ITS seeks input for future
Heather Lash, The Miami Student
Issue date: 10/31/03 Section: Campus
Information Technology Services (ITS) has been holding meetings with students, faculty and staff members over the past three weeks in an attempt to better understand what the Miami University community is looking for in the school's technological future.Reid Christenberry is the vice president of ITS, a new position that was formed in April of this year."He is spearheading the effort to develop a strategic plan that charts a course for ITS for the next five years," said Debra Allison, executive assistant to the vice president for ITS.Last year, the Collegis consulting firm came to campus to conduct a survey that provided information on what students and faculty were looking for in terms of technology."They provided a report and with it recommendations," Allison said. "Since then, we have been working to address the issues to make improvements on the Oxford, Hamilton and Middletown campuses."For ITS to develop its strategic plan, another consulting firm, Cornelius and Associates, has been contracted.Over the past three weeks, several group sessions have taken place, during which members of the Miami community have been able to express just what they wish to see change in the near and distant future in terms of technology on campus.Phase one of the program began with students, faculty and staff answering nine questions that allowed the consulting firm to see specifically what issues were high priority. "People got the questions ahead of time before they came," said Mary Zychowski, one of the members of the consulting firm. "This week, it's more focused. They're prioritizing what everybody else said." Phase two is taking place this week with a series of focus groups.Each group, made up of students, staff or faculty, is given a focus group prioritization worksheet with 20 issues on it. The groups are then asked to rank the issues from critical to future consideration."A lot of students are saying 'wireless, wireless, wireless,' and that they want to see more consistency across campus," Zychowski said.Junior Emily Garvey has noticed campus technology inconsistencies."Some of the classrooms have more technology than other ones," Garvey said. "Laws has a lot of new computers, but at the same time, you go to other places where the technology isn't as good. It makes doing things really difficult going to something that's really old from something that's newer."Questions on the worksheets include improved IT service and support, wireless access, Macintosh support and e-mail program improvement.Following the ranking, focus group attendees are asked four open-ended questions to ensure that all areas have been covered."This is just another in a series of steps the president and executives are taking to better technology at Miami," Allison said.
