Spring 2010 Newsletter
From the CIO…
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Rich Zera |
You know you’re too involved with technology today if...
- You try to enter your password on the microwave.
- You haven't played solitaire with a real deck of cards in years.
- You have a list of fifteen phone numbers to reach your family of three.
- You e-mail your son or daughter in his/her room to tell him that dinner is ready.
It is abundantly clear that technology at UMass Lowell not only touches the lives of most all faculty, staff and students, and that for many, the completion of their tasks is dependent on technology. Recognizing this, Information Technology takes its role very seriously, and has been working hard at developing a “shared vision” with our users as to where we should be heading.
The IT Policy and Planning Committee, comprised of over two dozen faculty, staff and students, has laid out a broad strategic vision as part of the UMass Lowell Strategic Planning 2020 effort. Concurrent with that vital planning process, IT has completed or is working on completing twenty three new initiatives that significantly improve the reliability of our infrastructure, provide important expanded services, and establishes some structural changes to move us forward on many fronts. With the emphasis for IT on support for our academic mission, many of the items were designed to ensure a robust and reliable set of infrastructure and service initiatives for our faculty and students. In addition to these initiatives, the shifting of Instructional Technology Support (formerly "Instructional Network", a.k.a. the "Mike Lucas group") organizationally to Information Technology has helped us fill a critical need in our support service architecture.
In this second edition of the IT Interface newsletter, there are important updates on these new initiatives that should be of interest to all users. Please make reading each edition of IT Interface a priority. So many exciting new initiatives will be coming to UMass Lowell, but you can’t take advantage of them if you don’t know about them.
It is also essential that we hear from you about what your concerns and hopes are for technology and technology support at the University. It is only by working together that we can build and realize a shared vision for the future of UMass Lowell.
Thanks for your support as we move forward!
Rich Zera