Together they employ over 200 people. The consolidation has been made necessary, he says, by a marked increase in faculty, staff, and student access to the University's computer network, which is now used by nearly 100 percent of the BU community. The merger also mirrors a process under way at other U.S. colleges and universities. It's a necessary unification be-cause the technology is becoming so ubiquitous. It's reaching into everything, and the dividing line between administrative and academic computing is just not a natural one anymore.
Nobody looks at it that way anymore.
They just want the workstation, with access to every service and system. Such streamlining requires not only the integration of two different offices, Krugman says, but also a leader sensitive to the needs of a growing, demographically diverse client base. Then he can make those requirements clear to people like me, who perhaps have narrower perspectives and have to deal with the actual implementation issues. We're really very, very lucky. Porter's varied interests are evident even in the art he's chosen for his office.