Drupal has enjoyed widespread user-driven adoption in the education space, but what does it take to go from grassroots traction to a sustainable/standard option campus-wide? The central IT web team at Cornell has gone through the entire journey, starting with having to deal with Drupal as one of many technologies popping up organically all the way to promoting Drupal as a centrally-brokered platform for web development at the University.

In addition to being a historic Ivy League research university, Cornell is home to a vibrant Drupal community, hosting an annual camp that draws attendees from across campus, upstate New York, and surrounding areas including Canada. They work with a range of agencies and technology providers (including both Pantheon and Acquia) to deliver Drupal successfully for their stakeholders.

In this case study presentation, Shannon Osburn and Ryann Levo from Cornell’s Central IT Web group and Josh Koenig (co-founder, Pantheon) explore the unique challenges Drupal faces in higher education, as well as the opportunities to “do it right” by offering a complete Drupal Platform to campus.

Central IT’s role on campus: working with university departments and schools as customers
Presenting the Drupal opportunity to a university audience
Managing the demands of decentralized/federated control
Satisfying executive needs for security and oversight
Servicing the full range of website needs on campus (small to extra large)
Tracking Drupal utilization for billing and cost recovery
Walking the line with maintenance and support
Growing and nurturing the Drupal community on campus
Looking ahead to the next generation of Drupal adoption in higher education
This session will be of interest to anyone seeking to overcome friction and roadblocks to Drupal adoption in higher education, or in any large distributed organization (e.g. chapter-based non profits, large-scale corporate environments).