Connecting with the campus and beyond
 

IT Professional Development

From the CIO's Desk

Organizing to Deliver the Best Possible Services to the University
 
As you all are aware, the University has begun implementing cost reductions in the administrative areas of the University.  First steps include reductions in operating budgets, cabinet salary freezes, and elimination of some positions across the University.  These measures result in ITS giving up a total of 15 filled and vacant positions and accepting decreases in our non-personnel budget.
 
As part of my work with ITS leadership on planning for our cost reductions, we looked closely at ITS as an organization and have made some changes reflecting both cost reductions and my recent change in role.  What follows is an overview of ITS's new organization (a complete organization chart will be posted soon on the ITS web site).
 
Network Systems and Management (NSM) and Information Systems (IS) will be reorganized into the following units:  

• Networking, with Peter Morrissey as the director, will incorporate Network Design and Development and Network and Wiring Services.   Peter will also collaborate closely with Ron Kurdziel, director of Telecommunications;
• Systems, with Eric Sedore as the director, incorporates the UNIX and Windows system administrators as well as storage and virtualization; 
• Middleware, with Erik Anderson as the director, will incorporate the Enterprise Support Team (EST), the Data Base Administration (DBA) group, Identity Management, and the Data Warehouse group.  

Elsewhere in ITS:

• Chris Croad will be moving from managing the UNIX group to lead campus IT Security efforts.  He will report directly to me.
• Sam Scozzafava will be the director of Development with responsibility for the developers, application security, and job scheduling.
• Jenny Gluck will be the director of Academic Applications and Service Centers (AASC).
• Dave Tiedemann, Ron Kurdziel, June Szymanski and Andy Clark will continue in their current responsibilities.
   

This reorganization accomplishes several things: 

• It creates 8 operational units (LEMP, AASC, Networking, Telecommunications, Systems, Middleware, Development, and Security) each with well-defined missions;
• It groups like responsibilities together to strengthen working relationships with groups that have common technologies, customers, skills, and challenges;
• It creates a sustainable management structure with directors prepared to work strategically and tactically with their areas to ensure that we're delivering the best possible services for the University.  
   

Though we face tough economic times, we want to keep working together to maintain the momentum that has made SU a great university.  As a university we must continue to attract outstanding, talented students; recruit world-class faculty; and leverage opportunities for SU to engage the world, make a difference, and put Scholarship in Action.
 
In the same manner, we also want to keep working together as we continue to build ITS into an organization that delivers excellence, to actively contribute to our mutual success, and to advocate and create new and exciting ways to collaborate. 
 
I hope you share my anticipation of the challenges we'll face together.  Our future looks bright and you are essential to our success.  I look forward to your participation and partnership.  Please don't hesitate to contact me with any ideas, questions or issues you think need attention.