Meet the IT Issues Panel

About the IT Issues Panel

The EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel includes individuals from EDUCAUSE member institutions to provide quick feedback to EDUCAUSE on current issues, problems, and proposals across higher education IT. Susan Grajek, EDUCAUSE Vice President, Partnerships, Communities and Research, coordinates the group's activities and reports. Panel members serve for one year with staggered terms.

Panel members are selected by EDUCAUSE to reflect the composition of its membership, and include CIOs, other senior IT and library leaders, and faculty. The group may occasionally include others with useful perspectives, such as leaders from other associations or non-IT higher education leaders. Membership is by invitation only; discussions are private except for the reports mentioned below, and individual members' contributions are kept confidential.

Panel Responsibilities and Process

Members of the Issues Panel have two principal responsibilities:

Once each quarter, the  EDUCAUSE Vice President, Partnerships, Communities and Research, convenes the Issues Panel for approximately two hours. In advance of each quarterly session, EDUCAUSE asks Issues Panel members to identify the issues they believe are most important in higher-education IT practice at that point, emergent or otherwise significant. During the meeting, Issues Panel members and participating EDUCAUSE leaders discuss the issues members have listed, and agree on which seem most important. The resulting list then becomes the basis for developing the yearly Top IT Issues list. Based on the quarterly discussions, EDUCAUSE may also commission papers or reports, organize online webinars, conduct case studies, undertake research, or solicit relevant sessions for EDUCAUSE conferences and events.

From time to time—no more frequently than monthly—EDUCAUSE asks Issues Panel members to respond to specific questions. Sometimes these questions are about topics that have arisen during events or in online discussions; the goal is a quick read on how widespread or important those topics are. Sometimes the questions are about actions EDUCAUSE might take or changes it might make to existing programs. Issues Panel members agree to respond to such questions quickly, generally within 48 hours.

Meet The IT Issues Panel