University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 29, May 1

             Susan J. Foster elected to chair CAUSE board
     
     Susan J. Foster, vice president for Information
Technologies, was recently elected to chair the board of
directors of CAUSE, a prestigious professional service
organization with 1,370 member institutions of higher
learning and 30 corporate members.
     Established 25 years ago as the College and University
System Exchange, CAUSE has evolved to promote information
sharing, professional development and organizational change
among technology managers, university administrators and
librarians.
     Foster represents CAUSE on the Steering Committee of
the action-oriented Coalition for Networked Information
(CNI), an alliance of CAUSE, Educom and the Association for
Research Libraries (ARL), which is dedicated to technology
research and decision making. In that role, she will address
issues such as licensure and copyright of electronic
information and strategies for effectively publishing
scholarly information through electronic resources.
     Foster said she hopes her efforts in these areas will
directly benefit UD students, faculty and staff.
     "Electronic publishing and efficient access to timely
scholarly and administrative information are issues of
increasing concern in higher education," she said. "I hope
to focus CAUSE services on these issues and needed
transformation of support structures."
     In a letter to UD President David P. Roselle, past
CAUSE chairperson Polley Ann McClure said Foster "has been
influential in helping to move the association to a position
of prominence in the management of information resources in
higher education."
     Moreover, McClure said, Foster "has been a constant
source of creativity in shaping the opportunities that CAUSE
provides for information, communication and professional
development of the managers of information technology in
colleges and universities."
     Foster was one of only seven recipients nationwide-and
the only recipient in higher education-to receive the 1995
Award for Achievement in Management of Information
Technology from American Management Systems and the Carnegie
Mellon University Graduate School of Industrial
Administration. She was honored for directing the
development of a unified information system encompassing
administrative, academic and telecommunications services,
and for creating UD's campuswide network supporting voice,
data and video for teaching and administrative functions.
     That network was recognized nationally by CAUSE in 1994
as a model for other institutions of higher education.
     The CAUSE award cited UD's effective use of the
campuswide network to enhance learning, research,
administrative operations and community service.