The California Educational Technology Initiative (CETI) for California State Universities proposes a ten-year, four-billion-dollar revenue partnership with a private consortium to finance educational technology. Due to the great increase in college enrollment and decreased state funding for higher education, some believe that online courses would be a cost-effective means of meeting instructional demand. However, the elimination of traditional expenses would give rise to new technological infrastructure expenses. Online courses may result in the downsizing of higher education by cutting down the number of full-time faculty and using more part-time instructors and technical support. Standards of accreditation for "cybercourses" may become relaxed and ultimately devalue the university degree. Legal issues of intellectual property rights may arise. Technology does offer opportunities for new levels of communication in higher education, but it also threatens to commercialize academic discourse and isolate students and faculty in cyberspace. Despite inconclusive research on the actual effects of technology on education, state and federal legislatures have increased technological funding in all levels of education. (YKH)