Adventures in Higher Ed Information Technology

I recently came across Bridget McCrea’s “Campus IT Under the Knife Article”  article published on the Campus Technology website http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/03/04/campus-it-under-the-knife.aspx .

The article focuses on a subject that is a dire reality for many, if not all higher education information technology departments… budget cuts and the associated impact on services and support.

Many state funded higher education institutions are continuing to face significant budget cuts due to state revenue shortages. Being that information technology is often viewed as a cost center, it is quite often one of the first areas dissected for potential budget cuts. However, in my experience in higher education IT, there is not much to cut without adversly affecting existing services offered to the student, faculty and staff user community.  

One benefit described in the article, is that the University of Illinois has engaged a cross-functional committee to evaluate IT spending with an aim towards defining potential areas for cost and budget reduction. This level of community engagement often occurs during times of crisis or highly visible project planning and execution. Hopefully the University of Illinois will be able to keep this level of engagement up and incorporate cross-functional active engagement into it’s IT governance structure.

Regards,

TJ