Posted on behalf of Interim President Don Kassing.
San José State University has operated for many years with a distributed model for governance and oversight of information technology (IT), with separate IT units in various divisions coordinating to deliver IT services to the university community. Responsibilities for managing IT throughout the university range in scope from centralized infrastructure units to divisional applications and services to departmental desktop support groups.
It has become apparent that to bring an enterprise-level perspective and approach to the governance and oversight of IT across the university, we need to revise and restructure some aspects of this current governance model. However, a complete overhaul of the university’s IT administration is not warranted, as many aspects of IT within our current model are working well. What is needed is an approach that enables successful innovative, integrated and collaborative IT oversight across the university, while retaining aspects that meet needs more locally at divisional, departmental and user levels. Towards that end, we are revising the university’s IT governance structure in three ways, which will accrue benefits from having a Chief Information Officer who serves as the university’s IT visionary and strategist, but also retain operational benefits of localized delivery at the unit level. The first two IT governance modifications involve the creation of multi-divisional bodies that are charged with responsibility for coordinating the university’s collaborative IT efforts. The third modification is the reassignment of the University Technology Services (UTS) unit, under the direction of the CIO, into the Academic Affairs Division where it can align more closely with the university’s mission of instruction, research, and student success.
Information Technology Governing Board
The IT Governing Board is the senior-most body, reporting to the President, and is responsible for long-term visioning, planning, prioritizing, and overall coordination of IT across the university. The IT Governing Board is advisory to the President of San José State University and is responsible for the overall guidance, integration, coordination, and prioritization of information technology activities in the university. The Board will work in collaboration with the President’s Cabinet, the Chief Information Officer, the Academic Senate, and other constituents throughout the university to develop long-term visions and strategic directions for information technology planning, prioritization, and utilization across the university.
The IT Governing Board is comprised of senior members of the university appointed by the President to represent key roles or responsibilities in different areas of the university. Members are functional or business unit leaders, not IT managers, and are expected to contribute to the Board’s oversight responsibilities through leadership and guidance from an enterprise-wide business process and functional need perspective; membership on the board may not be delegated.
Membership:
Chief of Staff, Office of the President (Chair)Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer
Chair or Vice-Chair of the Academic Senate
President or Vice President, Associated Students
Chair of the Institutional Data Management Council
Division Designees. Initial designated appointments are: - Academic Affairs: Vice Provost for Academic Administration and Personnel
- Administration & Finance: AVP for Finance and Administrative Technology
- Student Affairs: AVP for Enrollment Services
- University Advancement: AVP for Advancement Operations
- Athletics: Senior Associate Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer
Information Technology Management Council
The IT Management Council is the operational management body responsible for the development, implementation, maintenance, and on-going operations of the university’s many different IT-related projects and systems. The IT Management Council is a group of senior IT managers and staff from across the university, convened to work collaboratively in managing information technology throughout the institution. Utilizing an enterprise-wide perspective, the council is responsible for coordinating and directing activities that are required to manage and/or support university IT resources. These activities include developing, implementing, and maintaining IT systems (both centralized and distributed), as well as providing support and training for IT users across the entire range of university IT resources – from central administrative systems down to the desktop user level.
Membership:
Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer (Chair)
Information Security Officer, University Technology ServicesSenior Director for Academic Technology, Academic AffairsSenior Director for Administrative Systems, Administration and FinanceSenior Director of Information Technology, Student AffairsUniversity Advancement DesigneeInformation Technology Manager, University LibraryTwo Technical Support Staff
Reassignment of CIO/University Technology Services to Academic Affairs Division
Finally, the third key element of the university’s new IT governance model is the reassignment of the University Technology Services unit, currently a division headed by the Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, to the Academic Affairs Division under the oversight of the Provost. The former Vice President position will be retitled Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer and within Academic Affairs will continue to supervise the UTS organization and staff. The CIO position will report to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
The reassignment of UTS to Academic Affairs will help align the university’s central infrastructure services, such as campus networking, and enterprise-wide voice, data, and information security functions, with the instructional services currently provided by Academic Technology. These services include classroom technologies, campus audio/video distribution, student and faculty helpdesk, and web services. This alignment is expected to enhance development and delivery of innovative educational technologies, support for the university’s learning management tools, and services for faculty development in areas of technology related to teaching and learning.
IT units in the Administration & Finance and Student Affairs Divisions will remain intact, for the most part, in their current divisional structures and reporting relationships. Administration & Finance will continue to house the university’s enterprise administrative systems, which include the university’s Common Management System (CMS) implementations for Finance, Human Resources, and Student Administration applications through PeopleSoft. This unit also provides administrative applications programming support and database administration, security support, and CMS training and helpdesk support. Similarly, the Student Affairs IT unit will continue to support numerous student-oriented systems such as CSUMentor and NextSteps communications, which interface closely with CMS applications such as MySJSU and CMS-Student, and also internal operational systems, databases, and desktop users in units such as Health Services, Counseling and other Student Affairs groups.
In closing, moving the CIO and UTS into Academic Affairs will enable significantly closer alignment of the university’s IT vision, strategy, and planning with our core mission of instruction, research, and student success. Important IT functions such as learning management systems, classroom technologies, computing lab facilities, and student, faculty and staff support can be integrated and coordinated more effectively and more comprehensively as an institution. Moreover, new developments in the ever-changing technology landscape, such as mobile devices, wireless capabilities, social media, and cloud computing applications can be brought into the university’s learning environments more quickly and more effectively with closer ties between the core IT function and instructional activities.
The migration and integration of the UTS function into Academic Affairs will be planned and carried out gradually through the Spring 2011 semester, with the official organizational reassignment planned for July 1, 2011. During this transition period, Bill Nance, the President’s Chief of Staff and current Interim CIO, will continue to serve in his dual role and help coordinate the transition. Per university policy for academic administrators, the Academic Affairs Division will conduct a search during the Spring 2011 semester to appoint a permanent CIO for the unit.
