Distance Learning
The drive to engage in distance learning is pervasive at educational institutions nationwide. Because UHD is located right in the middle of a large urban community, one can easily conjecture that campus leaders see clear potential financial benefits in using technology to provide educational services through television and the worldwide web. However, the faculty seem more interested in using computers to solve learning-based problems than to augment the University's market share. An administrator talks about this disconnect between the administration's goals and those of the faculty:

I think that the University's idea is that they are going to get new students by going online. However, I think most of the stuff that's been happening at just the individual level is helping the students that are taking classes from the particular faculty member.

A faculty colleague emphasizes what he perceives to be UHD's institutional intent on using technology:

You've got to use some technology, and they [the Institution] are heavy into distance learning. We offer a lot of courses via TV and online. Online, not much, maybe one or two courses, but around eighteen to twenty courses are offered on TV. (Elias Deeba, Faculty)

UHD has a Technology Teaching and Learning Center (TTLC). The TTLC "supports faculty in their efforts to successfully use and understand many new technology tools and strategies at their command. [The Center's staff] assist faculty in development and implementation of interactive technologies, which increase pedagogical effectiveness." Visiting the Center, one gets a clear impression of its importance to the University. Equipment is new and state-of-the-art. A staff member comments on the TTLC's role and its relationship to UHD's distance learning goals:

I think that the TTLC is very strongly in support of distance learning things and on-line course development, and the administration sees that as a way of making what we have to offer available to people outside downtown Houston. We do have distant sites, and that's something that TTLC is involved in. They also support us in developing and using WebCT, and things like that, to organize our course materials and put things on the web. They offer a lot of workshops to individual faculty members (Phillis Griffard)

Efficiency and Productivity
Another institutional goal for investing in technology is to increase faculty productivity and reduce costs. With a computer in each office, many tasks traditionally performed by staff members have been reallocated to faculty, and staff positions have been discontinued. An administrator explains:

I think the University may want the faculty to be responsible for doing more things than they had to do before. Our budget has been cut. For instance, we had two secretaries in the department. When we lost one, they didn't re-fund the position, so faculty no longer have someone to do copying for them, typing for them, all those kinds of things. You've got the computer in your office, so you have to do more of those things yourself now.

Remedial Education
Analysis of demographics, especially pass/fail rates, brought serious attention to the magnitude of student needs. These problems in turn heightened awareness of the need for remedial education, something that computers can play a substantial role in, particularly self-paced instruction. Many of UHD's students come with poor pre-college preparation, and UHD's ability to serve these under-prepared students is crucial to its survival, since that is its niche. UHD has resolved to find ways to remedy its students' poor background in math, science, and writing, even if the administration determines that success will necessitate a sizeable investment in infrastructure. A staff member provides some context:

Our mission may be different than that of a lot of universities in that we are very diverse. We're a commuter institution, we have a lot of first-generation college students, and, especially in other departments, a lot of computer resources go toward remedial courses, introductory courses. The students are required to spend a lot of lab time to enhance their skills in math and writing. (Phillis Griffard)

An obvious question arises with regard to the success of these remedial programs, many of which are designed to increase graduation rates. While UHD has a diverse student population (see the next section), that diversity is not reflected in the University's numbers of graduating seniors. Based on early 1990's data, the ethnic composition of UHD graduates is disproportionately white. This suggests that these remedial programs may not be helping minority students to succeed, so there is clearly more work to be done. Some faculty members feel that the University may be providing finances to solve problems related to lack of preparation, but it is doing so with little imagination or creativity. Opening new labs and staffing additional sections of courses is not enough, as one faculty member explained:

I think the remedial program, and its success or failure in helping students graduate, is a real mark that the University doesn't want. I mean, we try, but we don't serve our under-prepared population very imaginatively at the moment. It's important to provide them the opportunity, but in providing the opportunity you have a responsibility to really try to serve them imaginatively and creatively. It's not just opening up the sections, but trying to figure out ways to make these students successful, and it's really difficult. (Bill Waller, Faculty)

Figure 1. Number of graduates versus race at UHD from 1990 through 1994.
Click on the image to see a larger image.

Marketing
Last, technology is used as a marketing tool to indicate a certain modernity in the University's equipment and the work of its faculty. Classrooms and labs that are outfitted with the latest computers and devices figure constantly on a UHD campus tour. A staff member who provides technology support to the faculty clarifies this:

I don't think that this investment in technology is public relations as much as it is marketing. I think there is a fair amount of marketing. Every time a foundation is visiting, they always call me up and say, "Will you have lunch with us?' But, I think, that's not why they invested the effort. I think it's so that if there's going to be a market in on-line courses, if it's a cost-efficient way of delivering instructions, then let's do that. (Phillis Griffard)

While universities like UHD see on-line course delivery as an investment that promises a future low cost/benefit ratio, one wonders about the reality of success for an institution like UHD in an open environment, where competition is likely to come from resource-rich institutions like MIT, the University of Illinois, etc.