Dear University Community:
Welcome to the inaugural Information Services Division newsletter! Please allow me to introduce myself. For those of you who do not know me, I am Keith McIntosh, Vice President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the University. I have served in this role since August 2016 and have worked in higher education for 10 years. Prior to working in higher education I served in the United States Air Force for 24 years. This week, we paused to remember and recognize our nations veterans who dedicated their lives in service to our country. For those who know me, they know to call me by my preferred name "Mac" so I hope you will as well. We will use this newsletter, combined with other communication channels, to keep you abreast of what we are doing, for whom, and why.
Thank you for taking time to read this issue and learn what your information services division has been and will be doing to enhance faculty, students and staff ability to harness modern technologies and robust information resources to enable teaching excellence, facilitate scholarship and innovation, promote student success, and facilitate responsible stewardship. Inside this inaugural issue of our newsletter we will read about:
The development of our first strategic technology plan in the history of the University of Richmond. We developed this plan over the past 19 months. During this time we convened over 150 focus groups to gather input from the campus community to inform the plan. The plan is built around four goals (see below) each supporting one or more elements of the University strategic plan. We are already planning or implementing the initiatives in support of these goals.
- Support effective and innovative teaching and learning with technology.
- Provide digital tools and information to help students develop effective academic plans and deepen their co-curricular engagement.
- Enable administrative and student support services that are personalized, efficient and data driven.
- Adopt leading IT management practices and develop organizational competencies to effectively and securely use technologies.
We are also developing an Information Technology (IT) governance program. The volume, velocity, and variety of requests for data and technology require us to employ IT governance at the University of Richmond. The University requires IT governance to facilitate the effective stewardship of resources, promote inclusive decision-making, and enable the implementation of the University IT strategic plan. We will implement our governance program to help set institutional priorities influencing IT services and operations, manage risk, coordinate the acquisition of new technology, and monitor the implementation of the University Technology and Information Plan with a strong focus on our initial governance domains: Teaching & Research, User Services and Engagement, and Data Management. IT Governance aligns with the University Goal of “Stewardship in a Changing World.”
Higher education IT organizations have shifted from the traditional support and delivery model to a service management framework. Simply stated we are embracing IT Service Management which enables our division to help align operations with institutional strategies and goals, enhance the customer experience, improve service support, improve service delivery, and enhance our operational efficiency. This effort aligns perfectly with the University Goal of “Stewardship in a Changing World” and fits nicely with IT governance.
Again, thank you for taking time to reading our newsletter to learn what we are doing in support of you. I hope you're having a great fall semester and wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
