Strategic Plan (PDF)
Organization Chart with Members
Opinions about Intallation of Wireless Technology (Survey)
Introduction
Final Reports
1. Orienting Principles
2. IT Infra-structure
3. Technology Laboratories
4. Technology Classrooms
5. Faculty Office Computing
6. Admin. Computing
7. Campus Servers
Survey Results
Meeting Dates
Procedures for Implementation of College Policies
Application for Creation, Renovation, or Change of Information Technology Labs or Classrooms
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Toward A Strategic Plan for Information Technology at Penn State Altoona
Recommendations to the Dean
By The Strategic Planning Committee for Information Technology
L.A. Wilson II, Chair
Victor Brunsden
Richard Flarend
Michael Gannon
Max Hunter
Dinty Moore
Peter Shull
Michael Wolfe
Carl Larsen
Denny Stewart
Drew McGhee
Andrea Campbell
May 4, 2001
A number of faculty and staff, including Suzanne Kuhn, Tamisra Sanyal, Tim Leso, Bruce Muller, John Sjolander, Amy Uliano, Ronie Tanneyhill, Gary Grant, Craig Farrell, among others, attended and provided their counsel to the committee.
At the end of the fall semester 2000, Dean William Cale announced a reorganization of the way information technology is to be managed on this campus. Central to this reorganization is the development of a strategic plan for information technology at Penn State Altoona. This strategic plan is to act as a road map for future development of computing and associated technology on this campus. It is this plan that the information technology staff is to implement.
In order to prepare this plan, a committee consisting of a mix of faculty and staff at the university was appointed. [1] The committee began meeting shortly after the beginning of the spring semester 2001 and has met on nearly every Friday afternoon during the semester from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. An attempt has been made to keep all interested parties informed about the deliberations of the committee and their participation has been actively solicited.
Orienting principles. As chair of the committee, L.A. Wilson II outlined the following principles to be followed in the operation of the committee:
- The goal is to produce a strategic plan for information technology on this campus that reflects the consensus of views of members of the committee. If forced to a vote on any specific issue, everyone's vote will be publicly recorded. Bear in mind, however, that all actions of this committee are advisory to the dean.
- Those referred to as "technical advisors" serve at the pleasure of the chair and should be expected to change as different areas of expertise are called for by the deliberation of the committee.
- Those referred to in the organizational chart as "members" are to serve an initial 18-month term on this committee. One half of the six "members" will be asked to serve an additional 1-year term while the other half will leave the committee. Three new members will then be appointed to a new 2-year term. At the end of another year, the three remaining original members will leave the committee and be replaced by three new members appointed to 2-year terms. In this way, we will be assured of substantial continuity from year to year but provide opportunity for the introduction of new members to this committee. During the first meeting of this committee, members will draw lots to determine who it is that leaves the committee at the end of the initial 18-month appointment.
- Future selection of members to this committee will be done in consultation with Division Heads, the chair of the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Senate's Information Technology Committee, and other interested faculty and administrators. The chair of the committee will recommend members for appointment by the Dean.
- As chair of this committee, I will endeavor to keep the Faculty Senate's Information Technology Committee fully informed of this committee's deliberations.
- A plan without budget making authority is only an expression of good intentions. The plan this committee produces is intended to guide the expenditure of all funds on information technology on this campus.
- There is no a priori assumption that all future information technology decisions will be centralized. Rather, this planning activity provides us with an opportunity to systematically consider how much of this should be decentralized and where it makes sense to bring more coordination.
- Most budget and expenditure data will be stripped of personal identifying information. The committee is charged with establishing principles and decision-making criteria, not evaluating the worthiness of specific users of information technology.
- Strategic planning is not a panacea that solves all problems. However, if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. This planning process provides us with an opportunity to determine where we want to go and lay out a systematic plan by which we get there.
- The process that we engage in should be open and broadly shared with interested parties.
- Please view all documents that I prepare for you as simply drafts intended to encourage discussion. Until we agree upon a report (or several of them) to the Dean, everything is a draft open to comment, criticism, and amendment. I have attempted to make this intention clear by labeling things as drafts and working papers. Share them with whomever you please.
- To the extent possible, I will distribute all materials as e-mail attachments. Feel free to comment and suggest amendments to all documents that are prepared for the committee. Please send your e-mail comments to law21@psu.edu with a subject line "strategic planning." In this way, I can manage the commentary and share it will all members of the committee.
- I will try to provide you with an agenda and pertinent documentary material several days prior to our scheduled meetings. In this way, you can be fully prepared to participate and we will not waste anyone's time. I don't believe that committees are a good context in which to write new material, they are best used to comment, consider, evaluate, and amend.
1 For a fuller description of committee membership, see the section on orienting principles that follows.
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Copyright © 2005 Penn State Altoona; All Rights Reserved
L.A. Wilson, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Committee Chair
W110 Smith Building, 3000 Ivyside Park, Altoona, PA 16601
Phone: 814-949-5768; E-mail: LAW21@psu.edu
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