E-Government: Will America’s most rural state embrace the concept of services via the Internet?

The idea is logical enough: How can the potential of the Internet be used to enable rural residents to transact business with the government? North Dakota, the most rural state in the nation, is a natural place to explore the possibilities of “E-Government.”

That concept is the basis of an important research project in UND’s College of Business and Public Administration, the Government Rural Outreach (GRO) Initiative. According to its director, Glenn Miller, the project will complete its first-year contract on Sept. 30. At least two additional years of funding from the General Services Administration (GSA) is anticipated.

How did UND become a member of the club working on this national project, one of President George W. Bush’s stated Management Agenda priorities?

The business college has the critical mass of expertise to do this kind of research: a classic array of business departments (and, as an AACSB-accredited school, a faculty credentialed with research-based doctoral degrees and with access to graduate students to assist them), a Department of Information Systems, and — rare in business schools — a Department of Political Science and Public Administration.

Miller says UND got its foot in the door in 2001. A grant from the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Postal Service allowed the College to conduct two statewide surveys and to place computers in local senior citizen centers. Training was provided and the users were observed to see if they would adopt the Internet for some of their information needs.

The answer to that question, at least with these particular seniors, was “no,” Miller says. After an initial burst of enthusiasm by the study participants, the computers mostly gathered dust.

However, the Feds, scrambling to comply with a Presidential directive to expand Internet use as one way of making government more “responsive and cost-effective,” were impressed by the quality of UND’s work. So, with U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan’s assistance, the College landed a $750,000 contract for the first year of what promises to be a significant involvement with the GRO Initiative.
In some ways, Miller said, the task these past months has been similar to the earlier project: Collaborate with partners in North Dakota to make Internet-connected computers available to a number of rural constituencies (farmers, veterans, seniors, and American Indians), provide training, help generate relevant Web content and services, and then “see what happens.”

But, of course, there are complications, most importantly the issues of privacy and security.

How can the Agriculture Department, for example, be certain that an individual communicating a decision about participation in a crop support program is, in fact, the person he or she purports to be?

The goal, Miller says, is to provide rural citizens with electronic access to government that is not only simplified but also protected through one secure entry and validation point. Much of the work to be done in collaboration with partners such as North Dakota’s Information Technology Department will involve developing and testing new approaches to authentication and security.

UND has created a secure Internet “portal” and used it to gather input from citizens involved in the project. It also forged a partnership with the North Dakota Center for Technology and Business to develop instructional models and materials. Remote sites were established at a library in Rolla, a car wash/computer store in Fessenden, and a job development center in Rugby. Additional program sites will be established in Year Two.

The project is heavy on outreach and service, Miller notes, but there is strong value placed on research to understand the issues that make citizens interested in or reluctant to use this technology. As the GRO effort increases in scope, Professors Tim O’Keefe and Fred Shirazi of the Department of Information Systems are collecting information from the study participants to provide potential answers.

“These data will provide both practical solutions as this initiative is rolled out nationwide,” O’Keefe said, “as well as important theoretical findings that will contribute to the literature of information systems.”

Experienced in dealing with the natural difficulties of convincing people of the value of change, Miller is enthusiastic about the future of E-Government and in the University’s role in advancing it.

“UND is uniquely positioned to set the standards of content, convenience, and security for electronically delivered government services to rural citizens,” he said. “And I’m excited to be in a position to have a positive impact on the lives of rural residents.”

Capital campaign aims to enhance business programs, facilities

Well into his college’s first-ever capital fundraising campaign, Dean Dennis Elbert of the College of Business and Public Administration is constantly on the road pitching his illustrious alumni for cold, hard cash. If not that, deferred gifts also are much appreciated, he says with a smile.

It was just one year ago that the University of North Dakota, in partnership with its affiliated UND Foundation, kicked off a four-year capital campaign for the College of Business and Public Administration. More than $11 million in cash and pledges has been raised.

Because of this success – and because the College is positioned to move immediately on an ambitious strategic plan – the Campaign Committee has doubled the dollar goal from $10 to $20 million and has intensified its search for gifts of historic magnitude.

The results of the campaign are bound to advance the College’s
research agenda, he said, but in a way that sometimes is not obvious to prospective donors who often initially focus on physical infrastructure or student scholarships (which is just fine with him, too, he says).

The secret for expanding the business college’s research record can be summed up, he says, in the words “faculty brain power.”

For the college to become involved in projects such as the GRO Initiative, it must retain its current faculty and recruit others with the expertise and the interest to do nationally competitive research. Many factors come into play, Elbert says, but being able to pay competitive salaries is fundamental.

Thus the Campaign is placing high priority on establishing faculty endowments in the form of “chairs” or professorships to reward excellence in teaching and research and to ensure that the College has faculty with the credentials and experience that are fundamental to everything it does, including research.