Some Question Companies’ Role in CSU Network Plan

An unusual California State University plan to use private money and expertise to build and operate a sophisticated new communications network linking the Cal State system’s 22 campuses is coming under fire from some faculty, students and outside activists.

If CSU’s Board of Trustees approves the plan when it meets next month, GTE, Hughes Communications, Microsoft and Fujitsu will raise the $300 million required over the next three years to build a network that would give CSU’s 325,000 students and 36,000 faculty members access to a high-speed communications system.

The companies would also create a for-profit joint-venture company with CSU called the California Educational Technology Initiative. CETI would use the new network to raise revenues to cover its costs and bring a modest profit to the Cal State system and the private partners.

Activists worry that the private companies’ strong role in CETI could color its activities on campus and sometimes work against CSU’s interests.

“CETI is a dangerous commercialization of the university that will cost students, staff and faculty over the long run and threatens to increase inequality between richer and poorer students,” said Nathan Newman, project director for NetAction, an advocacy group that looks at the social impacts of technology.

Newman also worries that Microsoft’s involvement in the consortium will help the software giant extend its power from the desktop to the computer-networking market, where California’s own Sun Microsystems remains a significant power.

Under the plan, CETI would recover its huge investment in the infrastructure by providing the Cal State system with telephone, Internet access, paging and other communications services, said David Ernst, CSU’s executive director for integrated technology strategy.

That would probably require CETI to charge students for Internet access, although Ernst says students who currently receive free Internet access could continue to do so.

In addition, CETI would fund the Cal State system’s $90-million-a-year technology acquisition budget, with purchasing preferences given to the private partners.

CETI’s mandate would be so broad that a recent CSU report estimates the corporation’s gross expenditures over 10 years--including such things as the cost of building the infrastructure as well as supplying and operating the equipment connected to it--would come to $5.3 billion.

Ernst says he is not concerned that CSU might overly favor products from consortium members such as Fujitsu and Microsoft in its network because those partners will be contractually required to offer their products at market rates or better.

Since the new infrastructure would probably have excess capacity, CETI would likely supply some service, such as Internet access, to customers outside CSU. CSU would also use the network to offer long-distance learning in areas where it doesn’t currently operate campuses.

CSU’s share of CETI’s profits, which haven’t yet been determined, would be used for training and to buy new computer equipment for faculty and staff, Ernst said.