COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University Office of Academic Affairs has created the Office of Information Technology (OIT) - a new organization formed by restructuring and combining the Administrative Resource Management System (ARMS) and University Technology Services (UTS). Trustees approved the organization on Friday (7/7).

An integrated information technology (IT) organization is expected to better serve the university by leveraging the strengths of both groups, bringing together those who do similar work and improving core processes.

Mike Veres, as deputy chief information officer and executive director of Information Technology Services, will be responsible for the daily operations, development, delivery and support of all services in the Office of Information Technology.

OIT will consist of seven working areas, including applied technology services, enterprise networking, IT business management, IT human resources, operations, partnership management and application development and support.

Partnership Management, a new working area, was formed to address the increasing need for a true partnership between OIT and Ohio State business and academic areas in terms of IT investment, commitment and ownership. While the initial focus of this area will be directed toward the ARMS systems, the partnership model has been designed to be expandable to other areas where appropriate. Partnership leaders will function in the same way account executives do in the private sector, by managing the relationships, business issues and emerging needs of the businesses and OIT.

The Office of Information Technology, Technology Enhanced Learning and Research (TELR), UNITS, the Student Information System Development Project and the End User Access initiative are all part of the Office of the Chief Information Officer, which serves as a focal point for pursuing a wide application of current and new information technologies in support of the overall university mission.

In other business, the board approved funding up to $3 million for completing the ARMS project and supporting human resources, general ledger and procurement systems through Sept. 30, 2000.

Education dean offers vision

Donna Evans, who joined the university on July 1 as dean of the College of Education, told the trustees that she intends to increase the college's technical capacity, both for educational and academic support.

"Technology is a major agenda for me and for an enthusiastic cadre of faculty and staff, said Evans. "There is a demand for technical competency from educators, parents, lawmakers and, especially, from students. We want to ensure that appropriate technical instruction is used from Head Start classes to university lecture halls."

Evans said that technology capacity is part of new teacher education report cards mandated by the federal government.

The new dean's dream for her college includes a $40 million renovation and addition to Ramseyer and Arps halls that would create a "Northern Gateway" to the campus and offer an "invitation to learning."

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(LO)