First meetings

Monday, 8/27: Deans' meeting

• The deans brought up two major concerns. The colleges
• have invested in IT and don't want to lose their investment;
• are worried that the quality of service will go down.
  
  
• Those are legitimate concerns. My response is that we have to look at the services delivered rather than at the current structures that provide those services. We must define:
  
• what we want from IT,
  
• what we can afford, and
  
• how best to get as much of what we want as we can.

Tuesday, 8/28: PAC meeting

• I presented two handouts (which are posted at the bottom of this entry):
• A mind map showing the kinds of IT services offered at UWG.
  
• The layout of the map is intentionally not related to current or proposed organizational structures. It depicts what, not who or how.
  
• A list of our IT units, showing each unit that acts somewhat independently.
  
  
• The handouts illustrate that there is no simple mapping between our IT services and the units that provide them. This is in itself neither good or bad, but it definitely calls for examination.
  
  
• We talked abut how the IT units were set up in response to the perceived tactical needs of the day, without much strategic thinking about who should do what and how we would be accountable.
  
  
• We also talked about how the current structures make it difficult to make decisions, to balance competing interests, and to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the choices we do make.
  
  
• It is the success we've had over the last year and a half in addressing the more immediate issues exposed by the IT audit that lets us confront these organizational problems now.
  
  
• Dr. Sethna stressed that one early outcome of the reorganization must be a clear accounting of what we spend on IT.

---

The mind map:

---

IT Units:

Academic Affairs

• A&S Technical Support
• COE Educational Technology Services
• RCOB Technology Support
• Information Technology Services
• Learning Resources Center
• Information Security Officer
• Library Systems Services
• Newnan Center IT support

Business & Finance

• Business Information Technology Services

Student Services

• Student Information Services
• UWGGeek Squad

President’s Office

• University Technology Officer