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echnologies on campus can be huge innovations, and more so can serve as a means of uniting the institution and students. For Tim Arnold, a student at the University of Central Florida, technology served as a necessity during his role as an orientation team leader. As he guid- ed new students through the process of registering for new classes, Tim realized that UCF’s scheduling process often lead to conflicts. “Some students would have other responsibilities, full time jobs or families, and their entire year could be changed based on that class schedule,” Arnold says. “We were only allowed to tell them that they should keep checking back for class openings through the system, and I thought, ‘there has to be a better way to do this.’” And so, U Could Finish (appropriately abbreviated as UCF) was born. Trough U Could Finish, UCF students were sent a text when seats in their desired class became available. “In just six days, U Could Finish helped over 500 students search for classes. On the seventh day, we were blocked,” the U Could Finish site tells current visitors about the June 8th happenings.


So, what happened? U Could Finish was intentionally blocked from UCF servers, as Arnold found out a week later. “I was extremely disappointed that they were trying to prevent this without offering another solution,” adds Arnold. UCF reasoned that the high number of hits to the website could be disruptive to their own server, and placed Arnold on three se- mesters of academic probation, among other smaller penalties. MyUCF, UCF’s registration site, actually has the capabilities to function in the way that U Could Finish does – and in the spring, will go live, while U Could Finish remains on permanent hiatus. Arnold had previously created


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Spotlight: TIM ARNOLD


Student Innovation, Loses Revenues


Technology Transfer Gone Wrong: School Stifles


and they embraced it and adopted the system. Tat works for them. It’s all about the mindset of the institution. University of Miami is much more embracing of technology. Tere should be a happy medium in between that where schools should be excited and accepting of technological advances. If there’s passion on one side, it’s not going to work; the passion has to be shared,” Arnold asserts. Of course, the experience hasn’t been solely negative for Arnold. Te publicity has brought about a much-needed discussion of the role that students should play on campus with regards to technology. And Arnold, who is currently partic- ipating in UCF’s business incubator, is working on the science of remem- bering as it applies to homework in a startup called Learn Everywhere. “All of this has given me a good technical background,” Arnold maintains.


TiMkArnOlD@gMAil.COM


a similar application that was free of charge and alerted students to garage capacities. Administration claimed that students wouldn’t find it useful, while student polls proved otherwise. Because of this previous experience, Arnold went ahead without the administration’s blessing, though he maintains that he would have been willing to work with UCF in building a better registration system together.


“A student from University of Miami reached out to me and wrote a letter to our campus. He said he created something for University of Miami,


SEPT/OCT 2012 • TODAYSCAMPUS.COM


“Tey really lost an opportunity not only to make things better, but it’s a bad look for the university. It’s bad business. Prospective students see an institution that not only is not supporting new innovation, but prosecutes those who try.” Arnold’s experience brings to light the im- portant role that technology plays on campuses – and moreso, the roles that both students and administration alike must play to bring these advanc- es to fruition. “If institutions don’t move forward, they’re going to be left behind,” Arnold adds. “Use those resources to create a better experience for everyone.”


Other college startups: Google (Stan- ford University), Time magazine (Yale University), reddit.com (University of Virginia), Napster (Northeastern University), FedEx (Yale University), Microsoft (Harvard University), Dell Inc. (University of Texas), Facebook (Harvard University)


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