University Business - May 2007 - (Page 17)

DATA POINT 45% The percentage of parents who insist on visiting campuses themselves before letting their child attend. —Student Prospector’s survey on parents and priorities. COURSE CATALOG Champlain’s Budding Cybercrime Fighters BURLINGTON, VT., MAY NOT BE A LIKELY PLACE TO STUDY THE criminal mind. After all, how many bad guys can you come across in a college town? Well, a professor at Champlain College (Vt.) has a surprising answer to that question. Burlington, apparently, is a good place to study crime—especially the emerging field of cybercrime. Since 2003, Gary Kessler, professor and director of the college’s Center for Digital Investigation, has led about 160 students who are majoring in this field of study, which is part of the college’s bachelor of science program. Everything is fair game: identity theft; those scam spam messages from Gary Kessler an alleged Nigerian bank that beg the recipient to help retrieve funds; hackers; careless criminals that leave digital trails on cellphones and PDAs. Now Champlain’s cybercrime academics are teaming up with local law enforcement. Thanks to a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, two faculty members will conduct digital investigations and teach local cops and detectives how to better fight cybercrime. Kessler, too, provides pro bono services to the police. “What the cops bring us is real experience in how this stuff really works,” Kessler says. Cybercrime is a growing field, one that’s bound to become more important with the proliferation of devices criminals use to contact each other or record information that is later used as evidence. Kessler asserts that some type of digital evidence is now part of almost every crime committed. “Computers are now as much a part of modern law enforcement as the baton, sidearm, radio, and handcuffs,” he says. —J.M.A. Hit ‘Em Where It Really Counts ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO THE UNIVERSITY of Illinois at Springfield began billing students in campus-owned apartments a flat rate for utilities. The dire warnings Director of Housing John Ringle received about students wasting electricity (opening windows in December, leaving TVs on at all hours) came true, with some monthly bills as high as $400. Now students will be charged if they use more than 10 percent above the average for their court. Ringle says all the units have individual meters, but going back to individual bills isn’t feasible because the new units would be billed through the college, causing a drain on department resources, and the old units would be billed directly from the utility company, causing logistical nightmares because students don’t stay put. “I’m not sure there is a perfect solution,” Ringle says. Most students are open to suggestions on ways to conserve. Students have requested any savings be put toward winterizing the older units. —A.M. Meaningful Spring Breaks SINCE HURRICANE KATRINA DEVASTATED THE Gulf Coast in 2005, it has been fashionable for college students to spend spring break in that region helping with recovery efforts. But at some IHEs, “service breaks” have been taking place for years. The Global Partnerships program, for example, launched at North Park University (Ill.) eight years ago. Students get sent to international locations like Zambia and Thailand and domestic locations like Appalachia to work with underprivileged children. Richard Johnson, director of University Ministries, says such trips have been happening unofficially since the school’s founding. This year a total of 140 students will go on trips during the spring, summer, and winter breaks. Gannon University (Pa.) students have been spending part of summer break at a Lakota-Sioux summer camp in South Dakota since 1993 and working with Habitat for Humanity since 1995. Students also work in a soup kitchen in New York City and on the Arizona/Mexico border. Arlene Montevecchio, director of the Center for Social Concerns, says they had to turn students away from the program this year. And, of course, both schools have sent groups to New Orleans. —A.M. universitybusiness.com SERVICE BREAK ON CAMPUS Students from Sacred Heart University (Conn.) helped distribute 22 tons of potatoes to local food banks and service organizations in March. The Potato Drop project was coordinated by the Society of Saint Andrew. May 2007 | 17 http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - May 2007

Contents
College Index
Advisory Board
Company Index
Editor's Note
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Marketing
Human Resources
Financial Aid
Community Colleges
The Innocents Abroad
The Big Business of Research
What’s New in A/V
The Kids Are All Right
Designing a Unified Campus
Business Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - May 2007