Ideas from a CIT brainstorming session:

CIT Directors' Meeting, March 18, 1997

  1. Consolidate similar functions and delivery of services that are now distributed such as management of file servers, computer lab management to save money, redeploy existing staff and money resources, eliminate duplications, red-tape and bureaucracy. Do what is good for the institution, not necessarily the individual unit. Assign authority for doing campuswide IT things to CIT.
  2. Direct more resources to training staff and faculty across the campus to meet the challenges of IT before IT is deployed. Supervisors, and staff and faculty must commit and make the investment in time to be trained.
  3. Set and implement standards for infrastructure and common, expected levels of service across campus, regardless of budget sources. This will lead to flexibility, better return on investment and being nimble. Must also set aside money and time to evaluate new things.
  4. Make IT more attractive to all. It has to be perceived as an effective, easy-to-use tool for the campus to do our jobs, i.e. teaching, research and service. Find cost-effective ways to fund, deploy, maintain and update IT resources (equipment, software and training) across the campus on a need basis.
  5. Use IT to change and characterize the institution, to help create a unique identity at and for UVM. Use the team approach, not the individual good.
  6. Consolidate and implement accountability for expenditure of all IT monies across the campus. We need to know what is out there, how it is being used and how it will be sustained, if at all.
  7. Use IT to leverage the way students learn, how faculty deliver instruction, how we serve our students. Leverage IT resources in departments and units across campus, and find new ways to share expert knowledge with all, regardless of funding source.
  8. Encourage every budget department/unit to have an IT plan that articulates with the UVM vision for IT. There must be one focal point for coordination, implementation, review and assessment.
  9. Make administrative processes and systems invisible while supporting the academy. Do not duplicate administrative processes in departments and units across campus. Make administrative systems work for us by changing the way our clients want to be served.

Edited by Norman Imamshah