I just returned from an information visit to colleges in New England that I toured with my daughter who is a senior this year in high school. We went to some of the nation’s best colleges in Princeton, New Haven, Amherst, New York and Williamstown. We showed up for the information sessions promptly on time, usually at 9:00 am and then went on to visit the campus, see the classrooms, admire the libraries, and gawk at all the wonderful facilities out there.
These colleges, apparently flush with endowment money, all made the amazing declaration: “Our admissions are need blind and we will ensure that any student who is admitted will be able to afford to attend our college – with no loans after they graduate!”
It appears that these respected and hallowed colleges were using their endowments to make college more affordable for their students instead of building more stone monuments and edifices for a small student body who already had too many buildings to occupy. They were schools focused on undergraduate education with 99% of the classes taught by the professors and not the teaching assistants.
The guides who took us around were bright young girls and boys, full of cheer, enthusiasm and pride in their college, their classmates and the campus they lived and worked in. Clearly the brightest brains in the country, their self confidence as well as their supportive attitudes were a treat to behold.
It appears that these colleges encourage collaboration and hand-holding in the belief that learning is a process where many shoulders help climb the tree. Fostering a sense of community in the residential colleges, these colleges demonstrated that collaboration provides a bigger benefit overall to creating a body of learned but very human graduates than mindless competition because the best competition for one must be with your own inner self – that is how you drive towards excellence and perfection.
The cafeterias were very inviting and the food offerings were as close to home as one could get. I did not see a single sign showing Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, McDonalds or some other fast food franchise operating the cafeterias (though I did see Barnes and Noble operating the Yale Bookstore). There were several small, independent bookshops selling great books – healthy food for the mind.
And what was the relevance to enterprise architecture…
My view of those venerable colleges reminded me of the kindler and gentler days when enterprises operated their own IT shops and maintained their own systems, had full time staff who were company employees, provided refreshments and bedding for IT personnel on the graveyard shift and believed that the IT infrastructure and its problems and successes was theirs to own. We all rallied around each other and the primary goal was to achieve 100% uptime. The budget was leveraged across all the projects we had and decisions were all made internally and very often for the corporation’s overall benefit.
Permanent staff meant that you could not break any bridges. Permanent staff also meant that camaraderie and friendship had to ultimately win over hostility and strife. Young minds and energetic bodies meant unlimited possibilities.
My visit inspired hope for the future of this country. Those bright brains, enthusiastic and energetic bodies and infectious camaraderie are destined to keep America number 1 if we in the corporations, we as independent contractors, we in the white shoe consulting businesses, we in the federal government offices and bureaucracy don’t screw it up by infecting them when they enter the workforce.
Maybe its time to go back to in-sourcing of IT with permanent employees and fixed IT budgets that can be applied to considered needs. Maybe its time to throw away the corset-like program management plans, the earned value management reporting miracles, and the death march program milestones for something more flexible that changes as the enterprise needs to change. Maybe Obama is on to something.
These colleges, apparently flush with endowment money, all made the amazing declaration: “Our admissions are need blind and we will ensure that any student who is admitted will be able to afford to attend our college – with no loans after they graduate!”
It appears that these respected and hallowed colleges were using their endowments to make college more affordable for their students instead of building more stone monuments and edifices for a small student body who already had too many buildings to occupy. They were schools focused on undergraduate education with 99% of the classes taught by the professors and not the teaching assistants.
The guides who took us around were bright young girls and boys, full of cheer, enthusiasm and pride in their college, their classmates and the campus they lived and worked in. Clearly the brightest brains in the country, their self confidence as well as their supportive attitudes were a treat to behold.
It appears that these colleges encourage collaboration and hand-holding in the belief that learning is a process where many shoulders help climb the tree. Fostering a sense of community in the residential colleges, these colleges demonstrated that collaboration provides a bigger benefit overall to creating a body of learned but very human graduates than mindless competition because the best competition for one must be with your own inner self – that is how you drive towards excellence and perfection.
The cafeterias were very inviting and the food offerings were as close to home as one could get. I did not see a single sign showing Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, McDonalds or some other fast food franchise operating the cafeterias (though I did see Barnes and Noble operating the Yale Bookstore). There were several small, independent bookshops selling great books – healthy food for the mind.
And what was the relevance to enterprise architecture…
My view of those venerable colleges reminded me of the kindler and gentler days when enterprises operated their own IT shops and maintained their own systems, had full time staff who were company employees, provided refreshments and bedding for IT personnel on the graveyard shift and believed that the IT infrastructure and its problems and successes was theirs to own. We all rallied around each other and the primary goal was to achieve 100% uptime. The budget was leveraged across all the projects we had and decisions were all made internally and very often for the corporation’s overall benefit.
Permanent staff meant that you could not break any bridges. Permanent staff also meant that camaraderie and friendship had to ultimately win over hostility and strife. Young minds and energetic bodies meant unlimited possibilities.
My visit inspired hope for the future of this country. Those bright brains, enthusiastic and energetic bodies and infectious camaraderie are destined to keep America number 1 if we in the corporations, we as independent contractors, we in the white shoe consulting businesses, we in the federal government offices and bureaucracy don’t screw it up by infecting them when they enter the workforce.
Maybe its time to go back to in-sourcing of IT with permanent employees and fixed IT budgets that can be applied to considered needs. Maybe its time to throw away the corset-like program management plans, the earned value management reporting miracles, and the death march program milestones for something more flexible that changes as the enterprise needs to change. Maybe Obama is on to something.
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