Supporting Housing & Residential Education from a Central IT Role Christopher Martinez Director, IT Student Affairs University of South Florida.

MANY HATSSupporting Housing & Residential Education from a Central IT Role

Christopher MartinezDirector, ITStudent AffairsUniversity of South Florida

WHY?

Trending in I.T. organizations. Universities moving to Central IT Model Student Affairs organizations may make

the move on their own. USF SA developed SASS-C: Student Affairs

Shared Services

Ga Tech - University Level UConn - Student Affairs Level

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

Tampa, Florida > 45,000 Students > 4,500 Residents 49 Residence Hall Buildings

HISTORY

June 1998 < 2500 Residents 12 Buildings

1998 – 2008 : Building Housing I.T. 100% Ethernet 100% Wireless Access 100% Card Access Entry Improved Cable Television 3 Resident Only Computer Labs ARROW Paperless Maintenance

HISTORY

Staff 1 Full-Time

Help Desk / Sys Admin 2 – 4 Student Resident Computer

Technicians 20 hours per week

10 – 15 Student Lab Employees

COLLEAGUES

Disparate Student Affairs IT Administration Counseling/Career Center Marshall Center (Student Union) Recreation Center

De-Centralized University IT Academic Computing - Separate Colleges Information Technology - Separate

Departments

CHANGE Fall 2007 System VP of Information Technology

Centralized all USF-Tampa IT Alignment along Services, not Functional Areas

April 2008 Create “Student Affairs Computing”

HOW DO WE BUILD THIS?

Understand what you have. Organization and Staff Levels

Who can handle which roles. Inventory – how big an undertaking will

this be? Funding, Financial Support Primary Services – what have you been

good at? User and IT Technical proficiencies

HOW DO WE BUILD THIS?

Challenges Haves vs. Have Nots

There cannot be a drop in Service Level Departments not used to “paying” want to see

benefits. Expectations

Individual Departments/Users Student Affairs University I.T.

HOW DO WE BUILD THIS?

Challenges (cont.) Staff

New Roles. Poor fits. Loss of autonomy

Reluctance of Department staff to follow new model.

Used to calling “their guy”. Centralized model seen as impersonal/inefficient.

Must be the outsider/insider. IT role will require use of the word “No”.

HOW DO WE BUILD THIS?

Understand Strategic Plans University Central I.T. Student Affairs

Anticipate Future IT Service and Technology Needs.

HOW DO WE BUILD THIS?

Align existing roles with Strategic Plans Don’t totally re-invent the wheel.

Strengthen the services that you are best at/that people want.

Create/change business processes through the Division

Manage Expectations… be aware of perceptions. Be clear with Staff

Staff must fully understand where the organization is meant to go.

Get Buy-In.

STUDENT AFFAIRS COMPUTING

OPPORTUNITIES Larger “Help Desk” Organization

Better support opportunities for Residents Some Items were “Applications”

Card Access, Cable TV More Computer Support than in past

Centralized Ordering/Inventory More efficient service to Residents with stream-

lined computer inventory Round-about achievement of earlier “single-vendor”

plan

More closely aligned with University IT goals Align University IT goals with Resident Needs Faculty-in-Residence support

THINGS WE LEARNED

Staffing Finding the right mix.

Replace Student RCTs with full-time Professionals Central , clearing-house/dispatch, triage in addition

to classic help desk roles Emphasis on decision-making, not rote actions.

Loss of server/system/network autonomy will affect staff differently.

Clear goals, clear idea of where the organization wants to be can get staff through the settling-in period.

THINGS WE LEARNED

Getting “Discovered”. More departments begin to take advantage

of new resources. Small departments take up large amount

of resources. Project Management

Implementation, transition and support of new software and services.

Semantics matter.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY – STUDENT AFFAIRS

Daily work for transitioned staff can be very different from what it was. Heavy Project Management Business Analysis Find Solutions to Department Needs

Student Affairs goals balanced with University strategic plan within framework of IT model.

Old roles do not disappear. Efficient Daily Operations But…

WHAT ABOUT THE RESIDENTS?

Better, more comprehensive support. Their needs/desires play a role in

overall IT planning. Leverage services to and from

Residence Halls Cable TV Wireless Access Card Access

WHAT ABOUT THE RESIDENTS?

Future Services Classroom capture Classroom/Labs “anywhere”.

Remember where you came from, ResNet background can drive better services.

MANY BOSSES VP of Information

Technology Sr. Director of SASS-

C VP of Student Affairs 23 Department

Directors Student

Government

QUESTIONS

Evaluations at: http://www.resnetsymposium.org/rspm/evaluation/

Christopher Martinez [email protected] 813-974-4726

THANK YOU!