by Joshua Green

Like many administrators, Edward Blakely doesn't need to be convinced of the Internet's importance to the future of his university. As the new dean of the Graduate School of Management and Public Policy at the New School University in New York, he seems primed to capitalize on it. Blakely's school was among the first to go on-line. Forbes magazine once ranked its on-line learning program as one of the 20 best in the country. The New School is situated in a major metropolitan area where its flexible class schedule caters to the busy professionals who make up the bulk of on-line students.

Blakely is encouraging his professors to put every class on-line. He is beefing up the school's distance learning program and trying hard to attract new students. He is struggling with phrases like "cheaper modalities," and at age 62, he is teaching his first on-line class. Yet despite all this, the New School's on-line market share is diminishing. Blakely is suddenly competing with schools from across the country and around the world, schools that wouldn't have registered on his radar five years ago. He is under increasing pressure to distinguish his program from the growing list of on-line competitors. "We're surprised at how quickly we've gotten big-name competition," he says. He is spending more on marketing than he'd prefer. But like most university administrators, he is afraid of being left out of a rapidly changing field. "There is going to be a displacement effect in on-line education," Blakely warns. "Those schools that aren't ready will be left behind."

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