INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
The
university requires an extensive infrastructure to support its research,
instruction, and public service missions. These needs have been well documented
in universitywide and campus studies completed in the last five years.1
The basic recommendations of these committees-for enhanced information
networks and computing resources, for updated facilities, including modernized
laboratories, and for a greater emphasis on service-will become realities
in the next decade.
New Computing and Information Technologies
| Information technology is becoming increasin2
Many units at the university are already making excellent use of this new
technology. The introduction of new technologies must be coordinated and
supported within university units as well as with centralized resources.
Universitywide high-speed data communications networks between and within
buildings and between campuses will provide on-line computer, instructional,
library, and administrative services essential to campus operations. |
Information
technology is becoming increasingly critical to economic and personal development. |
Additional improvements will include an increase in the quantity and kinds
of computing available, including work stations and off-campus resources
for high performance computing; increased availability of computing for
students; enhanced use of teaching technology, including multimedia instructional
laboratories and servers, instructional software, two-way interactive learning,
and desktop video-conferencing; networked, distributed manage-ment information
systems for administrative functions; administrative systems that allow
speedy, accurate, and flexible paperless transactions by students, faculty,
and administrators; and outreach efforts that provide shared data for citizens,
business, industry, and government.
Electronic communities are already a reality for
scholars around the globe. As we upgrade our own systems, more members
of the Rutgers community will be able to participate in these electronic
networks.
Libraries and Information Systems
The speed with which new information is becoming available has fundamentally
challenged our assumptions about how we use and share data. Efficient access
to information is critical to academic endeavors. While computer networks
and new communication methods will greatly enhance our opportunities, the
complexity of the Rutgers library system, structured in part as a response
to the distances between our campuses and the specialized needs of our
students and faculty, works against its rapid transformation.
| Our
library system will play a key role in the provision of electronic information
throughout the university. |
Our library system will continue to develop as the locus of academic
information acquisition, management, and distribution, and will play a
key role in the provision of electronic information throughout the university.
Newly developed databases will become available at Rutgers and will provide
continuously up-dated information sources. The library collections will
increasingly take advantage of new formats, but we will maintain our commitment
to print materials, and their dissemination by both electronic and traditional
intra-library materials exchange systems. Enhanced library services will
include extensive training programs to provide students, faculty, and staff
with updated information about newly available resources, technological
innovations, and increased electronic access to library resources from
student dormitories and faculty offices. |
As we bring new technologies to the university,
broader access will be possible through low-cost communication systems
on campus, and, by modem, from off-campus sites throughout the state. The
new technology will not only facilitate scholarship through direct access
to information resources at off-campus locations, it will also enable the
university to provide a broad range of information services to the public,
including electronic texts and local databases; statewide databases on
diverse issues, such as legislation and applied research; institutional
data for high schools and community colleges to support applications and
transfers to the university; and enhanced curriculum-based multimedia programming.
Facilities
In the last 10 years, Rutgers and the state have invested over $750 million
in new and rehabilitated facilities, including over 65 major capital projects.
The most significant projects include the addition of almost 3,000 beds
to the dormitory system, expansion of five student centers, new dining
halls, rehabilitated classroom buildings, new research and teaching facilities,
library additions, arts facilities, and improvements in athletic facilities.
These projects were funded by several bond issues,
including the Jobs, Science, and Technology Bond Issue of 1984, and the
1989 Jobs, Education, and Competitiveness Bond Issue. The New Jersey Sports
and Exposition bonds provided funding for the expansion of the football
stadium on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus. State funding of the Higher
Education Facilities Trust program will cover almost $39 million for renovations
on all campuses and $20 million toward the cost of a new law school building
on the Newark campus.
During 1993, the university completed a comprehensive
facility condition audit of its major buildings to obtain meaningful baseline
data on the deferred maintenance backlog, and on the funding requirement
to meet code and regulatory deficiencies and capital renewal needs. As
of June 30, 1994, the funding required to address these items totalled
$360 million. It is essential that the university include as a high priority
item in its annual budget process a provision for an appropriate reinvestment
rate to reduce the backlog and avoid future escalation of these costs.
Facilities planning for the next five years will involve a significant
shift from an emphasis on large-scale construction to the stabilization
and modernization of older building stock.
Transportation
Easy human interaction is a prerequisite for a well-functioning community.
In order to enhance intercampus collaboration, we need to overcome the
formidable barriers of geography. Distances between campuses that have
posed problems in the past will be less problematic as we develop more
effective electronic communications systems. We also need to develop more
efficient transportation to the campuses. The Rutgers Employee Trip Reduction
Survey is generating in-formation to enable the university to develop better
transportation to the campuses, including enhanced bus services.
Changes in our infrastructure, including upgrades
in our computing, information, and library systems, as well as our facilities
and transportation systems, will have the effects desired only if they
are accompanied by a systemwide commitment to the promotion of efficiency,
cost-effectiveness, and responsiveness.
1. For example, "Strategic Directions for Facilities Management
in the 21st Century," 1992, "Report of the Planning Committee on Purchasing,"
1994, and "Report of the New Brunswick Faculty Council Physical Plant and
Services Committee on the Improvement of Services by University Facilities
to Academic Units," 1991.
2. "Report of the Committee on Computing and Information
Planning," 1992.