Cal State Long Beach’s lack of funding and centralized leadership for technology have caused technology on campus to fall behind the curve, according to Vice President for Student Services Doug Robinson.
“Students come here and are already technologically savvy, but the infrastructure here has lagged behind the ability level of the students to manipulate the technology,” Robinson said. “We are behind, and we need to catch up.”
English professor Tim Caron, who is also the secretary for the Academic Senate, has experienced the frustration of limited classroom technology when he teaches in Peterson Hall 1.
“If you’re teaching a Shakespeare class, for instance, and you want to show performances of his plays and you’re in one of those classrooms, you’re going to be watching a crappy TV that’s not as good as what most students have in their dorm rooms, with 20-35 students crowding around trying to watch,” Caron said.
The differences in accessibility to instructional technology across campus have become more pronounced since recent investments into state-of-the-art technology in the science departments and active learning classrooms, according to Caron.
“My sense is that with the new science buildings, with [College of Business Administration], that they’re all wired,” Caron said. “Is that a priority that says, well, we value instructional technology in certain disciplines and in certain colleges? Or is it because faculty in the College of Liberal Arts haven’t been advocating for those things?”
The International Society for Technology in Education has established National Education Technology Standards, such as using “technology-enhanced instructional strategies” that are difficult to achieve without standardized instructional technology, like smart panels, according to the ISTE website.
Smart panels are installed on classroom walls and allow teachers to use the various modes of instruction, such as PowerPoint presentations and instructional videos, by simply plugging in their laptops, according to Leslie Kennedy, director of Instructional Support Services at CSULB.
Academic Technology Services oversees 333 out of the roughly 430 classrooms on campus. Out of the classrooms overseen by ATS, 103 do not have complete smart panels, according to Kennedy.
The classrooms in Liberal Arts buildings 2, 3 and 4, which are set to be renovated this summer, will be updated when they reopen in the summer of 2014, according to Kennedy.
“Furniture will be a big part of it, but because we can’t lock those rooms, it’s going to really limit what we can put in from a technology perspective,” Kennedy said.
According to Mary Stephens, vice president of administration and finance, approximately 50 percent of classes are taught in LA buildings 2, 3 and 4.
“Over the last five years, even though we have been taking cuts and are not getting new money, we can’t stop what needs to happen in the classrooms,” Stephens said. “So we just keep diverting money and doing what we have to in the classrooms, which is our highest priority.”
Kennedy said that in addition the lack of technology in some classrooms, there is also not enough support to service the technology.
“We have two staff people running those 333 classes, or maintaining them,” Kennedy said. “The closest Cal State University [comparable in size] has five, so we are really understaffed.”
Searching for leadership in technology
CSULB is one of three schools in the CSU system without a Chief Information Officer. Cal State Fresno, Cal State San Bernardino and CSULB are trying to fill the position on their campuses, according to their respective websites.
Cal State Northridge, a CSU with a similar student population to CSULB, has had a CIO since 2006, according the CSUN website. Cal State Fullerton, the next closest to CSULB in student population size, has had a CIO for more than 15 years, according to the CSUF website.
In early February, CSULB Provost Donald Para sent an email to faculty announcing the search for the newly created CIO position, approximately one week after complications with Beachboard frustrated students, faculty and staff.
The closest thing CSULB has had to a CIO was when Don Gardner acted as Associate Vice President for Academic Technology from 2008-10, according to the CSULB website. Gardner was hired following a 2007 report by an outside Information Technology consultant, Phil Hill, which analyzed the IT environment at CSULB.
According to Para, finding the right CIO is a long process, but he hopes to have it filled as soon as possible.
“This is a huge position,” Para said at an Academic Senate meeting on March 21. “We want to make sure that we get it right [since] we are merging [ATS and Information Technology Services] from two different divisions of the university, and that doesn’t happen all the time.”
Para said that even though the administration has not held official interviews yet, there has been some interest in the available position from unnamed individuals “who appear highly qualified.”
Finding funds
According to Bryon Jackson, director of Service Management and Operations for ITS, the lack of a CIO has made it difficult to acquire funding for technology.
“When you have a CIO, you are able to have a unified voice for technology,” Jackson said. “You are able to capture funding more easily than we are.”
The main portion of funding for technology at CSULB is divided between two main divisions, ATS and ITS.
In 2011-12, ATS and ITS received $2.9 million and $3.5 million, respectively, from the CSULB general fund budget, according to the 2011-12 general fund allocation summary on the CSULB website. Together, these account for 1.9 percent of the total general fund base budget allocation for CSULB.
Budget cuts over the last few years have also made it difficult to keep up with the rapid advancements in academic technology, according to Stephens.
