Universities to Go Commercial?

CynTHESis writes "The University I am currently attending has more or less been sold on a product known as Campus Pipeline. This product provides customized content and services to students at the price of prioritized advertisement from which the people at Campus Pipeline, Inc. obtain their income. Because this product will eventually replace a multitude of student services it will become the web portal for the majority of the students. Campus Pipeline also subversively regulates bandwidth by the closest click method, allowing select companies to gain a significant advantage over smaller companies who do not use this service to advertise, creating a somewhat monopolistic content atmosphere. I understand that several other universities have purchased this product and are running it, and I would like to know what they think of it and how it has affected their campus." Now I can understand the need for ads on certain types of web pages, but shouldn't a college be going to their own IT departments for these types of solutions? What kind of services does Campus Pipeline provide that your average-sized college cannot?

Comments

my school and Mascot Networks

[jcurbo]

My college (Henderson State University) has contracted with Mascot Networks to do a campus portal type setup. This is a timely story for me and my friends here who don't like the whole idea. I just happened to read the Campus Pipeline story the week before my college announced the whole Mascot deal. HSU dumped their student directory database to Mascot, so that signing on would be easier. All you have to do is type in your first and last name and birthdate and you get a form filled screen, some of which is already filled in with your address, major, and picture (!) A group of us were highly upset over this obvious breach of privacy; however a law known as FERPA gives colleges the right to do several things with your directory information. However, FERPA was written in 1974; back then the only thing people were worried about was phone books. The law was not written with the Internet in mind and it is obvious to anyone who reads it.

Now, I don't dislike what Mascot can do for our college; I've looked at the page they did for us (what I can look at anyway, I refuse to sign up because of their terms of services.. another rant) and I like the idea. However my college decided to make it an 'opt-out' idea. I think it would have been much better implimented as an 'opt-in' where students could sign in and put whatever information they liked instead of having it done for them.

I also think it is a horrible idea to contract out this type of service. The reason my school and so many others go for it, though, is because they are small and do not have the manpower to do this type of thing themselves. I work for my school's Computer and Communication Services and I can tell you how it is to be in an understaffed department. So can you blame the schools? I don't really know. All I know is that I don't like my name and address and picture given out to some company without my permission or without notifying me beforehand. This whole experience has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

My advice to other college students would be to go to your school's registrar's office and see what they consider 'directory information' and what they say they can do with it. If you don't like it, you *can* have your information removed.

Been there, talked about that.

[funkman]

See http://slashdot.org/articles/ 00/ 09/11/146202.shtml, which is a ./ story already about this.

Now that the school's getting all these services..

[jmenezes]

When will tuition prices go down?
now that running the network, obviously a big expense for a school, is "free" can we expect a drop of any kind in tuition for schools that use this service?
or are we simply paying the schools for an education along with some great advertising?