Second ITS Faculty Summit Explores Faculty Research
March 20, 2008
The second Information Technology Services (ITS) Faculty Summit was hosted by Brian Roberts, CIO and Vice President for Information Technology, on Wednesday, February 13, 2008. Twenty faculty members from across campus joined Roberts in an open discussion about faculty research here at the university. Topics ranged from wireless access for visiting colleagues to options for video conferencing for collaboration, to graduate student recruitment. Roberts encouraged the assembled group to raise issues important to them as faculty members, whether the subject was technology-related or not.
Topics in Brief
A sampling of topics and the questions they raised includes:
- Timelines to submit grant applicants are being compressed. How can ITS improve the turnaround on its contracts for services and products to keep pace?
- Data security and privacy issues and requirements are constantly changing. What needs to be in place to help faculty do their research?
- Software licensing issues present roadblocks to collaboration, productivity and recruitment. Can a central site be created so faculty can coordinate licensing and capitalize on the economic advantages of large scale licensing purchases.
- The competition for outstanding graduate students is fierce. How can the university improve graduate student recruitment?
- Collaboration through video conferencing is vital, but the current setup is too cumbersome. Can we explore new video conferencing and collaboration software?
For a more detailed summary of the discussion, download the full report.
The ITS Faculty Summits were launched during the summer of 2007. These occasional meetings between Roberts and a changing group of representative faculty from across campus are an ongoing commitment to identify and, when possible, address issues, ideas and concerns identified by faculty as being important to them. Faculty are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas with Roberts or submit topics for future Summits.
