Featured Controversy

California State University System "Technology Infrastructure Initiative: Partnering for Knowledge

Overview

(If you have an interest in writing an overview of the relevant issues, documents, and/or press coverage, please write. Overviews should be more or less balanced, and may combine analysis with reporting. For an example, see Overview of the New Zealand "Green Paper" Controversy.)

Selected Documents

Selected Documents

• Update
  1. C/Net, "College Tech Deal Folds" (June 29, 1998)
• Primary Documents from California State U. (CSU)
  1. Technology Infrastructure Initiative (TII) Supporting Partnership Plan (the plan to create a limited liability corporation "comprised of the four corporate partners [GTE, Fujitsu, Hughes, and Microsoft] and the CSU auxiliary")
     • Adobe Acrobat version
     • HTML
  2. Press Release
  3. FAQ for the TII (highlights of the plan in question-and-answer format)
  4. Progress Reports of the "System Internal Partnership Team"
     • June 28, 1997
     • Oct. 10, 1997
     • Nov. 18, 1997
  5. "Newsroom" (updates on the plan; also includes links to four articles in the press)
• Media Reports (chronologically listed)
  1. Sacramento Bee, "CSU Working on Deal with Computer Firms" (Oct. 25, 1997) (Adobe Acrobat file)
  2. San Diego Union Tribune, "High Technology and Higher Education" (Nov. 2, 1997) (Adobe Acrobat file)
  3. C/Net, "Colleges to Give Windows Top Billing" (Nov. 24, 1997)
  4. Los Angeles Times, "A Farewell Warning," Jan. 7, 1998: B2 ("As he assumes his new job . . . former Chancellor Barry Munitz delivers a stark pronouncement to those who protest Cal State's creative financial arrangments")
  5. USA Today, "Cost of Technology Brings Added Fees, Equipment Deals" (Mar. 5, 1998) (Adobe Acrobat file)
  6. Los Angeles Times, "Microsoft Dropped from University Partnership," April 17, 1998: D1, D5 (coverage of new developments in the controversial Cal State system plan to partner with major technology firms) | see also C/Net, "Microsoft Drops Out of College Deal" (Apr. 16, 1998)
  7. Los Angeles Times, (Editorial) "Wiring the Campuses: Cal State's Ambitious Cyberplan Needs Careful Vetting," May 9, 1998: B7
• Related Issues
  1. Chronicle of Higher Education, "Microsoft's Reach in Higher Education" (April 24, 1998) (Chronicle special report with multiple articles)
  2. Los Angeles Times, "Will Technology Commercialize Higher Learning?" Jan. 19, 1998: D6 (". . . some academics are starting to view their institutions as emergent clones of market-driven high-tech companies instead of as universities and colleges")