Campus IT Review

The Campus IT Review Final Report is now available for public comment.

Overview

At President David Skorton’s request, Executive Vice President and Provost Michael Hogan and Senior Vice President and Treasurer Douglas True commissioned a review of all Information Technology (IT) across campus. A Campus IT Review Committee, chaired by Steve Fleagle, the University's Chief Information Officer, was charged with completing the review. The committee received formal input from two other groups, the University charter committee for IT (ITAC) and the IT Review Advisory Committee, an ad hoc group formed especially for this review and composed of representatives appointed by Deans and adminstrators of key units. A Campus IT Review Final Report was completed on April 3, 2006.

Scope of the Review

The scope of the review included IT activities in each of the University's colleges and administrative units, as well as those of the primary central IT providers — Information Technology Services (ITS) and Health Care Information Systems (HCIS). The Committee excluded review of UI Health Care clinical IT systems. These systems were recently reviewed by HCIS and decisions were already in place to address identified needs.

Objectives

The IT Review Committee agreed to the following primary review objectives:

Promote open discussion on campus about the roles of IT in the teaching, research, and service mission of the University
Provide a snapshot of IT on our campus, including organization and structure, services provided, and resources dedicated to IT, and make comparisons to our peers
Identify those aspects of IT that are performing well, and those that could be improved
Consider future opportunities and challenges for IT

Process

Hundreds of faculty, staff, and students provided input to the review by participating in numerous events including; individual and group interviews, focus groups, and open forums. Numerous individuals also participate din the committees that were formed to conduct the review. Working drafts of the report were shared publically as they were completed. Comments and concerns were solicited broadly, including methods for both anonymous and self-identified input via this webite. The result was an open and transparent review that produced results based on broad input from the campus.

Subcommittees

Several subcommittees were formed to address specific aspects of the review. They included:

A Data Gathering subcommittee that collected data about the personnel and financial resources dedicated to IT on campus, as well as information about what services are provided and how they are provided by the various IT providers in the colleges, units and central IT organizations.
An IT Security subcommittee that examined all aspects of IT security on campus.
A subcommittee that investigated IT in support of Research, Scholarship and Creative Works.
A subcommittee that investigated IT in Support of Teaching and Learning.
A subcommittee that examined the Balance between Locally and Centrally Provided IT Services.
A Benchmarking subcommittee that gathered information and made comparisons to our peers.

Subcommittee reports and other background review materials can be found in the Review Materials section of this site.

Timeframe

The broad phases of the review were:

Data and Information Collection: October, 2005 through February, 2006
Analysis and Development of Key Points for Final Report: February, 2006
Share Progress and Key Points to the Campus for Feedback: February, 2006
First Public Draft of Report Released: March 21, 2006
Final Comments Received from All: March 29, 2006
Final Report to be Submitted: April 3, 2006

Chief Information Officer at The University of Iowa