According to a recent report by a major information technology consulting firm, Ohio University spends significantly less on IT and employs fewer people than similar universities. Peer universities spend about $27.4 million a year, while OU spends $12 million a year ' a 60 percent difference.
OU IT needs more money. Since the security breaches last year that exposed more than 360,000 medical and alumni records, OU has worked to improve its tech security, but the efforts need to go further. The university reorganized IT last summer and no longer has two competing tech service departments. Bill Sams stepped down as CIO during Fall Quarter but was somehow allowed to finish out his contract working as executive in residence despite an independent report's finding that IT leaders had failed to deal with security issues.
Brice Bible will take over as CIO this month, replacing interim CIO (and e-mail crusader for Engineering Dean Dennis Irwin) Shawn Ostermann. While Bible is being drastically overpaid ' he will make $210,000 a year, a 57 percent increase from the $133,538 Ostermann made ' IT obviously needs someone new. While good people cost good money, the difference between Ostermann and Bible's salaries could have been better spent reinvesting in security, hiring another full-time IT staffer or paying off OU's budget deficit.
Cleaning house and increasing oversight is important, but it won't be as effective without more money to back it up. President Roderick McDavis initially proposed a $2 million strategic investment pool to fund information technology efforts and minimum wage increases, but the budget planning council removed that from its tentative budget. The last thing OU needs ' besides more overpaid administrators ' is another security records breach.
Should OU agree to Strickland's tuition freeze plan, money might become even tighter at OU. But IT is not something the university can afford to ignore. OU's budget needs to take the needs of IT into account and do what it can to accommodate it. While OU will not be able to increase spending right away, it should do what it can and plan to make greater changes in the future.
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Despite budget woes, university needs to make IT funding a priority in order to prevent breaches
