire for more mobility (Wi-Fi and cell phone applications), and growing expectations for security. We are also seeing a very rapid growth in the number of video security systems, off campus Gull Card vendors, expanded use of the Gull Card for access control and other needs.

Recommendations:

Goal 5: Insure that the SU network and campus information systems are secure and can stay in operation in the event of a campus based or regional disaster.

College campuses rely on technology to support almost every major campus activity. Teaching, research, student support services, residence/dining services, recreation, communication, business functions, fund raising, and campus safety. Technology is so ubiquitous that is almost invisible to many people.

Recommendations:

Summary

Salisbury University provides technology services that rival those most colleges and universities in the country. Very gradually, and almost without notice, technologies have changed the way we teach, learn and work. We can communicate and collaborate with lightening speed. Most business functions are now available on the internet and more than 1,000 course sections have significant web content each semester. IT excited by the new opportunities and a little overwhelmed at the constantly steepening learning curve.

As a university we need to remain competitive with our peers and lead where we can, while keeping data safe and secure. This will involve constant learning on the part of all and a strong effort to cope with the increasing costs. The human and financial investment has already been significant, but the price of not continuing to invest could be even more costly.