University IT Organizations - What Works - What Could be Better
or
If I Ran the Circus (thanks Dr. Seuss)

I - Introduction

Some Generic Higher Ed IT Organizational Concerns
or
What Are We All Struggling With Organizationally

II - Presentations

Presenters will answer a set of questions about their Institutions that encompass the following broad areas:

• How Central IT Is Organized.
• How IT Is Organized/Supported Campus Wide.
• What Is The Committee Structure Surrounding IT.
• What Works Well with These Organizational Arrangements.
• What Doesn't Work As Well.
• How the IT Organization Could Be Different.

Presenters: (order not yet clear)

• Phil Long, Yale University
• Bill Aikman, University of Michigan
• Vijay Kumar, MIT

III. An opportunity for attendees to share their organizational dilemmas and/or creative organizational solutions.

Specific questions the presenters will attempt to address include:

What does the central IT organization look like organizationally?

• Structure, number of people in different groups, where the org reports.
• How are the schools and departments supported? What is the role of the central org in that support and what are the roles of the schools?
• What are the advisory bodies around IT (faculty, administrative, departmental).
• Any other key committee, task-force structures.
• How are some of the key functions managed within the central organization and campus wide (e.g., security, training)?
• How are finances managed for the central organization? Who owns the budget, the budget process, etc?
• What works well in this organizational model at your campus?
• What could be improved?
• And - if you ran the circus - what changes would you make to the current organizational structure?
• Throw it all up in the air and start again?
• Tinkering?
• Why would this be better? What would you expect to accomplish with these changes?