Strategic Plan for 2020

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Information Technology

• Strategic Plan for 2020
• Leverage technology to support the strategic
  future of the College

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Ten years ago at the College

• Preparing for Y2K
• No Internet2
• Data Center had 9 servers (230 today)
• Alpha admin system had 512MB memory and 9GB disk
  (now 57TB)
• 1,200 computers on campus, mostly on Windows 98
  (now 3,400)
• Residence Halls had no network students used
  modems on their phone lines
• Students used IVR to register for classes via
  phone
• 100,000/year revenue from student long distance
• NO SPAM (now 1.5M SPAM messages per day)

3
Technology cannot be forecast 10 years in advance

• Since then
• Google (10 years ago ALL Google hardware on a
  table)
• Text messaging
• MySpace, Facebook, Ning, Twitter
• Blogs, wikis, YouTube, iTunesU
• Blackberrys, iPhones, PDAs
• Wireless, wi-fi
• Internet 2, National Lambda Rail

4
Information Technology must be nimble, always
evolving

• Technology is very dynamic
• Competition with our peers requires innovation
• Technology preparedness must evolve in concert
  with new Strategic Plan

5
Information Technology Role

• IT exists to serve the academy and the
  supporting administrative units
• You are our clients
• We interpret your goals as providers of
  infrastructure, services, and support
• We help you fulfill your goals
• Goals we articulate here are formulated to
  address your goals

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Your goals become IT goals

• Leverage communications and connections
• Build personalized, collaborative relationships
  Charleston, regional, national, international
• Develop interdisciplinary programs
• Add new Masters and Doctoral programs
• Enhance research, promote student engagement in
  research
• Address International / Global opportunities
• Global interconnectedness
• Recruit top students and faculty
• Brand, promote distinctiveness excellence of
  the College
• Address and serve non-traditional students
• Explore distance learning

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Invest in IT

• IT underpins, directly or indirectly, virtually
  every goal and strategy you all have articulated
• Multiple investments must be made in the enabling
  technologies to fulfill diverse College goals
• Our solid and flexible infrastructure must grow
  to meet your goals
• IT helps keep the College competitive and
  compelling to all our parties at interest

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Goal Provide a uniform, ubiquitous and unifying
computing experience

• Uniform consistent, harmonized for students,
  faculty, staff
• Ubiquitous (present everywhere at once, or
  seeming to be)
• On and off campus
• Classrooms, research labs, dorms, homes
• Grice, Patriots Point, Dixie Plantation, Stono,
  North campus / Lowcountry Graduate Center
• Worldwide
• Unifying facilitate collaboration, teamwork,
  sharing, partnering
• Seamless
• Foster convergence of student learning and living
• At absolute minimum, match technology experience
  of the best students we recruit

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Reality

• Students in campus housing are served by external
  provider on separate network
• IT operates separate student and faculty/staff
  helpdesks
• Faculty/staff email much better than student
  email

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Reality, cont.

• Some campus buildings not adequately networked
• Wireless high density capability not available
  everywhere
• Access to campus network from off campus is
  barely supported limited licenses for Aventail
  encryption software
• Internet usage grows exponentially each year and
  will continue to do so

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Strategies

• Extend campus network to student housing
  (anticipating usage for entertainment, gaming,
  social networking)
• Blur the technology distinction between learning
  living spaces design for Residential College,
  playing fields, shuttle buses
• Merge to a single HelpDesk

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Strategies, cont.

• Bring entire campus up to new standards for
  wiring and cabling
• Equip every learning and living space with full
  service wireless
• Greatly expand internet, storage and server
  capacities
• Provide high definition TV service
• Provide greatly increased remote access to campus
  information resources for recruiters
  telecommuters faculty at home, attending
  conferences, on sabbatical, conducting remote
  research staff active off-hours students abroad

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Goal Support Learning Teaching Research

• Anticipate learning styles and technology
  expectations of arriving students
• Facilitate faculty adoption of technologies
  appropriate to pedagogy and learning objectives
• Provide support to enhance student/faculty
  interaction, individual experiences
• Offer new technologies to advance team teaching
  and collaboration across distances
• Facilitate interdisciplinary programs, joint
  appointments
• Partner with research projects to provide
  infrastructure and related services

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Reality

• Arriving students are wired differently short
  attention spans, multi-tasking, non-sequential
  (Webkinz!)
• Students bring PDAs, laptops, iPods, smart
  cellphones as their information appliances
• Faculty perceive students cellphones as
  distractions students use them as handheld
  information appliances
• We offer only a 2 hour technology orientation for
  new faculty
• Faculty seats in the May Faculty Technology
  Institute lost to budget reduction

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More Reality

• Challenging to image and support all computers
  with all software chosen or requested by faculty
  for classes
• Approximately 1/3 of College classrooms not
  smart
• Pronounced shift from printed to electronic
  publications will require changed support levels
• Learning takes place everywhere, not just
  classrooms
• Still relying on obsolete course management
  software
• IT support for research is generally weak
• IT promoted opportunity to acquire high
  performance computing resources from DoD, to no
  avail

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Strategies

• Continually learn about available technologies,
  competitors best practices, pedagogical
  innovation
• Expand the highly acclaimed Faculty Technology
  Institute (FTI) so that every faculty can
  participate every 5 years
• Create FTIs tailored to Schools, to
  videoconferencing, to distance learning, special
  topics
• Dramatically expand the existing Faculty
  Technology Center in Teaching, Learning
  Technology with equipment and library resources
  to be focal point for exploring
  technology-enriched learning and teaching

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More Strategies

• Invest in very flexible, easy-to-use databases
  and data warehouses and reporting tools to
  support individual experiences (and support
  more measurement and documentation of
  co-curricular activities)
• Acquire and implement a contemporary learning
  management system
• Encourage recognition of technology innovation in
  promotion tenure decisions
• Position IT early in research grant application
  cycle, assure technology support and concomitant
  initial and recurring funding
• Support research cluster computing initiatives
  via relationships with MUSC, Clemson, and SC
  Light Rail

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Goal (Help) implement new administrative
solutions

• Improve service delivery
• Administrative efficiency effectiveness

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Reality

• Still using vintage 1990 major administrative
  applications
• No central, high-integrity data base or data
  warehouse
• No technology orientation or training for new
  staff
• No staff to provide post-implementation
  systematic professional development for staff to
  leverage investments in BATTERY

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Strategies

• Fully implement the Banner ERP using holistic
  approach to improve business processes
  workflow, use electronic approvals, a
  comprehensive portal, and much more
• Exploit new capabilities to capture and report
  students varied educational experiences
• Collate available technology training resources
  into one unified, collaborative unit to offer
  professional development for staff and faculty
  too
• Elevate staff computing literacy

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Goal Build personalized, collaborative
relationships local, regional, national

• Foster engagement, interpersonal networking
• Develop constituent relationships
• Integrate the College with the societies it
  serves
• Expand reach of College to audiences without
  regard to proximity
• Link to Centers and Institutes, business
  industry, military

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Reality

• The BATTERY project is creating an institutional
  high-integrity data base of persons and
  constituents and affiliates
• College computer accounts largely constrained to
  students, faculty, staff not available to
  retirees, friends, alumni, donors, supporters,
  partners, collaborators, K-12, affiliates
• We do not have infrastructure to support
  constituent management

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Strategies

• Email (electronic affiliation) for life
• Enrich College web pages to be very dynamic and
  engaging (web development project)
• Introduce applications (e.g., Sharepoint) that
  facilitate teamwork and collaboration
• Provide ability for collaborators to create and
  share documents, work concurrently, track
  changes, use version control

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Goal Strengthen networked communications to
support

• Research
• Recruiting
• Community-based projects
• Partnerships
• Internships
• Civic engagement
• International opportunities
• Exchange programs

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Reality

• College is electronically relatively insular, but
  changing rapidly
• Lack middleware infrastructure with which to
  establish safe electronic relationships, allow
  mutual access to information resources, with
  trusted partners

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Strategies

• Network with City, local business industry
  military, Citadel, MUSC, Trident Tech
• Increase support for bridge programs to K-12,
  Trident Tech
• Complete the College web pages development
  project with Marketing Communications
• Leverage initial participation in South Carolina
  Light Rail
• Negotiate bi-lateral agreements with affiliated
  organizations to enable electronic exchange of
  information resources and access (federation)
• N.B. These efforts will be very staff-intensive

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Goal Support College international initiatives

• Recognize wide interest in globalization
• Provide IT support for
• Teaching to international locations
• Advising, other academic services
• Study abroad
• Students abroad taking campus classes
• Multi-lingual needs

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Reality

• We have a history of electronic attacks from
  several foreign countries have concern for some
  countries that have been named as opportunities
• No staff support in IT for international
  operations
• Network bandwidth inadequate for high quality
  electronic communications (videoconferencing,
  telepresence)
• IT on-site support available only during extended
  business day after hours by phone message and
  beeper
• No IT familiarity with idiosyncrasies of other
  countries electronic infrastructure, regulation,
  practicalities
• Current campus videoconferencing equipment
  horribly inadequate

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Strategies

• Provide 7 by 24 by 365 support
• Add staff for international operations
• Partner for foreign language support
• Establish world-class, shared, well-designed and
  equipped videoconferencing studios staffed by
  engineers and producers

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Goal Make Very Best Use of IT Resources

• Acquire (only) what we really need
• Use resources wisely
• Seek optimum mix of shared/dedicated,
  local/outsourced, IT/departmental solutions
• Seek enterprise solutions to disparate needs
• Do most / best we can within means of the
  institution
• Satisfy legal, regulatory, and industry
  compliance requirements
• Assure information privacy and security

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Reality

• No policy limits to storage of email, but now
  including images, soon videos email systems
  cannot handle the enormous growth
• No policy limits on storage of disk files, cannot
  keep pace with rapid growth of demand
• We still have vestigial dial-up modem access!!!

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Strategies

• Establish guidelines for acceptable use
• Manage allocation of resources
• Implement storage hierarchies
• Implement (very soon) requirement for strong
  passwords
• Provide storage services for collections of
  images and videos, streaming and archiving of
  live performances, e-portfolios
• Collaboratively update published list of
  supported products and services

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More strategies

• Partner across departments, eliminate
  duplication, apply enterprise strategies, create
  unifying solutions
• Outsource to the cloud for economies of scale
  and low energy costs, pay only for consumption
• Establish funding mechanisms for extraordinary
  needs
• Retire obsolete technologies to enable
  reinvestment of resources

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Goal Explore, select, deploy appropriate new
technologies

• Match new technologies to new opportunities
• Adopt new technologies timely
• Move earlier on adoption curve

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Reality

• College is a late follower in technology
• Funding is limited to clear and present
  imperatives
• Staff stretched to support what we have
• Lag in adapting to new students, their learning
  styles and the electronics they bring to campus
• Lag in serving new faculty who bring reasonable
  new expectations for technology
• Lag in supporting faculty eagles
• Need solutions for cluster and high-performance
  computing, PDA support, Voice over IP, NAC,
  massive image collections, digital film,
  federation, dealing with vast amounts of
  information

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Strategies

• Become an early adopter of technology
• Invest new funding and new staff in exploration
  of new technologies
• Create a small RD lab within IT
• Pilot promising technologies with interested
  faculty staff
• Selectively deploy
• Publish success stories

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IT Goals Recap

• Provide a uniform, ubiquitous and unifying
  computing experience
• Support learning teaching research
• (Help) implement new administrative solutions
• Build personalized, collaborative relationships
  local, regional, national
• Strengthen networked communications
• Support College international initiatives
• Make Very Best Use of IT resources
• Explore, select, deploy appropriate new
  technologies

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IT Resource situation

• IT has been capped by longstanding
  under-investment
• Technology refresh funds far below adequate
  replacement level for personal computers,
  network, servers

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Cont.

• IT budget is 2 of total operating budget should
  be in 3-5 range
• Survey of 1,012 colleges and universities 5.6
  !!!
• This FY IT lost 225K
• We also lost 15 vacant positions
• And IT now provides tech support to departments
  that have lost theirs so

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Capstone Request

• Replenish these losses to our ability to support
  you
• Invest in information technologies,
  infrastructure, services support commensurate
  with what will be required to accomplish the
  College Strategic Plan

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Endnotes

• Lets think from the demand side as well as the
  supply side
• We under spend for IT, for recruiting, for
  faculty salaries, What do we over spend
  on????We make Lake Woebegone possible!
• What are we going to STOP doing so that we will
  have the resources to execute our strategic plan?

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Background

• IT formed as Division in Spring 2006
• Consolidate previously separate service units
• Establish coherent IT services and support
• Elevate level of attention to IT
• We are a SUPPORT and SERVICE organization

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IT Departments

• Teaching, Learning Technology
• IT Support
• Student Support
• HelpDesk
• Classroom Support
• Telephone Services
• Web Strategies
• Information Services
• Programming
• Network Engineering
• Systems and Infrastructure, Data Center
• Finance Planning

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Mission of the IT Division (What we do)

• Partner with every department to help them use
  technology to gain competitive edge
• Select, implement, support and retire information
  technology tools and infrastructure and services
• Support learning, teaching, research, public
  service, and the operations of the College
• Provide the means to help create, communicate,
  present, manage, and secure information
• Encourage the appropriate use of information
  technology to improve the educational experience
• Our role is to be the experts in IT, leaders in
  its deployment, and coaches in its best use

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Vision (Where we are going)

• We will lead in optimizing the use of IT
  resources through high-quality, affordable, and
  responsive services.
• Collaboration with our clients and partners will
  foster outcomes that advance their programmatic
  objectives

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Values We provide excellent service through

• Professionalism We maintain high standards of
  competence, performance, and behaviors in our
  work
• Integrity/Ethics We commit to mutual respect,
  fairness and honesty
• Trust We will deliver on our commitments and
  expect that others will also
• Communication We engage in open, two-way
  information sharing
• Collaboration We seek ways to work together with
  our colleagues and customers to focus on
  opportunities and find solutions
• Quality We take pride in delivering excellent,
  reliable and sustainable services

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Thanks Discussion