IT Senate Annual Report

Transcription

1 IT Senate Annual Report

2 IT Senate Annual Report Introduction After a year of infancy ( ) and a year of adolescence ( ), IT Senate matured into a more confident and competent governing body in its third year of existence. This report highlights significant areas of growth and activity for : Charge and scope. While not formalized in writing, IT Senate settled into a less ambitious but more productive set of activities in its third year. Removing responsibility for strategic and operational planning and assessment from the group s purview allowed the group to be more agile and engaged in technology discussions vital to the University. Issues and representation. Addressing the long-standing challenge of Banner governance and an emerging issue of data governance resulted in expanded representation on IT Senate as well as creation, decommissioning and rethinking of committees and their charges. Engagement and communication. IT Senate made strides in gaining recognition as a viable, effective governing organization through communication, networking and cross-pollination with other governing bodies, committees and communities of practice. Charge and scope IT Senate was formed in 2012 as a product of a campus-wide IT strategic planning effort. At that time, the proposed purpose of IT Senate was... to provide a forum for IT Senate Annual Report

3 initiation, evaluation, prioritization, and implementation oversight of strategic IT initiatives and the associated proposed IT strategic planning funds. In essence, the ad hoc strategic planning group formed by interim CIO Loey Knapp handed ownership of the strategic plan, creation of annual operating plans, and assessment of those plans to the fledgling IT Senate. A great deal of time and effort was spent on operational planning and assessment during the first two years. That focus and workload had a detrimental impact on the governing body, limiting the group s agility in responding to emerging issues and diminishing discussion about new ideas. While the official charge of IT Senate has not been formally changed, in practice the group evolved into a forum for dialogue and advice to the CIO and other campus leaders. By consensus, IT Senators agreed that ownership of an IT strategic plan was the purview of the CIO with the Senate s input. Leadership In the spring of 2014, IT Senators debated a new leadership model. Bylaws called for a chair and a chair-elect. CIOs Loey Knapp and Matt Riley had chaired IT Senate during its first two years. As Matt s term neared an end, some senators suggested the CIO should remain as permanent chair. In the end, a hybrid model was adopted with the CIO serving as permanent co-chair along with an elected co-chair. Mark Pershouse, a professor in the College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences representing Faculty Senate, was elected co-chair for Mark ensured that IT Senate meeting agenda s included issues vital to academics and faculty. He instituted the practice of bringing in outside speakers and led discussions at a level that allowed non-technical members to participate comfortably. IT Senate Annual Report

4 Issues and representation Banner IT Senate made it a priority to become more engaged in Banner governance in Banner is the suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications from Ellucian. The complex software system is used at UM to manage academic, human resources and financial records. Dozens of other applications and services used across campus depend on Banner for data. IT Senate invited Associate Vice President for Administration and Finance Rosi Keller to its October meeting to learn more about the history of Banner governance and update the group on the search for a Banner Integrated Systems Officer. That position, which reports to Rosi, had been upgraded from a position called Banner Coordinator after a failed search. Rosi shared information about Mod Squad, an informal group of representatives from functional offices that sets priorities and timelines for Banner projects and upgrades. Rosi said she has never felt that there are clear institutional priorities for Banner and suggested that when the new position was hired, that person could serve on IT Senate. IT Senate acted on that suggestion, electing Karen Moore as a voting member of IT Senate in February She provides regular reports on issues before Mod Squad. There will be continued discussions about the relationship and respective responsibilities between Mod Squad and IT Senate. Data Governance In November, Associate Vice President Dawn Ressel from the Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis presented a proposed University data governance model. She explained that data governance is a set of processes that ensures that important data assets are formally managed throughout the enterprise, and that data entry meets precise standards. IT Senate Annual Report

5 Matt Riley suggested that it would be great to do these things in collaboration between OPBA and IT Senate. In December, IT Senate voted unanimously to add Dawn Ressel as a voting member of IT Senate. At the same meeting, IT Senate approved formation of a data governance committee co-chaired by Dawn Ressel and Registrar Joe Hickman. In April, Dawn provided an extensive report about the formation of the data governance committee and brought two issues before the IT Senate for discussion: 1) Is this a committee of all of the UM campuses or just UM-Missoula? She pointed out that if we change data processes on the Missoula campus, all of the affiliate campuses would be impacted. And if we do accomplish something that is affiliate-wide, how are they represented? Matt Riley said that in the long-term, data governance needed to be for all of the UM campuses and affiliates should be represented in the process, but in the short term it was ok for the Missoula campus to start the design process. 2) Should the committee report directly to the President s cabinet or to IT Senate? Senators who had been part of the group since the formation of IT Senate in 2012 suggested that the role of IT Senate was to serve as a place where all technology issues would be dealt with rather than having separate pipes from disjointed IT governance bodies feeding into the Cabinet. Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility UM legal counsel Lucy France and EITA coordinator Janet Sedgley visited IT Senate in October to provide an update on UM s resolution agreement with the Office of Civil Rights around electronic and information technology accessibility. Lucy explained that the resolution agreement does not go beyond what the law already requires. Matt Riley reported that accessibility is rising to the top of discussions at Educause, a higher education IT professional organization. He said that campuses that are behind on accessibility are going to be in trouble and campuses that are ahead are going to have opportunities. UM is ahead of most campuses in regard to accessibility, but there is not strong financial support for the effort. IT Senate Annual Report

6 Student representative Jonathon Knudson moved that IT Senate should send a strong message of support for adequate EITA funding to the Cabinet. The motion passed unanimously. Academic IT In March, IT Senate invited Associate Dean, College of Humanities and Sciences Jenny McNulty to present on the classroom of the future. Jenny said that a donor had approached the College of Humanities & Sciences about renovating Liberal Arts building classrooms. Two classrooms have been identified to renovate. Jenny is leading an effort to ask people about their vision of the classroom of the future. Robert Squires, Director of Instructional Design and Technical Support in SELL joined IT Senate in May to discuss MOOCs (massive open online courses) and the future of online learning at UM. The discussion centered on the threat MOOCs represent to traditional higher education models as well as opportunities they present for UM. There were calls for discussion of goals, providing incentives for faculty to develop and deliver online courses and providing institutional support in the form of a production studio to help faculty develop engaging course materials. Engagement and Communication IT Senate members recognized the need to expand communication and engagement with campus to increase awareness about its existence and role in IT governance. Here are a few of the channels of communication IT Senate utilizes: CIO Recommendations and actions by IT Senate flow to the President, the Cabinet and other campus administrators through CIO Matt Riley. Matt also provides a report at all IT Senate meetings of significant developments on campus and beyond that impact UM technology governance. IT Senate Annual Report

7 Tech Partners In October, IT Senate voted to make a representative from Tech Partners a voting member of the body. Antony Jo had been serving as an ex-officio member previously and now serves as a voting member. Antony reports activities of Tech Partners to the IT Senate at each meeting and reports activities of IT Senate at monthly Tech Partners meetings. In addition, co-chairs Matt Riley and Mark Pershouse, along with several other IT Senators, regularly attend Tech Partners meetings. Meeting summaries The IT Senate communications and collaboration committee instituted a practice of preparing a one-page summary of highlights from each meeting providing that to IT Senators to share with their constituents. Unconference While IT Senate was not directly responsible for convening the SUMMIT Technology Unconference in January, the group did promote the event and addressed strategic issues that emerged from the unconference throughout the spring. For example, Jenny McNulty s presentation about the classroom of the future was inspired by her session at the unconference. Tech Partners has also invited unconference session conveners to their meetings to give updates and continue dialogue in order to keep momentum going. Audience participation IT Senate welcomes anyone from campus to attend meetings. Typically, there are 5-10 non-members in attendance, and often people in the audience engage in discussion with the IT Senate. IT Senate Annual Report

8 IT Senators Jonathan Forrider Judy Fredenberg John Greer Mark Grimes Aaron Heiner Art Held Scott Holgate Antony Jo Jonathon Knudson Roger Maclean Jesse Neidigh Denise Nelson Cale Patenaude Mark Pershouse Eric Reimer Dawn Ressel Matt Riley Manu Samuela Jennifer Sauer Allen Szalda-Petree IT Senate Research Administration Academic Affairs IT Faculty Senate Intercollegiate Athletics UM Foundation, Alumni Office Information Technology Tech Partners ASUM Deans Student Affairs IT Staff Senate ASUM Faculty Senate Faculty Senate Office of Planning, Budget & Analysis Information Technology Administration & Finance Integrated Communications Faculty Senate Ex-officio non-voting members Claudia Denker-Eccles Adrian Irish Joe Hickman Bob Hlynosky Gordy Pace Barb Seekins Legal Counsel IT Security Registrar s Office Business Services IT Communications ADA Team IT Senate Annual Report