Professor Matthew Finkin of the University of
Illinois Law School noted:
1. 38% of employees monitor employee Internet use. Employers worry that employees
may be wasting time, engaging in sexual or racial harassment, transmitting trade
secrets or committing copyright violations.
2. Some colleges (like the University of Illinois) refuse to monitor their employees.
They think the refusal builds trust.
3. The law against employer eavesdropping on employee telephone conversations is clear.
There is no such prohibition with regard to the Internet.
Jennifer Quirk, associate director of the Beckman Institute, noted:
1. Beckman provides a setting for multidisciplinary, computer-based research in three areas:
biological intelligence, human computer interaction, and molecular and electronic
nanostructures (or making computers very, very small.)
2. Professors are assigned to Beckman for a specific number of years. Then there is a
review and the assignment may not be renewed if the research is flagging.
Janet Eakman, director of the Illinois Technology Enterprise Corporation, noted:
A partnership of 150 local high-tech companies, the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce,
the U of I and Parkland College helps small, high-tech employers develop their companies.
Wayne Green, trustee at Carl Sandburg College noted at ICCTA's fireside chat:
1. Plans are worthless, planning is everything. - Dwight Eisenhower
2. Don't ignore the people who will have to implement the plan. Do they believe in it?
3. Ignore personalities of the people you are working with and you are sure to fail.
4. Best practices usually aren't. Everything depends on the situation.
What worked there may not work here.
5. Timing is important. Choose just a few (timely) things to work on.
6. I learned a lot coming from a selective, liberal arts faculty. There the faculty
invented a curriculum and scoured the nation to find students who could handle it.
At the community college, it's just the opposite. We start with the students we have
and their needs and work from there to a curriculum.
7. Universities "provide" but community colleges "respond."
8. Community colleges supposedly had the worst students and were bound to fail.
That they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams says something about the validity
of the community college idea.
9. One of the main jobs of the board is to keep the college focused on outcomes.
10. Maybe ICCTA should consider a two-year term for its presidents.
11. A wise man said that if we admire shoddy philosophy and look down on good plumbers
neither our pipes nor our theories will hold water.
The next fireside chat will feature McHenry County College trustee David T. Murphy
from 9:30 - 10:30 PM on Friday, March 9, at the O'Hare Radisson Hotel. For information,
contact ICCTA at 1-800-454-2282. See you there!
