Dwight Fischer, Plymouth State University

What are you doing to manage your career?

What are your professional goals and what are you doing to make them become a reality?

How will you avoid career obsolescence?

I’ve raised this topic with IT staffs before. Sometimes it provokes a defensive response. What do I mean? Are there plans to outsource us? Am I trying to convey a veiled ‘Dear John’ message?

No, but I am suggesting—rather overtly—that you think about your career plan. Just because you’re here and have a job, benefits and a fair amount of job security does not mean things can’t happen down the road. Higher education is entering a period of much greater accountability. The cost of college is too great not to. Constituents will challenge us to prove our value, to cut our costs, to look at outsourcing and other possibilities. Consequently, you cannot rest on your laurels or succumb to a sense of entitlement. You must continually reinvent yourself and be ready for what’s coming.

I’ve seen this happen to others. Technology workers do comparatively well on the pay scale. Yet over time and a career, higher salaries (and 42% benefits!) demand greater accountability. Otherwise, there will be more and more pressure to move us out. Long gone are the days of the gold watches in retirement. If we’re not producing, they’ll be dangling SIPs in front of us…if we’re lucky. Who knows, we might also be vulnerable to being reorganized out of a job.

Don’t panic. Be realistic. There are many career strategies you can implement to keep yourself current. We have training budgets (not nearly enough) that you can talk with your supervisor about. There is a professional development fund. Additionally, think about what YOU can do. What journals do you read? What skills will be required down the road? What degrees might you pursue? Set some goals and pursue them.

Make a plan. Set goals and start taking steps in that direction.

Many of our people have been presenting at professional conferences. PSU is well represented at Summit this year. Our buddy Royce presents routinely at NERCOMP and other venues. Elaine Allard and I just presented at NERCOMP on the Learning Commons. These things matter.

You should also consider what type of training you need. Often times technology workers tend to focus on, well, technology training. That’s important. So, too, are developing some of the ‘softer’ skills, like writing and communication, project management and team development. We will also need leaders for tomorrow. How many of you would be willing to take a management role? MBA anyone? You might also take a look at some of the Continuing Education programs offered through UNH. They have a good program on managing and leadership.

Never assume that your career plan is PSU’s responsibility. While we have an interest and will do what we can, it would be a grave mistake to assume that the organization will carry you through to age 65. Leadership and management are more transient, hence you can never depend on anything over a period of time. It’s YOUR career…take charge.

*****

A couple of books you might find useful… The World is Flat and JobShift. The former gives a more macro view. The latter is good for looking at your career as You, Inc.

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I met with a group of students recently to discuss technology; where we are now, the challenges in funding, and where we want to be in 2-3 years. They shared a number of valuable perspectives.

One issue that bubbled up that concerns me greatly. Students use our public clusters a lot. Whether to jump online between classes, more in-depth surfing or writing papers, the convenience is obvious. But they also seem to flock to computer clusters for the printing. They can write on their own computers, but they like to print on campus printers. And why wouldn’t they? We provide a large printing quota that, if exceeded, can be increased by a simple request.

Students can print at will. Print a draft, or two or three, then final copies. They are sometimes required by instructors to print several copies of their papers for distribution in class to others. It is not uncommon to see hordes of paper printed and often discarded to recycle bins just as quickly.

The cost of printing is yet another matter. Reams upon reams of paper are consumed. Toner cartridges are replaced often. High volume printers need replacement parts and have to be upgraded every few years. It is one person’s job to keep pace with daily printer needs around campus.

The promise of a paperless world is a concept unproved. In fact, it seems that we are printing more than ever. I understand. While I spend a lot of time reading online, it is still easier and quicker to have that paper in hand.

However, there is a cost to that convenience. And as I preach, change is about modifying behavior.

We are a ‘green’ campus. We promote environmentally friendly themes. This is an area of conspicuous consumption we could address.

How? First raise awareness. Help the campus understand the cost and impact to the environment. Then, engage discussion among faculty, talk about how can we use the technology tools at our disposal to work more online and demote rampant printing. Finally, place appropriate signage and information about printing in the labs.

The funding we save over time would be significant. And we would practice what we preach as environmentalists.

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IT gets all the money! They ought to be able to share some of it, right??

You’d be hard pressed to find another area in higher ed that has seen such progressive, steady growth in spending. Many schools have gone to new information systems (enterprise resource planning, or ERPs) and course management systems (WebCT, Blackboard, others). Nearly every employee and student has a computer, some with several. Email is prolific, the standard in campus communications, and the Web is in a steady state of evolution. Web portals are fast becoming the standard for secure access to online services.

Libraries are shifting budgets for print materials to more and more electronic journals. They are transforming from places where people go to get materials and resources to ‘information or learning commons,’ where they access and process information. Computer stations are everywhere. Who in their wildest dreams imagined what vast resources students have at their fingertips today?

Our networks have to keep pace with all that demand. Steady investment is required in upgrades to switches, routers, fiber and wireless access points. More and more tools are needed to monitor traffic congestion, to keep those lines open, safe and secure. Special software is needed to stem the hordes of spam at the gate, protect our networks from malicious hackers and miscreants, and keep track of computers and devices that are simply too old and unprotected to be connected to a community network.

Bottom line on the bottom line: technology costs money. And most of what we now spend is replacement of existing technologies. This is the part that drives many of our users bonkers. They can’t they get in the action because we’re now re-funding earlier technologies.

Administrators tend to get riled over the cost of technology, too. They read about or hear of some new software that colleagues are using at other institutions. They bring it to us. We scope it out, agree that it would be good, but tell them the cost of the software is but one aspect of the purchase. There’s the installation, ongoing support, annual maintenance fees and all the other issues that make their eyes glaze over. They become exasperated. Then they get downright annoyed when they hear that instead of their projects, we’re buying new servers and network equipment. None of that is sexy, but it is necessary

The real challenge for us is fourfold:

1. Adequately funding existing technologies, including the staff support to make it all work
2. Replacement of aging equipment and networks
3. Funding for new and innovative technologies
4. Changing habits

What do I mean by number 4? The answer isn’t just spend more money…it’s making good choices with the resources we have. Can we continue to fund and replace computer labs around campus? Should we continue to place printers everywhere for students to print paper at will? Can we make software available from a server so departments and individuals don’t have to buy them separately? Should we institute a new rule that for every new technology we take on, we let another go?

Or maybe we should be looking for a goose that lays golden eggs.

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The search process for a new president evokes some good organizational reflection on values, strategy and overall direction. It’s particularly interesting when outsiders are mixed with an internal candidate.

The past two weeks have reinforced many of the positive strengths of Plymouth State. We are a regional university with a growing reputation not only in the state, but New England. This is a highly desirable position for a leader in higher education. There are significant challenges and opportunities for PSU as we look at where we’re going. We’re reaching out more in the region with partnerships. Two new programs, the Center for Environment and the Center for Rural Partnerships, exemplify these strategies. We are reaching out to groups in the state to bring more business to campus during the summer. Our Graduate Studies programs are growing in leaps and bounds, and we’re kicking off a new Frost School for professional development and adult continuing education. There’s much more.

Why wouldn’t an aspiring leader want to be PSU’s president?

That’s not to say all that growth and initiative is not without cost. Those of us who manage the services and infrastructure know that all too well. Res Life, Physical Plant and ITS are in similar situations of adapting to that growth while managing our finite resources the best we can. It puts a lot of pressure on us. We need a leader who will be attentive to our needs as we grow.

In spite of our current successes, we have significant challenges ahead. We need to improve the way we manage enrollments. While we currently feel (as the Town knows) the crunch of increased undergrad enrollments, that trend will not sustain itself. In 5 years, the number of high school students seeking college will decrease. Competition for the pool of high school seniors will be fierce. To augment traditional age students, we plan to offer more evening and online degree programs. Adults returning to school will become more prominent. If we do this right, we’ll be OK. But complacency cannot be accepted. That’s why we need to select a president who can continue to push us and evolve our offerings as a public, regional university.

What one candidate offered impressed me more than anything else: “when we look at technologies (and any other initiatives), we should be assessing how (and whether) it will make an impact on learning.” It’s a fairly simple formula, but it rings true.

Let’s select the best qualified candidate to lead us. Then we need to get on board and work with him or her.

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How many large organizations allow any employee to email all employees at any time on any topic?

Right. Not many. In fact, since we are inundated with emails in our daily lives, the more we can control what comes to our mailboxes, the better.

Here is where practicality meets culture. At PSU, we love to communicate. Years ago, an all-employee email list was set up. There is no moderation. No one from outside PSU can mail to the list, and besides a routine update on appropriateness of using the list for PSU business, everything else is fair game.

Some of the ‘allemp’ list is official business. Major announcements, snow emergencies, floods, etc. Then there are the campus events, whether large or small. And finally, there are the lost and founds, the raffle tickets, the ‘ooops’ (mistakes from previous emails). The problem is that the more it is used, the less it is paid attention.

I get my share of complaints. Many people ask for relief. Others feel it is an inalienable right to send and receive allemps.

Since we have a web portal (myPlymouth), I think announcements and such should go there. Leave the allemp to major and official announcements.

What do you think?

Related items

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