CAUSE's CIO Constituent Group: Sharing Experience and Expertise

Copyright 1996 CAUSE. From CAUSE/EFFECT Volume 19, Number 2, Summer 1996, pp. 8-9,53. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact Julia Rudy at CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA; 303-939-0308; e-mail: [email protected]

CAUSE's CIO Constituent Group:
Sharing Experience and Expertise

by Barbara Horgan

When the CAUSE constituent group for CIOs meets -- whether at the association's annual conference or online throughout the year -- the interaction is always stimulating. This article reports the results of discussions of this group that took place through an expanded meeting format at CAUSE95.

What do campus information resources leaders lose sleep over at night? What successes can they share with their peers? What are the greatest challenges in higher education information resources management? What is the role and future of the chief information officer (CIO)?¹ How do the changes in higher education affect information resources organizations, and can information technology provide solutions to higher education's dilemmas?

These questions and others formed the basis of a four-hour meeting of the CAUSE CIO constituent group at CAUSE95 in New Orleans last November. Discussions took place within both the full group and smaller "breakout" groups that addressed various topics, from specific technical solutions to management issues and philosophies. The debates, queries, and solution sharing that began at the meeting have continued throughout the year in an online CIO discussion group hosted by CAUSE.²

Greatest challenges

Participants in the CIO constituent group meeting in New Orleans agreed that their greatest challenge comes from having their dream come true: the dream that technology would be accepted by colleges and universities as a powerful tool for instruction, learning, research, and administrative operations. It is no longer necessary to sell the benefits of information technology; now the issue is how to keep up with demands and with the rapid pace of change. It is both an exciting and a difficult time.

One solution to managing change and rising expectations proposed at the meeting is the formation of internal and external partnerships for financing new technology, providing support for its use, and collaborating on projects. Partnerships today are more broadly conceived than in the past. They consist of new relationships within the institution, such as departmental liaisons; outsourcing relationships with corporate partners (for Internet access, for example); and collaborations with other institutions for distance learning and application development. Many of these partnership topics, initiated at the CIO meeting, have continued to be addressed in the online discussion in more detail.

Excitement about new technological developments -- such as the rapid adoption of the World Wide Web -- has been tempered by frustration over meeting escalating demands for support with limited resources. Strong leadership, from the chief executive officer and senior information technology officer to faculty, staff, and students, will have to meet these challenges with new ways of doing business and a greater focus on collaboration. Obstacles to effective leadership and management of change, however, were seen in the conservative fiscal and decision-making climate of the academy, where traditional budget cycles, lengthy purchasing processes, and cumbersome committee structures conflict with the speed of technological change.

The role of the CIO

Within the context of a rapidly changing environment, the role and future of the CIO is in flux as well. What the title means and whether the position will persist were both debated. All participants agreed, however, that the CIO must take the enterprise view and maintain an institutional focus rather than a narrower technology perspective. Managing the information resources strategy is different from managing the information technology infrastructure, although in practice many CIOs do both. Some emphasized that CIOs must be influential; that is, their advice must be sought, and they, in turn, must seek opportunities for strategic planning involvement.

Conversation about the CIO's future was less sanguine and reflects the pressure that many feel. While CIOs can come from any background, many are technology-literate former faculty. Where they move after the CIO position is unclear. Some mentioned the corporate sector; others reflected on the rapid turnover of CIOs and the failure to move upward in the institution. Finally, there was a brief discussion about the future of CIOs managing the library as part of the information resources infrastructure. Even if the library is not in the CIO's line organization, there is a converging boundary with information technology that needs attention.

Strategies that have been effective

Of all the topic discussion groups in New Orleans, the one that addressed effective strategies had the fewest number of participants. Our online discussions, in contrast, have focused a great deal on sharing strategies, in such areas as networking computer labs, effective planning approaches, World Wide Web policies, and setting standards. Perhaps most participants came to the New Orleans meeting ready to learn rather than to rehash the past; perhaps few felt they had unqualified successes to share. Whatever the reason, most of the strategies mentioned were financial ones: student technology fees, resale of long distance phone services to students, moving to a semiannual capital budget, and broad use of lease/purchase agreements.

Another general success described at the meeting was residence hall networking, which can generate revenue, keep students happy, reduce demand on labs, and provide better access to technology. Other effective strategies mentioned were selective outsourcing; using surveys to assess priorities; having former instructors as technology specialists, trainers, and consultants; and using an open systems interface to administrative data for wider, easier access. Key success factors for these strategies are careful politicking and well-planned implementation.

Management issues

Answers to the question of how to manage an information technology organization most effectively revolved mainly around planning, staff development, organizational structure, and leadership. While there has been quite a bit of online discussion about difficult legal, ethical, and policy issues, there was not much discussion in this area in New Orleans. Two specific recommendations for information technology planning that surfaced were developing and sharing a vision, and thinking of planning simply in terms of fast-track initiatives or projects that change. On the issue of whether to have campus advisory committees focused on information technology, partcipants were divided. Some suggested that surveys and focus groups were more effective than standing committees, while others had success paring the number of committees down to one high-level advisory group.

On the subject of staff development, ideas included budgeting seed money in training for new staff and then ensuring an ongoing training budget; investing in staff training in new technology and having orientations which assigned new staff to each major unit of the information technology organization (or to customer areas) for a period of time; and encouraging lateral moves within the department to provide good cross-training and career-development opportunities.

The leadership role in information technology is changing, most agreed, to one of facilitation, both within the information technology department and within and outside the institution. Consortia with other colleges and universities, cross-campus partnerships (such as network and multimedia training with the library) and innovative private-sector partnerships were seen as the direction for the future. The consensus was that neither CIOs nor institutions of higher education can succeed alone any more.

Rethinking information technology

Everyone is reorganizing, reengineering, reinventing. Higher education is faced with decreasing budgets, greater pressure for accountability and lower tuition, and demand for quality services and new ways of teaching and learning. Where does information technology fit into this picture? Are we suffering from the same problems, or are we the solution to the problems? Many ideas came out of discussion groups on this topic, although few were radical.

Some participants described dividing services into baseline (free) versus extended (fee-based or outsourced). Another distinction made was the need to rethink the terminology of academic and administrative computing and look instead at content, delivery, and support. Others saw community colleges as models of customer-focused institutions and examined what it meant to treat students, faculty, and staff as customers. Another suggestion was for institutions to invest in innovation, just as businesses support research and development; for example, universities could conduct research on pedagogy to foster adoption of technology in teaching and learning.

This is not the end ...

Although the CIO constituent group has been meeting for several years at the CAUSE annual conference, the format of a four-hour meeting with topical breakout sessions was new at CAUSE95. Participants agreed that it was successful enough to try again at CAUSE96 in San Francisco, with some suggested improvements: having each participant come with a list of questions to be answered, beginning the meeting with a panel discussion on controversial issues with recognized leaders/innovators in information technology, and focusing more on the big-picture issues (such as the future of transformation in higher education) and less on technical detail.

In the meantime, back on the CIO online discussion list, exchange of ideas has been frequent, detailed, and informative.³ Recent topics have included the pros and cons of specific commercial administrative systems solutions, the best ways to set up student computing labs, the potential effects of the telecommunications legislation, outsourcing information technology services, World Wide Web policies, technology fees, using Social Security numbers for ID numbers, staffing patterns in information technology services organizations, budgeting practices, methods of assessing technology services, and the effectiveness of strategic advisory councils for technology. With this level of online interest and energy, the 1996 face-to-face CIO meeting should be lively and productive.

Endnotes:

¹ The term "chief information officer" in higher education does not have a clear functional definition. For some, a CIO is a senior-level administrator who participates on the institution's executive council and who is responsible for institution-wide information resources management (including central computing and networking, the library, telecommunications, multimedia, printing, and so forth). For others, a CIO is a senior information technology officer who provides high-level oversight for information technology-related operations and who works in partnership with the college or university library head and advisory groups in planning for institution-wide investment in information resources -- technology, services, and information.

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²The list name is cio@cause. colorado.edu; to subscribe, send e-mail to mailserv@ cause.colorado.edu containing the one-line message: subscribe CIO. You will automatically be subscribed at the e-mail address from which you sent your message.

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³The CIO constituent group's online discussion is archived on the CAUSE World Wide Web server at: http://cause-www. colorado.edu/member-dir/cg/cio.html

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Barbara Horgan ([email protected]) is Associate Vice President for Information Services at Seattle University, where she is responsible for academic computing, user services, administrative systems, instructional media services, networking, and telecommunications.

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