In 1997, Peter Drucker prophesied the end of the university as we know it. Barbara Horgan argues that institutions of higher education will not, in fact, suffer complete oblivion?unless administrators fail to maximize the potential of IT to transform their programs for the 21st century. Horgan counsels university officials to develop a detailed plan for integrating IT into the curriculum; to commit to budgets that adequately fund the planned objectives and resources; to establish distributed, department-specific IT support services; and to modify the tenure system so that it fairly rewards professors who use IT. If your institution needs to start planning now for future change, let Horgan teach you how to get the ball rolling.

Editor James L. Morrison asks William Graves?founder of the UNC Institute for Academic Technology (IAT)?for Commentary on the integration of technology into higher education. Graves cites a number of challenges to integration, among them the fact that approximately 85% of university faculty are skeptical about using educational technology in their courses. As chairman of the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) steering board, Graves is working to lower that percentage. Read on and find out what individual colleges and universities will have to do in order for him to succeed.

Since Fall 1994, Grove City College has provided a personal laptop computer to every entering freshman. John G. Inman makes a Case Study of the Pennsylvania school's Information Technology Initiative, the administrative decision to buy lap- rather than desktops, the establishment of a Computer Help Desk and Repair Shop, and the college's plan to integrate expanded technology into every classroom. Is this institution a model for your school? As Inman concludes, "This is a question that can be answered only by examining the cost of supporting distributed computer labs and the benefits of providing true 'anytime/anywhere' learning to students."

Rick Peterson reports that, at Randolph-Macon?s Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, Microsoft's SQL Server, Internet Information Server, and Visual InterDev provide faculty and staff with access to budgetary information via the World Wide Web. Consequently, the Business Office no longer has to print, collate, and distribute the monthly budget reports of more than 150 budget managers, and a lot of administrators have fewer budget-related headaches. Read on to learn the basics about these three amazing tools.

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Academe This Week Web site includes the full text of the weekly print version of the Chronicle as well as Academe Today, a new daily publication that covers breaking stories. Though both are available only to regular subscribers, visitors can access the Chronicle's extensive list of job openings (both within and outside the academy), a collection of pertinent facts and figures from the special Almanac issue of the Chronicle, and a series of articles on technology use in higher education. Beware non-subscribers: you will be so tempted by the services that this site offers that you will find it hard to not subscribe!