The MSU IT Council met on November 4. Below are the high-level topic summaries from the meeting.
Provost Youatt addresses the IT Council
Provost June Youatt talked about how MSU’s momentum is increasing and the university is becoming more competitive globally. As a result, MSU is asking more of its employees. Youatt said MSU is asking people to do more with less, work harder, and be enthusiastic about what we can achieve collectively. Technology is at the forefront of what we do at MSU.
Highlights of Youatt’s presentation included:
- Student retention is increasing.
- Competition to hire the best faculty is increasing.
- Access to data and data analytics are key to our success.
- We can’t maintain being a top 10 research university if we keep doing what we are doing today.
- IT is critical. “If we are unable to provide what’s needed a lot of people are at the starting line waiting for the gun to go off and it doesn’t.”
- Efforts toward security are appreciated.
- Students love the new Office 365 email system.
Brainstorm new projects
IT Council members were asked to bring three topics they would be interested in working on as a team to implement. Projects topics included storage, security, communications, web accessibility, technology service catalog, governance structure, IT staff talent management, cloud strategy, mobile strategy, and alignment with MSU strategy.
Next the council will narrow and prioritize topics and identify members to lead IT Council work groups or committees to carry these projects forward.
Integrating CAFEs with the IT Council
Historically CAFEs have been supported by IT Services, but with the development of the IT Council some feel a tighter integration with the council would provide better support to these groups.
After a discussion, it was concluded that John Resotko would contact CAFE leaders to solicit input on the engagement CAFEs would like to have with the IT Council.
The vision is for two-way communication with CAFEs where ideas could be shared and projects and/or initiatives could develop through this engagement.
About the IT Council
The MSU IT Council serves as a primary IT advisory body. Membership is made up of IT leaders appointed by the senior deans and directors 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.
