The MSU IT Council met on February 3. Below are the high-level topic summaries from the meeting.
College of Education update
Don Heller, Dean, College of Education, discussed some of the challenges that his college is facing as the nature of teacher education and professional development continue to evolve. Heller addressed the need to increase the faculty research portfolio and the funding challenges.
The College of Education is also responding to continued university and federal mandates to collect data on the outcomes of their graduates and effectiveness in the classroom.
Mail.msu.edu
The mail.msu.edu system is at the end of its life. The university is working to provide a new email solution for the fall 2015 semester.
The first step would be to move students off of the existing mail.msu.edu system. This would help stabilize mail.msu.edu while a new environment is established that would also include faculty and staff.
The Box cloud storage project is on hold temporarily while issues surrounding mail.msu.edu are addressed.
Strategic technology purchasing
Barb Dawson, Assistant Vice President for IT Services – IT Strategy, was charged with building partnerships between IT vendors around campus and OEMs that provide indirect service.
Dawson gathered a list of the top 25 IT vendors at MSU and is meeting with each of them to discuss how we can work together to provide smarter and more cost effective purchasing solutions.
Two-factor authentication
Rob McCurdy, Chief Information Security Officer, gave an update on the two-factor authentication project, which is still on track for a March/April implementation.
Anyone who would like a two-factor authentication presentation given to their department can contact the IT Services Support Desk at (517) 432-6200.
About the IT Council
The MSU IT Council serves as a primary IT advisory body. Membership is open to the primary IT leader from each of the degree-granting colleges, core academic units, major academic support units, and other major business units.
The MSU community is encouraged to seek out their IT Council representative or visit the IT Council website for more information on topics of interest.
