IT Senate Annual
Report 2014-15
IT Senate Annual Report 2014-15
Introduction
After a year of infancy (2012-13) and a year of adolescence (2013-14), IT Senate matured
into a more confident and competent governing body in its third year of existence. This
report highlights significant areas of growth and activity for 2014-15:
•
Charge and scope. While not formalized in writing, IT Senate settled into a less
ambitious but more productive set of activities in its third year. Removing
responsibility for strategic and operational planning and assessment from the
group’s purview allowed the group to be more agile and engaged in technology
discussions vital to the University.
•
Issues and representation. Addressing the long-standing challenge of Banner
governance and an emerging issue of data governance resulted in expanded
representation on IT Senate as well as creation, decommissioning and rethinking
of committees and their charges.
•
Engagement and communication. IT Senate made strides in gaining recognition
as a viable, effective governing organization through communication,
networking and cross-pollination with other governing bodies, committees and
communities of practice.
Charge and scope
IT Senate was formed in 2012 as a product of a campus-wide IT strategic planning
effort. At that time, the proposed purpose of IT Senate was “. . . to provide a forum for
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initiation, evaluation, prioritization, and implementation oversight of strategic IT
initiatives and the associated proposed IT strategic planning funds.”
In essence, the ad hoc strategic planning group formed by interim CIO Loey Knapp
handed ownership of the strategic plan, creation of annual operating plans, and
assessment of those plans to the fledgling IT Senate.
A great deal of time and effort was spent on operational planning and assessment
during the first two years. That focus and workload had a detrimental impact on the
governing body, limiting the group’s agility in responding to emerging issues and
diminishing discussion about new ideas.
While the official charge of IT Senate has not been formally changed, in practice the
group evolved into a forum for dialogue and advice to the CIO and other campus
leaders. By consensus, IT Senators agreed that ownership of an IT strategic plan was the
purview of the CIO with the Senate’s input.
Leadership
In the spring of 2014, IT Senators debated a new leadership model. Bylaws called for a
chair and a chair-elect. CIOs Loey Knapp and Matt Riley had chaired IT Senate during
its first two years. As Matt’s term neared an end, some senators suggested the CIO
should remain as permanent chair. In the end, a hybrid model was adopted with the
CIO serving as permanent co-chair along with an elected co-chair.
Mark Pershouse, a professor in the College of Health Professions and Biomedical
Sciences representing Faculty Senate, was elected co-chair for 2014-15. Mark ensured
that IT Senate meeting agenda’s included issues vital to academics and faculty. He
instituted the practice of bringing in outside speakers and led discussions at a level that
allowed non-technical members to participate comfortably.
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Issues and representation
Banner
IT Senate made it a priority to become more engaged in Banner governance in 2014-15.
Banner is the suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications from Ellucian.
The complex software system is used at UM to manage academic, human resources and
financial records. Dozens of other applications and services used across campus depend
on Banner for data.
IT Senate invited Associate Vice President for Administration and Finance Rosi Keller
to its October meeting to learn more about the history of Banner governance and update
the group on the search for a Banner Integrated Systems Officer. That position, which
reports to Rosi, had been upgraded from a position called Banner Coordinator after a
failed search. Rosi shared information about Mod Squad, an informal group of
representatives from functional offices that sets priorities and timelines for Banner
projects and upgrades. Rosi said she has never felt that there are clear institutional
priorities for Banner and suggested that when the new position was hired, that person
could serve on IT Senate.
IT Senate acted on that suggestion, electing Karen Moore as a voting member of IT
Senate in February 2015. She provides regular reports on issues before Mod Squad.
There will be continued discussions about the relationship and respective
responsibilities between Mod Squad and IT Senate.
Data Governance
In November, Associate Vice President Dawn Ressel from the Office of Planning,
Budget and Analysis presented a proposed University data governance model. She
explained that data governance is a set of processes that ensures that important data
assets are formally managed throughout the enterprise, and that data entry meets
precise standards.
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Matt Riley suggested that it would be great to do these things in collaboration between
OPBA and IT Senate. In December, IT Senate voted unanimously to add Dawn Ressel as
a voting member of IT Senate. At the same meeting, IT Senate approved formation of a
data governance committee co-chaired by Dawn Ressel and Registrar Joe Hickman.
In April, Dawn provided an extensive report about the formation of the data
governance committee and brought two issues before the IT Senate for discussion:
1) Is this a committee of all of the UM campuses or just UM-Missoula? She pointed
out that if we change data processes on the Missoula campus, all of the affiliate
campuses would be impacted. And if we do accomplish something that is
affiliate-wide, how are they represented?
Matt Riley said that in the long-term, data governance needed to be for all of the
UM campuses and affiliates should be represented in the process, but in the short
term it was ok for the Missoula campus to start the design process.
2) Should the committee report directly to the President’s cabinet or to IT Senate?
Senators who had been part of the group since the formation of IT Senate in 2012
suggested that the role of IT Senate was to serve as a place where all technology
issues would be dealt with rather than having separate pipes from disjointed IT
governance bodies feeding into the Cabinet.
Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility
UM legal counsel Lucy France and EITA coordinator Janet Sedgley visited IT Senate in
October to provide an update on UM’s resolution agreement with the Office of Civil
Rights around electronic and information technology accessibility. Lucy explained that
the resolution agreement does not go beyond what the law already requires.
Matt Riley reported that accessibility is rising to the top of discussions at Educause, a
higher education IT professional organization. He said that campuses that are behind
on accessibility are going to be in trouble and campuses that are ahead are going to
have opportunities. UM is ahead of most campuses in regard to accessibility, but there
is not strong financial support for the effort.
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Student representative Jonathon Knudson moved that IT Senate should send a strong
message of support for adequate EITA funding to the Cabinet. The motion passed
unanimously.
Academic IT
In March, IT Senate invited Associate Dean, College of Humanities and Sciences Jenny
McNulty to present on the classroom of the future. Jenny said that a donor had
approached the College of Humanities & Sciences about renovating Liberal Arts
building classrooms. Two classrooms have been identified to renovate. Jenny is leading
an effort to ask people about their vision of the classroom of the future.
Robert Squires, Director of Instructional Design and Technical Support in SELL joined
IT Senate in May to discuss MOOCs (massive open online courses) and the future of
online learning at UM. The discussion centered on the threat MOOCs represent to
traditional higher education models as well as opportunities they present for UM. There
were calls for discussion of goals, providing incentives for faculty to develop and
deliver online courses and providing institutional support in the form of a production
studio to help faculty develop engaging course materials.
Engagement and Communication
IT Senate members recognized the need to expand communication and engagement
with campus to increase awareness about its existence and role in IT governance. Here
are a few of the channels of communication IT Senate utilizes:
CIO
Recommendations and actions by IT Senate flow to the President, the Cabinet and other
campus administrators through CIO Matt Riley. Matt also provides a report at all IT
Senate meetings of significant developments on campus and beyond that impact UM
technology governance.
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Tech Partners
In October, IT Senate voted to make a representative from Tech Partners a voting
member of the body. Antony Jo had been serving as an ex-officio member previously
and now serves as a voting member. Antony reports activities of Tech Partners to the IT
Senate at each meeting and reports activities of IT Senate at monthly Tech Partners
meetings. In addition, co-chairs Matt Riley and Mark Pershouse, along with several
other IT Senators, regularly attend Tech Partners meetings.
Meeting summaries
The IT Senate communications and collaboration committee instituted a practice of
preparing a one-page summary of highlights from each meeting providing that to IT
Senators to share with their constituents.
Unconference
While IT Senate was not directly responsible for convening the SUMMIT Technology
Unconference in January, the group did promote the event and addressed strategic
issues that emerged from the unconference throughout the spring. For example, Jenny
McNulty’s presentation about the classroom of the future was inspired by her session at
the unconference.
Tech Partners has also invited unconference session conveners to their meetings to give
updates and continue dialogue in order to keep momentum going.
Audience participation
IT Senate welcomes anyone from campus to attend meetings. Typically, there are 5-10
non-members in attendance, and often people in the audience engage in discussion with
the IT Senate.
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2014-15 IT Senators
Jonathan Forrider
Judy Fredenberg
John Greer
Mark Grimes
Aaron Heiner
Art Held
Scott Holgate
Antony Jo
Jonathon Knudson
Roger Maclean
Jesse Neidigh
Denise Nelson
Cale Patenaude
Mark Pershouse
Eric Reimer
Dawn Ressel
Matt Riley
Manu Samuela
Jennifer Sauer
Allen Szalda-Petree
IT Senate
Research Administration
Academic Affairs IT
Faculty Senate
Intercollegiate Athletics
UM Foundation, Alumni Office
Information Technology
Tech Partners
ASUM
Deans
Student Affairs IT
Staff Senate
ASUM
Faculty Senate
Faculty Senate
Office of Planning, Budget & Analysis
Information Technology
Administration & Finance
Integrated Communications
Faculty Senate
Ex-officio non-voting members
Claudia Denker-Eccles
Adrian Irish
Joe Hickman
Bob Hlynosky
Gordy Pace
Barb Seekins
IT Senate Annual Report 2014-15
Legal Counsel
IT Security
Registrar’s Office
Business Services
IT Communications
ADA Team
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