Reporter Volume 26, No.9 November 3, 1994

By STEVE COX
Reporter Staff
Educational technology" is the integration of contemporary high-speed,
heavily networked computing power into the learning process. UB
administrators say it is likely to be the budget battleground of the
late '90s for public higher education. The Faculty Senate considered a
resolution on Oct. 25 to prepare the university to wage that battle.
	More microcomputer stations, better access to computing power
and more support staff should be the rewards of battle. However, the
$25 per student computing fee and free access to computers by faculty
conducting sponsored research will likely be casualties.
	The Faculty Senate considered and debated a resolution calling
for initiation of a Distributed Information Technology (DIT) approach
to computing on campus. Wayne Bialas, an associate professor of
industrial engineering and chair of the computing committee that
drafted the resolution, explained that DIT involves close scrutiny of
how computing dollars are spent. It represents a shift away from
centralized computing, toward specialized computing in academic units,
but assures that all units get reasonable access to computing
facilities and that each unit contributes to the development of the
campus' computer infrastructure.
	In addition to the draft resolution on DIT, the Senate also
debated a draft University Mission Statement. Resolutions on both
topics will be voted upon at the next meeting in November. Senate
rules require two readings of all resolutions prior to action.
	SUNY Central's budget request for the coming fiscal year will
include the first installment of a five-year, $20 million educational
technology initiative, according to Hinrich Martens, associate vice
president for computing and information technology. In fact, it is the
only new initiative SUNY is proposing, Martens says, an indication to
him just how important this issue is to SUNY.
	"Computing spending on campus will increase by about 50
percent, from $20 million (per year) now to about $30 million over
five years," explained Martens. "Ninety percent of that growth will go
into the academic units." Richard Lesniak, director of academic
services, expects the campus to have nearly 10,000 microcomputers, up
from the current 5,000, and 120 support staff, up from the present 40,
when the upgrade is complete.
	Lesniak, Martens and Associate Provost Sean Sullivan outlined
five potential sources of revenues to finance the computing upgrade,
all of which, they said, would likely be called into play to some
degree.
	o	The Mandatory Student Computing Fee: Currently $25 per
student per year, this fee has not increased since its inception in
1983. Most comparable universities charge an average of $150 per year
for computing services. Each $25 increase in the fee would raise an
additional $500,000 per year for computing. They indicated that a fee
of about $100 per year would not be unreasonable.
	o	Reallocation of discretionary funds: The campus
annually reallocates about two percent of its overall budget. Over
time, they indicated, funds could be shifted toward educational
technology without hurting current academic unit funding.
	o	Sponsored research: Currently, faculty members have
free access to computing and databases for sponsored research
projects. These sponsored programs will have to begin assuming their
fair share of the cost of that computing, they explained. It is more
and more common, they added, for grants to include funding for
computing services, so grant writers are going to have to start adding
this to their requests.
	o	Discipline-based Computing Fee: This would be a new,
unit-specific charge that is "gaining wide acceptance at other
universities at a hundreds of dollars level. It could be a big new
source of revenues," they said. Part of the attraction is that this
money would be levied and collected locally, and would not be state
money.
	o	Capital Investment from State/SUNY: The new
educational technology initiative would be the source of most of this
funding. However, it is likely to be restricted to capital money that
can only be used to purchase equipment.