Information Technology Governance & Advisory Groups
Governance
As the mission of IT is to provide service to the various campus constituencies, it is critical that mechanisms be in place to identify and prioritize campus needs, as well as to provide oversight. In addition to groups that focus on highly specific technology areas such as the portal and the Student Information System, and ad hoc groups and events such as the IT 2.0 Listening Tour, the IT Strategic Retreat, etc., we have striven to instantiate formal, over-arching IT governance from the three distinct perspectives that are typically recognized on university campuses. A brief description of governance from each of the three perspectives is presented below; please contact Richard Kogut, Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer for more detailed information about any of these.
Advisory groups
General User Computing
The Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) focuses on general issues that affect the entire campus community. These include the types, quantity, and quality of services including network connectivity, applications such as email, calendar, printing, file storage, desktop and mobile hardware and software standards and support, help desk, related IT processes, and more. The primary goals of ITAC are to identify issues and to provide guidance on how to best address them, and to serve as a sounding board for proposals from IT that would change or evolve services. The ITAC minimally includes one representative of each major Division (Academic Affairs, Administration, Student Affairs, University Relations), the Library, each School, the undergraduate student body and the graduate student body.
Administrative Computing
The Administrative Information Technology Council (AITC) focuses on the portfolio of administrative applications and the infrastructure that supports them. The core members of the AITC are the principal campus stakeholders of administrative IT applications and resources. The goal of the AITC is share information about initiatives and needs, so that decisions as to technology, prioritization, and funding can be informed by a campus-wide perspective. Issues that span multiple units, such as governance of data access, application integration, application middleware, and the data warehouse initiative, are typical agenda items.
Instructional and Research Computing
The Center for Research in Teaching Excellence (CRTE) crte.ucmerced.edu collaborates with the central IT organization to support and evolve the electronic instructional environment. From the faculty perspective, although a pre-campus opening committee, the Interim Planning Committee on Instructional Technology, informed a number of decisions about course management systems and classroom technology, no standing advisory body is currently in place. As of January 2009, the UC Merced Divisional Council of the Academic Senate has charged the Senate's Graduate and Research Council to undertake an analysis of the other Division's approaches to IT governance, as a precursor step to making a recommendation. We look forward to the establishment of a formal IT advisory structure for our most fundamental campus enterprise.