Vice President Wheeler's Charge to the UITC and Task Forces
In 1998, President Myles Brand charged the Vice President for Information Technology, Michael McRobbie, to develop a plan that "will enable the university to become a leader in absolute terms in its use and application" of Information Technology. The resulting plan, Information Technology Strategic Plan - Architecture for the 21st Century and its vigilant execution over many years was transformative for Indiana University. The plan which contained ten enduring General Recommendations and 68 specific action items was assembled from broad input across the university and thoughtful integration. It guided technology investments and activities over the past decade, and annual reports documented progress.
In his 18 October 2007 Inaugural Address, Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie said, "let us move forward together and redouble our efforts to ensure that Indiana University will be one of the great universities of the 21st century." There is little question that information technology is an essential element of modern scholarship and learning. Open scholarly publishing, cyberinfrastructure, podcasting of multi-media content, blended residential and distributed courses, the rapid consumerization of IT, and the entry of digital natives as students, are among the early indicators that great universities of this century must adapt to new opportunities and imperatives.
The 1998 IT Strategic Plan has provided an extraordinary foundation for Indiana University, and now is the right time to revisit its ten general recommendations, revise them as we look to the next ten years, and develop specific action plans to guide IT investments for IU. Thus, I charge the University Information Technology Committee (UITC) and its taskforces to work with me and my leadership team to develop IU's next IT Strategic Plan. The plan must be visionary, realistic, and relevant to serving the explicit missions of all campuses of Indiana University. It should enable revolutionary outcomes via evolutionary steps. The first IT Strategic Plan was created to be transformative in creating an architecture for the 21st century. This second plan builds on that success with a focus on accelerating the leading use and application of IT among IU's faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
Professor Frank Acito has graciously agreed to chair this substantial endeavor. My senior staff has developed short papers to provoke thought, debate, and vision as we think about IT for the great universities of this century. The taskforces will be organized to think about how IT can be used within and across various roles, e.g., Faculty Excellence, Student Success, Effective Community (how we work together), and Engagement Beyond (IU's engagement with the state and world) rather than in a functional organization around particular IT topics.
Our planning timeline is purposeful and ambitious, and it will be well supported by my office. I wish to receive draft reports of the taskforces and the UITC's recommendations by 30 June 2008. We will work to finalize those with the taskforces and the UITC by 15 September.
Dr. Brad Wheeler
Vice President for IT & CIO
Indiana University
