|
Student Affairs Daniel Salter Penn State University Editor Stuart
Brown
Winter 2001 • Vol. 2, No. 1 |
|
|
|
|
Join our mailing list!
|
Practical Tips for Student Affairs Professionals |
|
Kristl L.
Wiernicki, J. D. |
Martyn J.
Miller, Ph.D. |
If you are a "traditional" student affairs administrator, your position description does not contain any reference to drafting specifications for customized database management systems or negotiating high-priced contracts with software vendors. Most likely, you are also not competent to compare and contrast the features of competing hardware products or offer an informed opinion about whether to upgrade from Office 97 to Office 2000 before the new fiscal year arrives. Yet many student affairs professionals are dealing with these and many other issues in the technology realm.
The good news is you're not alone. The bad news is that your learning curve increases exponentially with each passing day; and, like it or not, you're in this gig 24-7-365. How well you sift through the morass of information technology (IT) information being hurled at you on a daily basis and make sense of it for the benefit of those above and below you in the chain of command may well determine whether you will succeed or suffer thanks to the explosion of technological advances in higher education.
A few years ago, most student affairs staff rightfully assumed that technology decisions pertaining to their departments would be made principally by the management information systems (MIS) professionals on campus. After all, these programmers and analysts were the experts on everything from student information and human resources databases to information kiosks and institutional websites. Who should know better than they how best to manage housing, activities, student health and career data, right? Wrong!
At the October, 2000, NASPA Technology Institute, held at the University of Pennsylvania, participants agreed that while MIS staff were helpful, student affairs professionals themselves, more often than not, were on the front line in purchasing hardware, selecting software, implementing programs and negotiating system costs. They also confirmed that, for the most part, they had had almost no formal IT training and were learning on an as-needed basis how to deal with vendors who had a decidedly corporate mentality.
If you are such a professional, take heart. There are some practical ways by which you can maximize your negotiating leverage as you strive to obtain technology that will get the job done for a price that you really can afford:
Draw specifications for only what you need and stick to them.Just like buying a car, it's the extra options that hike the cost of the vehicle - or system, as the case may be. Resist the temptation to include a feature just because the vendor is pushing it; you may need a customized feature even more. If the vendor doesn't currently offer that feature, understand that it may take some time to develop and deliver it, but don't delete it if that's what you really need.
Consider issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) even for small software needs.
Some institutions, particularly publics, require this step before technological purchases can be made. Although time-consuming, it guarantees a survey of products that purport to meet your needs and provides for the bidding conference that will answer many questions - from you and prospective vendors. It also gets your Purchasing Department involved and helps to ensure that any necessary (standard) contract language will be included in the final deal.
Consult legal counsel every step of the way.
Even if you don't have ready access to staff counsel, notify your legal representative(s) that you are preparing to purchase hardware and/or software and that you would like their assistance. Counsel will suggest (perhaps even insist) that certain provisions be included in any RFP, purchase or maintenance agreement and will be in a much better position to defend you if something goes wrong than if they had not been consulted.
Stipulate the conditions under which you would gain access to the program code for any software that you purchase.
In the event that the vendor suffers bankruptcy or business failure and is no longer able to service client accounts, you must be able to obtain the program code in order to manage the software that you have purchased. Be prepared to negotiate hard for this protection - most vendors will not offer it initially and will impose strict conditions on its issuance.
Think of your budget threshold as a ceiling, not a floor, for technology purchases.
Most vendors understand that technology purchases in higher education are not budgeted as an annual percentage of operating costs and, therefore, must be pre-approved in rather precise amounts. Even if you have contingency funds at your disposal, advise prospective vendors that you are restricted budgetarily and must stick to your budget. Be sure to build in costs for annual maintenance and customization when constructing your budget, however.
Choose technology vendors with the expectation that you will be doing business with them for years.
A technology purchase is a lot like a marriage. As each party gets to know the other better, adaptations must be made for the partnership to work. Whether the vendor supplies these adaptations in the form of scheduled upgrades or customized services, the full potential of the technological support may not be realized for years. Student affairs professionals need to be prepared to work with vendors long after the initial contract is executed and understand that the relationship will be a learning process for everyone involved.
As newer technologies outstrip the capabilities of those we take for granted today, we will be increasingly engaged in negotiating the extent to which we and our students have access to them. That access will depend partly on the financial resources available to our institutions, but it will also depend on our ability to spell out to vendors what we need and what they must be willing to do to provide it.
