Message from the Chief Information Officer

George Claffey, CIO

 

Dr. George Claffey

 

Welcome to the Division of Information Technology’s website. Thank you for spending time on our page. In 2022, Information Technology remained an integral part of technology operations while providing support to the University’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies. As we enter almost two years with COVID, we began to see a greater return to “normal” and the development of some technology which found their start in COVID but are finding their strategic value within the university community. The success is attributable to a team-based interdisciplinary approach which often blends faculty, administrative staff, teams from facilities, operations, and the University leadership together in a common goal.

In 2022, an overall theme has emerged in IT, “accessibility.” Two years into COVID, we know that our technology is accessible to more students, faculty and staff. Together we have:

  • Led regional efforts to increase adoption of EDUROAM at local, regional, and statewide locations.
  • Increased the pool of loaner laptops for students who need free access to technology.
  • Increased the lab space, it’s functionality and usability for today’s 21st century learners.
  • Increased the number of access points on campus which provide ubiquitous network connectivity.
  • Increased the use of laptops for faculty and staff which provide crisis portability and accessibility.

Our task, then, is to learn from this past year in order to cull out from the ad hoc and provisional what are positive institutional, procedural, and technological changes worth adopting on a more permanent basis. Accordingly, the IT leadership teams recognize that they must not simply be restorative but also transformative as we return to regular operations. Specifically, IT will be:

  • Rescaling where appropriate
  • Reinventing as required
  • Returning to baseline where it makes sense
  • Reducing to optimize
  • Recognizing what is no longer relevant

IT is excited to be part of the future of Central in a post-COIVD workplace and support the 2030 Central strategic plan. Through technology, we hope to give students, faculty, and staff the best experience possible to help assist in their success. I am exceptionally grateful to the IT members and all of our collaborators across the university for their help as we navigated the constantly changing environment of COVID.

Thank you,

George Claffey, CIO

 

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