# The 1993 EDUCOM Technology Study at Northeast Missouri State University

A 1993 EDUCOM consulting report warned that Northeast Missouri State’s academic mainframe was too small for heavy-use periods and became part of the campus technology debate documented in 1995.

2026-07-12


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A 1993 technology-planning report appears to have shaped how Northeast Missouri State University thought about computing in the mid-1990s.

The report itself has not yet been recovered in the current research.

What survives is a later University document that cites it and quotes one of its key findings.

## The report can be identified

A 1995 Northeast Missouri State University Student Senate report cites:

**EDUCOM Consulting Group, Report to Northeast Missouri State University on Information Technology Plans, February 1993.**

That citation establishes the report's existence, date and consulting organization.

It does not tell us everything the report contained.

## One conclusion survives directly

The 1995 Student Senate report quotes EDUCOM as concluding that the University's academic mainframe was too small to provide adequate service during heavy-use periods.

That is the strongest surviving statement about the 1993 report.

It gives us one clear problem the consultants identified:

**central computing capacity was not keeping up with demand.**

## The 1995 debate shows how the finding was used

Two years later, the Student Senate report argued for:

- replacing the central mainframe;
- increasing computing capacity and speed;
- adding full-time computing support;
- improving the student information system;
- expanding campus networking.

The report also described student dissatisfaction with terminal availability and interest in more microcomputers and broader Internet access.

EDUCOM's mainframe warning therefore appeared inside a larger campus conversation about modernization.

## Do not turn later recommendations into EDUCOM recommendations

This is the crucial evidence boundary.

The 1995 Student Senate report discusses many technology needs.

That does **not** prove the 1993 EDUCOM consultants recommended every one of them.

Without the original EDUCOM report, we should not attribute to it:

- specific hardware models;
- exact network architecture;
- cost estimates;
- staffing targets;
- implementation schedules;
- every later campus technology upgrade.

The later University report can show that EDUCOM influenced the discussion.

It cannot substitute for the missing original document.

## Why the missing report matters

Consulting reports often contain much more than one quoted conclusion:

- inventories;
- diagrams;
- cost comparisons;
- staffing analysis;
- technical alternatives;
- implementation priorities.

If the original 1993 report survives in University archives, it could explain why Northeast Missouri State's computing environment changed the way it did during the next several years.

## Where it may survive

The most promising places are:

- Truman University Archives;
- presidential and administrative records;
- Information Technology or Computing Center files;
- campus master-planning records;
- 1993 Northeast Today and Index coverage.

Until that material is found, the honest article has to stop where the surviving evidence stops.

## What we can say confidently

By 1993, Northeast Missouri State University had hired an outside technology consulting group to evaluate its information-technology plans.

By 1995, a University Student Senate report was still citing that work and using its mainframe-capacity finding to support further modernization.

That means the EDUCOM study mattered.

It does not yet mean we know everything it said.

For the student-facing computer environment around the same period, see [Kirksville Computer Labs in 1991](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/kirksville-computer-labs-1991-northeast-missouri-state).

Sometimes the most historically useful document is the one you can prove existed but still have to hunt down.

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Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/1993-educom-technology-study-northeast-missouri-state/

Language: en-us

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Published: 2026-07-12T20:06:21+00:00

Description: What can actually be recovered about the 1993 EDUCOM technology study at Northeast Missouri State University, and what remains missing.