IT Governance Committee
Meeting Minutes
1.22.14
In attendance: John Charles, VP IS&T
Armand Doucette, Executive Director, Sloan, IT
Professor Denny Freeman, Dean DUE
Mike Howard, VP Finance
Professor Frans Kaashoek, EECS
Tony Sharon, Deputy EVP
Professor Maria Zuber, VP Research
Unable to attend: Professor Marty Schmidt, Provost
Discussion Topics & Decisions
I.
Initial objectives for John Charles, the new Vice President of Information Systems and Technology.

John will conduct a baseline review, improve transparency and accountability,
demonstrate progress made from investments. The details will be worked out at a
later date.

Provide annual State of IT report for Academic Council – further clarification of this
comment from the Advisory Council report was intended to have IT representation
and a voice on Academic Council.

A suggestion was made to meet with students from Student Information Processing
Board (SIPB) as part of John’s listening tour
II. Software Development (maintaining existing systems) and
IT Modernization Funds (new capabilities)

There was unanimous agreement that the remaining 4.3M should be allocated to IT
Modernization
III. Demands for funding deferred maintenance and new capabilities.

The prioritization process for decision making of Administrative Systems projects
needs to be improved. It should include input from DLC’s. There needs to be a clear
vision that is agreed upon by all of EVPT. Large projects on the roadmaps are vetted
through ITGC and there should be a mechanism to move ahead with funding for
smaller projects that don’t need detailed discussion or approval.

A suggestion was made to create a running list of fixes with periodic updates. Use a
model of comprehensive stewardship.
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
There needs to be an understanding of what it takes to maintain current systems and
then ensuring enough funding for new development in order to maintain
competitiveness.
IV. Deferred maintenance of IT systems in MIT buildings (estimated at $99.7M).

There was unanimous agreement that ACR funding should include the IT network and
Tel/data for MIT buildings identified through the accelerated capital renewal
program– Tony will discuss further with Marty

IS&T will work on a deferred maintenance plan using the ACR prioritization model
V. The External Advisory Board for IT recommended the reduction and/or elimination of fees and
chargebacks.
 Current proposal to eliminate chargebacks for academic software, data system backups and the co-location fee for computing centers [Bates and Holyoke] vetted through
OSP and will continue to move forward.
VI. Review proposed agenda topics for the remainder of FY14 that will support the ITGC objectives.

Next meetings will be scheduled for March and June
 Eamon Kearns and Mary Callahan will present the decision making model used for
SSSC projects in March

Future Topics
 Resource Allocation and Priorities
o Roadmap/Project Review
Mar 14
o FY15-17 IT Strategic Plan Update Mar 14
o Approve FY15 Budget allocations Jun 14
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Strategic direction of IS&T – connect to the MIT mission
Strategic direction of SAP
Strategic direction of Video
Policy – Data, On-line privacy
Network Security
Findings from John’s listening tour
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