Dee Dee Kitterman had a dilemma. As a member of the interview panel for the Executive Director position at the Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, Kitterman received over 40 applications from interested individuals at businesses and universities all over the United States. “We were able to narrow the crowded field down to ten highly qualified candidates,” shared Kitterman, the Executive Director for Research and Outreach in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “But it became clear that we would need to speak to each of these people in depth to further refine our search.” However, the substantial cost and logistics of bringing so many candidates to campus proved daunting, particularly in this era of tight budgets.

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The panel looked for alternatives, and ultimately decided upon the videoconferencing services available on campus. In what may be a harbinger of things to come on campuses nationwide, Kitterman and the interview panel were able to use videoconferencing to complete the pre-screening process and realize a significant savings in both time and money.

From the videoconferencing room located in Olson Hall, the members of the interview panel “met” with each of the ten different candidates, whom were located at videoconferencing facilities in their own respective cities. “The videoconferencing staff was very helpful and made the whole process easy,” said Kitterman. “They quickly established an IP connection with the candidate’s location, and we were able to see and converse with the candidate in real time.”

Added to this convenience was the low cost. When taking into account the potential cost of airline tickets, hotel and other travel expenses for bringing ten individuals to campus, “the use of videoconferencing saved the campus a lot of money and kept the candidates from having to take time off from their current positions,” said Kitterman.

This time and financial savings also allowed the interview panel to conduct a more thorough search. “Because of videoconferencing, we were able to effectively pre-screen a much larger pool of candidates than would have been possible otherwise,” said Dr. Robert Powell, Chairperson of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

In addition to assisting the interviewing process, faculty and staff are using videoconferencing in many other ways. In the Department of Medicine, professors are using videoconferencing to link Davis students with virtual patients at the UC Davis Medical Center. Campus administrators also recently used videoconferencing to participate in a world-wide conference with 34 other universities.

Since Olson’s videoconferencing room can hold only twenty people at a time, the Videoconferencing Services group now offers faculty and staff the use of a portable rollaway videoconferencing unit known as the Polycom 4000. The unit includes a camera, two monitors, a VHS and DVD player, and a wireless microphone. Videoconferencing Services also provides a technician to assist with setting up the codec.

According to John Azevedo, Manager of Videoconferencing Services, there is no cost for faculty members interested in using videoconferencing in their teaching (e.g., “bringing in” a guest speaker). Use of the videoconferencing for instructional purposes in conjunction with a class is free, while videoconferences for other purposes are offered on a recharge basis. For more information visit the Videoconferencing Group Web site at http://cts.ucdavis.edu/services/vtc.html or contact them by phone (530-754-8885) or email vtc@ucdavis.edu.