On Thursday, August 1, campus information technology (IT) professionals gathered for the annual Continuous Improvement in Technology (CIT) Conference. The keynote this year was delivered by the new President Aondover Tarhule. Attendees were excited to hear what the President had to share, along with being offered a choice of sessions revolving around technology practices at Illinois State and beyond.
Tarhule spoke on where he sees higher education in 2024 and where he thinks Illinois State University, in particular, is. He started by thanking the IT community present at the conference: “We see you. We thank you. And we may not always appreciate what you do, but without you, we cannot function. That says a lot about the value of what you do.”
Tarhule went on to share about what he’s learned from the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) and how we are currently in a phase of needing to do less with less. As all universities head into a timeframe where student populations are expected to decrease and financial strains to result, we need to survive and thrive and attract students and their families. The President charged the gathered IT staff to deploy technology, serve our clientele, be informed about what is happening, and be bold. Consider how to do less with less, while doing it faster and better.
Other sessions at the conference covered an inside look at Illinois State’s Security Operations Center; lessons learned from the move to the new learning management system, Canvas; the functionality of Grouper; a first look at Service Now, our future service management platform; and more.
One collaborative component of the conference was hearing from research partners around the University on what they are working on and how IT can support their efforts. Dr. Emily Jones, professor of Physical Education Teacher Education courses, Dr. Roy Magnuson, whose work combines by music and virtual reality, and Dr. Sumesh Philip, professor of Cybersecurity courses, joined Tech Solutions Director Craig Jackson to expound on their current projects. They engaged in discussion with the audience about how technology influences and enhances their work and what university resources would have been helpful for them to know about earlier on.
At each CIT Conference, a CIT MVP Award winner is named. This year the award went to Jason Ross, a member of the Endpoint Support team in the Office of Technology Solutions. When presenting his award, nominator Montana McGowen, IT support associate in the College of Business, shared that Ross has been so helpful over the past year, especially with tools like SCCM. With all the College of Business classroom computers serviced by Endpoint, Ross has come across campus numerous times to help out.
Jeff Grabb, director of the Learning Spaces and AV Technology (LSAVT) team in Tech Solutions, was also nominated for the MVP award.
CITx, the CIT half-day extension event, is set to be held in February 2025. Deadlines for session proposals and nominations for the CIT Student MVP Award will be announced at a later date.
