Tag Archives: Reorganization

Welcome our New CIO – Henry May

It feels like IT at SCSU has been planning and reorganizing for years. We’ve spent time on a SCSU Technology Plan, then we implemented the interim ITS realignment as a part of the lengthy ASAOPSA process, which was followed by an expanded process led by Kaludis Consulting on beginning the search for a new CIO. And finally we’ll have our new CIO tomorrow! What this will mean for Information Technology Services in the short run is unclear. But, in the long-term I think that SCSU can better communication and collaboration between ITS and the broader SCSU/MNSCU community. As a department we’ve tried hard to reach out, but it’s been difficult with our resources stretched thin. I hope that SCSU’s addition of an experienced CIO in with a fresh perspective and new ideas is as exciting for the campus as is it is for us in the technology trenches.

During the interview process I notes several items that I thought made Henry May a great fit for SCSU. Here are a few of my takeaways.

  1. There was a commitment to training and the value of having a technical staff that keeps abreast of the latest advances in information technology.
  2. A strong commitment to assuring that new initiatives and projects brought true business value to the university.
  3. Henry has worked for Gartner and continues to find value in Gartner’s industry analysis offerings.
  4. In order to help leaders understand the value and constraints of new devices, Henry purchased iPads and gave them to his senior leadership to explore.
  5. A commitment to establishing governance processes to facilitate knowledge transfer, decision making, and communication.
  6. A belief in empowering employees.
  7. A record of mentorship to his staff.
  8. An understanding that a CIO needs to go out and build relationships.

2013 should be an exciting year for ITS, and hopefully for SCSU and MNSCU as well. I am excited to welcome Henry as our new CIO and I look forward to building an even better service for our students.

Education Technology Transformation

I believe that we can learn a lot from other academic institutions. One of the institutions that I like to check in on is Cornell University. Cornell is going through an Information Technology re-envisioning process and it reminds me a lot of the journey we are on at St. Cloud State University. If you are interested in getting involved in the future of IT as SCSU, I strongly encourage you to look at follow the conversation at Cornell’s IT Strategic Plan site. There are so many good things I could point out about Cornell’s site but I’ll try to focus in on a few.

This year during the Fall Convocation Provost Malhotra asked that we “re-imaging the student experience.” Cornell has put together a Student Experience Innovation Gallery that has a ton of great ideas. Does that spark any ideas for you on ways we can help re-imaging the student experience?

Next, as a part of their process to focus on the future of IT, they held an open daylong meeting and brought in some great keynote speakers: Shel Waggener and Diana Oblinger. Shel Waggener is a Senior Vice President of Internet2 and Diana Oblinger is the President and CEO of EDUCAUSE. (Nerd Alert) From an Education-IT perspective, that is a rock star lineup for an IT planning meeting! I encourage you to read the abstract of their presentations on the Cornell IT Strategic Future site. Or even better watch their full presentation via their streaming video site.

I want to highlight a few key points from their presentation that I think are particularly relevant to SCSU. The first point made by Shel Waggener is that the cloud is real, imminent, and unavoidable. It is like a stampede and Universities can either decide to get trampled or to get on our horse and help direct its future. I believe that this he is dead on in this assessment. Both SCSU and MNSCU are trying to do more with less and there is a new push to try to collaborate and share services. This is a great and noble endeavor, but I believe it’s 5 or more years too late. The cloud players are massive. Trying to go it our own just doesn’t make sense anymore. From an innovation perspective there is no way to keep up. From a financial perspective there is absolutely no way to keep up. I’ve heard many people concerned about outsourcing, losing their jobs, etc. Is see the situation from the opposite perspective. If we try to do it all and compete with services like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. we will lose. And we simply do not have enough people to help our faculty, staff, and students embrace the cloud services that will make them the most successful. Embracing these cloud services is the best way to keep a vibrant technology department that can deliver the results our community needs.

Next, Diana Oblinger shows us that technology and education at our local universities needs to change radically. There are so many innovative services available to our community. Our community will ultimately end up leveraging these services whether or not we embrace them. Diana offers many different ways to consider leveraging new technology services and trends. I think her presentation should inspire us all to reimagine what might be possible with technology and education in the future.

Kudos to Cornell University’s IT department for putting together so many great resources and offering outstanding communication to their community to build a better IT department. Let’s learn from their success!