Round 4
Dec 2000
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Office of the Provost
Compact Plan
Part One: Introduction
Executive summary
NC State's Information Technology Division (ITD) is facing intense competition for staff in commodity system services and technical support services for students and faculty. The crisis for ITD goes beyond the generally recognized "support crisis" in high education. In the past year (9-1999 to 9-2000), 19 out of approximately 80 staff members have left ITD. If more staff is not provided soon for our Systems and Computing Services units, there will be a further exodus of experienced, dedicated, talented and severely overworked staff. As on-the-job stress and overwork mount, the quality of the work environment degrades, and the quality-of-life incentives for staff to stay working in an academic setting fade. We begin to look more like industry, and industry can offer more, much more, money. As experienced staff leave, taking with them their specialized knowledge of university systems, more pressure and workload is put on existing and newly hired staff, who in turn feel pressured to leave. This trend threatens a downward spiral that could potentially undermine the quality of information technology services the university has come to depend upon for its day-to-day functioning and its ability to advance its academic goals.
ITD submitted twelve initiatives as part of the Compact Plan process. Two of these initiatives, #2 Hire ADA IT Coordinator for Assistive Technology, and #3 Merge Telecommunications and ITD's Networking Group, have already been accomplished over the course of the year. Thanks to external funding and energetic staff, great strides have been made with initiative #6 Build Learning Technology Services into Effective Campus Service Organization. Other initiatives are in progress as existing resources have allowed.
As a result of the Compact Plan process, new funds have been committed in support of two initiatives, #7 Create and Implement a New Support/Helpdesk Services model and # 9 Provide Commodity/Production Database Services to University Clients. $100,000 has been committed to each of these projects for the 2000-2001year, with an additional $100,000 proposed for each over the following two years. ITD is of course aware of the constraints on the University's and Provost's budgets. In the context of the larger picture, we are certainly glad for these additional funds. Nevertheless we are compelled to note that this is significantly less than was requested. Our requests were based on conservative but realistic assessments of what resources would be required to undertake new initiatives. We are concerned that expectations for deliverables have been raised that simply cannot be met with the resources, especially staff, we are provided.
ITD is endeavoring to bring in more money from external resources, yet these funds are most often available for new, innovative and somewhat glamorous projects. The need for additional resources to support the essential but mundane information technology needs of the university is generally perceived as an institutional responsibility. ITD remains committed to the Initiatives approved by the Provost and described in this round of our Compact Plan. We will advance them as resources allow. However, in order to meet many of these expectations while continuing to sustain existing systems and services , it will be necessary for us to request additional funds for staff.
An IT Vision for NC State
As a land grant institution and the University of North Carolina System's leader in science, technology, and engineering, NC State has a unique responsibility to its students and to the state to make it possible for all North Carolinians to benefit from an increasingly technological economy and global society. This is especially true of the university's development and use of information technology (IT). IT is now integral to advancement within all fields of learning and research, and all fields are contributing to the rapid evolution of information technologies. New interactive technologies are transforming teaching and learning and access to sophisticated education opportunities. Information technology has become strategic to the academic mission of NC State.
Many often conflicting forces of change are operating simultaneously on NC State and other institutions of higher learning:
· Increasing need for highly educated, technologically proficient citizens in all fields of study
· Increasing demand for more flexible access to educational opportunities
· Increasing need for life-long learning
· Increasing awareness that lecture model of teaching often fails to develop in students the knowledge base, higher-order thinking, and collaborative abilities needed to succeed in a post-industrial economy
· Increasing pressure to improve ranking among peer institutions
· Increasing competition from corporations entering education marketplace
· Increasing conflicts over copyright and intellectual property rights
· Increasing needs for funding, coupled with decrease in traditional sources of funding.
Many see information technologies (IT) as a means of meeting these challenges, and so there are additional factors further complicating the already confusing environment of opportunity and change:
· Increasing ubiquity of information technologies, with associated transformation of teaching, research and business practices of the university
· Increasing demand for equitable access to technological tools for faculty, staff and students
· Increasing demands for technical support and training for faculty and students
· Increasing demand for equitable rewards for faculty implementing new technologies in teaching.
NC State's leadership in the development and implementation of advanced technologies must continue to be vigorously pursued to advance the academic mission and economic survival of the institution. But a technology-for-technology's sake philosophy or the notion that technology itself can solve problems will not serve the University well. We must make technology decisions that are centered around providing the best possible learning experience for students. Faculty, the knowledge capital of the university, continue to be motivated by the desire to advance their disciplines, advance in their disciplines, and influence the future through their work with students. In the emerging technology- enhanced educational environment, faculty will need more substantial rewards, incentives and resources, however, or they will leave the university for more lucrative opportunities with corporate interests.
As an institution and in each discipline, part of our academic mission is to educate and guide our students beyond assuring that they know how to use information technologies in their professions. If we are wise, we can make choices and engage in activities that will empower our students to shape the evolution of information technology so that its potential benefits are realized-culturally, socially, as well as economically.
A Vision for the Information Technology Division (ITD)
ITD: An enabler of success
In the technology-centric world that has emerged in recent years, NC State depends upon information technology resources and expertise to perform its core missions and to achieve its aspirations of continued academic excellence and improved status among peer institutions. The Information Technology Division (ITD), has responsibility at all levels of the university's information technology environment - from data links and Internet services, to systems development, to training and helpdesk services. ITD services can be divided into three broad categories:
· Large-scale, commodity production services (such in e-mail and web services, network infrastructure). These services are basic utilities for the university and must be robust, reliable and scalable. The standard is e-commerce quality, and all NC State students, faculty and staff are potential consumers.
· Academic computing support services (such as technology user support, consulting, training, helpdesk; technology coordination and leadership). These services are key to the progress and success of the university's academic mission in the emerging technology-enhanced educational environment. Students and faculty are primary clients, and the goal is increasing excellence in teaching and learning with technology.
· Applied research, development and high-end production services (such as WolfWare, Linux/Realm and NT/Realm integration projects). ITD's role is to build new services which will benefit significant portions of the university community. Clients with high-end needs driven by research and education missions would need this level service initially, but such services soon become commodity expectations. At all levels and for all Compact Plan initiatives, the fundamental measure of ITD success must be that the services and resources provided are enablers, not inhibitors, of the current productivity and future development of NC State.
NC State has a complex IT environment, with a rich array of resources and notable achievements in the development and innovative use of technologies to improve teaching, learning, and services. However, there are various aspects of the campus IT environment (both technologically and organizationally) where optimal functioning is being hampered by old ways of thinking and old ways of doing business. As a campus-wide service organization under the Office of the Provost, ITD has an obligation to seek and promote more effective solutions to campus-wide problems, particularly those that affect academic programs and ambitions. The initiatives proposed below are part of this process. Some require additional funding sources, some will bring additional funding to the university, and others will require reorganization of existing service units to provide better service to the university as a whole. All will pass the test of better enabling the success of NC State by either providing commodity services for the current productivity of the university or by furthering the research and development endeavors of the university in the areas of IT and networking.
Improving large-scale commodity and technical support services
Working in partnership with colleges and other support units on campus, ITD needs to improve the commodity/production IT services provided to the university. ITD is proactively pursuing IT strategies that will reduce duplication of effort and increase IT capability and flexibility for the future. Toward this end, ITD is proposing several new initiatives and recommending necessary changes in organizational and networking structures. On the one hand, we need to unify artificially separated networks and support units (see Initiative 3). On the other hand, we need to support the diverse needs of all the curricula on campus by providing better tools, technical support, and training opportunities (see initiatives 6, 7, 8). We must also help the university assure that all students, including those with disabilities, have access to IT resources (see Initiative 2) and that all students who need to learn basic IT competencies can do so via time-enhanced learning opportunities (see Initiative 8).
Furthering applied research and development in computer networking and other information technologies
Computer networking is an identified area of academic thrust for NC State. ITD has historically made valuable contributions to research and development efforts: we are a leading participant and major contributor to regional, statewide, and national networking initiatives such as the North Carolina Networking Initiative (NCNI), the 2+2 distance education initiative, UCAID's Abilene and OBone high-bandwidth networking initiatives, and Internet 2. ITD staff's involvement with academic research and teaching on campus has enriched the experience of students and helped shape the evolution of the campus network infrastructure.
This research and development role of ITD needs to be formalized and pursued more vigorously (see initiatives 3, 4, 5). This must be done in such a way as to enhance and increase the available IT options and resources on campus and improve the perception and reality of NC State as a leader and positive influence on the rapid global evolutions of information technologies.