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John O’Brien, president and CEO of EDUCAUSE, graciously agreed to answer some of my questions about the professional association that he heads.
Question 1: What has been for you most surprising about the role of president and CEO of EDUCAUSE since you started in the position two years ago? And what is keeping you up at night about higher education, educational technology, and the association that you head?
John O'Brien Answer: As I’ve mentioned before, I think what has surprised me most is that there wasn’t any major surprise. EDUCAUSE has been in good hands for a long time, with a strong leadership team and staff with a focus on service and skill level that you dream of when you're new to an organization. So there weren’t any major surprises—though I do have to admit it took me a while to wrap my head around the vastness of the EDUCAUSE community.
Our strength is the breadth and depth of our community. We serve universities with the size and scope of cities, and we also serve small and specialized campuses—and everything in between. We serve the students at the heart of our organizations, but we also work to support and advance the research that makes such a powerful contribution to our campuses and to the greater good. It’s funny, though…I've been looking at benchmarking data from our Core Data Survey, and lately I'm probably more surprised by how much these different institution types have in common than by how different they are.
When it comes to insomnia, all you have to do is scan the headlines in higher education publications—not to mention mainstream national and international headlines—to find plenty to keep you up at night. For me, my biggest concern is linked to the funding trends; if they don’t change, in the long run we could end up with a two-tier higher education system consisting of one experience for those with means and another for those without. I think the most inspirational historical feature of higher education is the degree to which we have created an opportunity to level out, not reinforce, these divisions. I fear we could lose this inspiration.
Question 2: Can you share some demographic and organizational details about EDUCAUSE? How does EDUCAUSE generate revenue?
Answer: As of the end of 2016, EDUCAUSE membership included 1,658 U.S. and 264 international colleges and universities in 45 countries. In addition, we have 76 not-for-profit organizations serving higher education as members, along with 348 corporations and 19 K-12 institutions. Within member institutions, we serve a wide variety of individuals, including CIOs, IT leaders and professionals, faculty, teaching and learning professionals, instructional designers, librarians, institutional researchers, managers, and other leaders across campus, such as provosts, business officers, and, increasingly, presidents and chancellors who recognize that IT is a strategic asset, not a utility.
Our revenue, like that of many other associations in higher education, comes from a mix of membership dues, event registrations, and corporate sponsorships and exhibition fees. We share details with our board on a regular basis and with the membership at an open annual meeting. We have about 90 employees who work with community volunteers to provide member-centered programs, research, events, operations, professional learning, communities, and publications.
At the end of 2016 the board unanimously approved our new five-year strategic priorities, which are very much member focused. We’re going to invest in personalizing the member experience to make it easier for members to get the information they want, when they need it. We’re focused on re-imagining professional learning to build on our core services that provide crucial information to advance knowledge and individual careers.
Finally, we’re working very hard to expand partnerships and collaborations, recognizing that the future success of IT will not come about from IT talking more intensively to IT, but from IT connecting in meaningful ways across our organizations.
Our members are at the heart of EDUCAUSE—it’s why we’re here. After July 1, our new member model will be in place, and instead of only some members having access to ECAR or ELI materials and services, all members will have access to the full range of our offerings. I’m really excited about this change—and so are EDUCAUSE staff.
Question 3: Should EDUCAUSE be an organization that reflects and amplifies the goals of its member organizations, or do you see the role of EDUCAUSE as leading the conversation about the future of higher education? Are these goals ever in conflict?
Answer: Certainly, as a member organization, we see ourselves advancing higher education and supporting our members—especially as they navigate the future of higher education. We do this in our efforts to understand and express challenges and opportunities through EDUCAUSE content, like the Top 10 IT Issues. We provide resources, perspectives, and space (physical and virtual) for conversations on these topics.
I don’t see a conflict in our desire to be involved in conversations about higher education beyond a technology focus. However, on a practical level there is so much that needs to be addressed that it makes sense for us, as we consider broader topics, to do so in a way that contemplates the connection to technology. For example, a very intense national conversation about higher education affordability has certainly gotten my attention.
However, our focus should be on the intersection of this issue and how technology innovation has the potential to lower costs, increase value, and help students finish what they start. When a student uses technology-enabled advising tools—such as an integrated planning and advising graduation-planning tool to avoid a fifth year—that directly impacts affordability. Our May/June 2017 issue of EDUCAUSE Review is, in fact, focused on student success.
Question 4: I want to ask you a (potentially) provocative question. Why doesn't EDUCAUSE seem to prioritize the building of a thought leadership platform for the team that works at EDUCAUSE? On the EDUCAUSE website, reading EDUCAUSE publications, and attending EDUCAUSE conferences -- the voices are almost always those of its member institutions. Why are you and your colleagues not more visible in sharing strong (and, yes, perhaps provocative) opinions and analysis on the EDUCAUSE platforms?
Answer: Well, I see your point, but I have to say that I can live with a critique that we feature our members too much. We’re a member organization, after all. And actually, I see EDUCAUSE staff as very active. For example, Malcolm Brown, Joanna Grama, and Susan Grajek (among others) present and keynote at conferences and are consulted often by media as subject matter experts, as well as frequently write for our publications and present at our own events, from webinars to the annual conference. For example, Malcolm Brown, Joanne Dehoney, and Nancy Millichap’s report -- The Next Generation Digital Learning Environment -- and Malcolm’s subsequent writing and speaking have made the NGDLE an important national and international conversation.
By the way, I know you asked about thought leadership...you’ll notice I don’t use the phrase “thought leader” much. The academic in me always resists any notion that there is one leader with the right answer (or even one right answer). I believe that working together as a community is most valuable. How could one thought leader’s answers work the same for both a large research university in a large city and a specialized, rural technical college? Ours is a rich community with many leaders and many thoughts, and I think our strength is the depth of our member perspectives as well as the leading ideas that capture our imagination.
Question 5: A second provocative question -- I promise my last question. Everyone I know who works in higher education knows EDUCAUSE. However, very few faculty seem to know anything about EDUCAUSE -- and even fewer could tell us why EDUCAUSE is important for their institutions or for the future of higher education. Maybe I just know the wrong faculty? Can you share if it is a priority of EDUCAUSE to increase the association’s visibility and influence outside of higher education technology circles?
Answer: Well, I first became active with EDUCAUSE when I was faculty, teaching English and becoming very excited about the emerging technology tools in the 1980s and 1990s. I read EDUCAUSE Review and EDUCAUSE Quarterly regularly and served on the EQ editorial board for a few years because I found the information so valuable to me in my faculty role. However, I understand your point, and I can tell you that another reason I’m excited about our new strategic priorities is the expanded outreach beyond IT, including faculty. The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), which you know well, is currently available only to the subset of member institutions that subscribe to and pay extra for the service.
After July 1, all members of EDUCAUSE will have full access to ELI and ECAR (ECAR produces our faculty and student studies). I believe our new member model will make us even more accessible and relevant to faculty—and others. And as we build out our new personalization capability, we plan to be able to understand our members better—so we will make it possible for a faculty member to enjoy a user experience that reflects his/her unique role.
Do you have any questions for John?
