Imagine

We ask the "provosts" to whom we are pitching our case to imagine that they are each a beanie baby at Beanie U. We give them pictures of particular beanies, in fact, and ask them to assume those identities -- identities as administrators at Beanie U, a medium-sized institution that values teaching. Beanie U has recently had the largest entering freshman class in its history (all of those "retired" beanies have now found the time to attend university!).

The Board of Trustees -- all of those valuable Limited Edition beanies -- want to see Beanie U approach the cutting edge in technology on the campus. Typically, it has been difficult for Beanie U to incorporate alot of technology because many of its students have special needs -- special keyboards since they don't have moveable digits, for example.

University Administration wants to connect all of the pockets of technology already on campus, foster communication among current technology users, among support staff, and strengthen faculty development programs that help faculty to adopt and use technologies. They also want to hear from the student body to gain a better understanding of the direction the university should be considering.

Beanie U administration tend to have very short attention spans. Most of them would rather be chasing other animals, or eating, or grooming themselves than be listening to a pitch to give money to new, expensive initiatives. It sets up a challenge, for sure.