Ohio University's Information Technology department could see structural overhauls when a chief information officer is hired to replace William Sams, who resigned in August.
The original pool of candidates has been narrowed to two, both of whom have spoken to OU students, faculty and staff at open forums in the last week. Sams, who was hired at OU in Fall Quarter 2004, had an annual salary of $133,588 and was the fifth person in 10 years to assume the role of CIO.
OU operates with both distributed and centralized IT staffs. The staff at the HDL Center represents centralized staffing, while distributed IT staffs assist in the daily operations for individual departments.
A centralized system for students would mean a single logon and not using Social Security Numbers.
One of the candidates for the chief position, Margaret Cline spent the past year as a consultant and CIO at Eastern Michigan University. She spoke to about 90 people last Thursday. She sees no conflict between distributed and centralized IT staff at OU, she said, and, if hired, she wouldn't consolidate the department as she did at Eastern Michigan University.
Technology isn't the issue; it's how we use technology to do what we want to do
she said.
Cline's competition for the job is Michael Hites, CIO at New Mexico State University. He spoke yesterday to about 90 people about consolidating and centralizing the IT staff.
I believe the main functioning unit should be the group of employees closest to the action he said. It's a simplified system but it's effective.
Hites also spoke about encouraging collaboration, encouraging economic growth and increasing technology.
If you're not wired together
you're not going to have economic growth in the area
he said.
Both candidates spoke about information security ' a hot topic at OU after the Social Security Numbers of more than 173,000 students and alumni were compromised last year.
Cline said a totally secure technology environment was a myth.
We can do that for you
but then you couldn't use the system
she said. She stressed the need for users to create secure passwords and keep them confidential.
Hites said he didn't have experience with significant information breaches, but said he would work to take the university to national prominence in data security.
It's a life-changing experience
but all you can do is assess the situation
damage control and start worrying about the long-term effects
he said. You want to be able to say
'Yes
