IT to serve campus’ needs better

IT
to serve campus’ needs better
…………………………………………………………………

BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff

To promote Rice’s
technical expertise and focus its approach on the academic
mission of the university, a new organizational structure
for Information Technology (IT) Services went into effect
in early April.

Rice IT is in
the first phase of an on-going restructuring that allows
information technology to evolve in more strategic ways.

“The reorganization
allows for a logical concentration of services that respond
more effectively to the academic needs of Rice,” said
Chuck Henry, vice president and chief information officer.

“It also
allows for much stronger lines of management and accountability,
and it provides information technology with a more rigorous
means of internal assessment performance measures and setting
of standards,” he said.

Clients with
existing information technology projects should not notice
any change in service during the transition. In the coming
months, the university should notice “a more vigorous
and thoughtful response to campus needs and increased communication
with information technology,” Henry said. And through
the reorganization, IT Services should gain a better understanding
of research and teaching applications.

Five divisions
reflecting the university’s academic mission have been
created from the previous organization. The divisions, their
respective directors and a description are:

• Educational
Technology, William Deigaard — services that directly
support teaching and learning methods, such as student
computing, campus services, RiceInfo, classroom technology,
curriculum development;
• Enterprise Systems and Applications, Andrea Martin
— support for enterprise data architecture, database
and Web applications, knowledge management, strategic
systems such as the Student Information System, Fondren
Library and Facilities & Engineering, training;
• Networking and Telecommunications, Farrell Gerbode
— campus backbone, wiring, telecommunications, security
(intrusion detection, VPN), construction planning;
• Distributed Services/Academic Teams, Vicki Dean
— systems integration and divisional teams to support
faculty, staff and graduate students in the divisions;
• Internal Services and Support, David Tenney —
campus IT administration (Unix contracts, equipment inventories,
software license management), IT divisional support, including
human resource management and publications.

Also, additional
management positions will be created so that the lines of
communications and the lines of responsibility and accountability
are strengthened.
Information Technology Services will continually engage
in self-assessment and scrutiny of the success and problems
of the internal organization and how it responds to the
campus.

The Data Applications
Center (DACNet), a separate entity that reports to the chief
information officer, will continue to coordinate its activities
with IT, the library and other departments on campus.

Rather than have
“silos” of activity, in which projects are often
highly segregated, Henry thinks Rice can create an environment
that delivers more content, applications and tools to faculty,
staff and students by the information technology groups
working together.

“Rice is
small enough to try to pull all the IT projects together
as much as possible to create an enviably sophisticated
and robust digital environment,” he said.