Senators will be asked at their Dec. 9 meeting to vote on a resolution supporting the 2013 Information Technology Strategic Plan.
John Hart, the chair of the senate’s Information Technology Committee, said the resolution doesn’t contain funding goals and is designed to show that faculty members are supportive of the plan.
Members of the Senate Executive Committee voted unanimously at their Dec. 2 meeting to place the resolution on the senate agenda.
The plan was developed over the summer by several faculty-led committees within the IT governance structure and will serve as a blueprint for planning the technology needs necessary to complete the goals of the recently adopted campus Strategic Plan.
The IT plan focuses on five areas of development: teaching and learning; research; administration; security and privacy; and U. of I. Extension and outreach.
Paul Hixson, the chief information officer, provided an overview of the process that led to the IT plan at the Nov. 11 SEC meeting. He also provided specific recommendations and cost estimates developed by IT leaders based on the precepts in the IT plan.
Hixson said the proliferation of wireless technology has left the university woefully behind in adding technology infrastructure and that overall, the campus technology budget is underfunded compared to peer institutions and others in the education sector.
“I see that we’re at a relatively strategic point where a decision will have to be made,” he told senators. “Our ability to maintain excellence could be threatened.”
The CIO’s office is recommending that the campus increase its technology budget by at least $7 million and doing so should be considered a “mission-critical” objective.
“What we haven’t done a very good job of is the funding model to support these efforts,” he said.
“Somehow we have to find the money,” said Ilesanmi Adesida, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, at the Dec. 2 meeting. “It’s something we have to do.”
SEC Chair Roy Campbell, a professor of computer science, said during Hixson’s original presentation in November that the time is ripe to discuss technological impact on campus, considering so much work is being done to improve and enhance university structures through the three-year campus Strategic Plan.
“We have to ask, ‘Just where do we want the university to be?’ ” he said.
