I write reluctantly, in that CCI resources have provided the College of Arts & Sciences with the funding for many of my department's positions (including my own). Consequently, my comments might easily be misconstrued as self-serving. Nevertheless, I am drawing on 10 years of experience managing information technology resources in higher education prior to coming to UNC when I state that CCI already has provided immediate, outstanding benefits to the faculty, staff and teaching graduate students in the Arts & Sciences. It provides current and ever-increasing benefits to students.
The CCI, among other things:
1.) provides high-quality computers for Arts and Sciences faculty, staff and teaching graduate instructors. No full-time faculty or staff member or teaching graduate instructor should have a computer right now that is more than 3 years old. Life cycling standard equipment on a three- to four-year cycle saves money in the long run by alleviating the support headache caused by a hodgepodge of 5- to 7-year-old computers from various vendors.
Institutionalizing the provision of computer technology has freed up departmental time and resources to focus on more important issues than year-to-year technology provision.
2.) provides funding in the Arts & Sciences to hire people to support this massive influx of capable technology and to support integrating information technology into the classroom. Seven CCI positions have been filled in the past year, and eight more will be hired in the next six to nine months to help support the increased use of technology.
3.) provides a cost-effective support environment that community members can count on when their computer equipment breaks. While perhaps unpopular with some Mac users, specifying a single vendor platform stretches thin support dollars and provides higher quality of service as a whole.
4.) provides instructors with a "known" student technology capability, allowing them to restructure courses without worrying that some students will not have access to the technology and information resources needed to complete certain assignments.
5.) provides need-based support for student purchase of laptops, eliminating questions of access for those unable to afford a computer.
I hope that any faculty, staff and students who still feel that the CCI has not lived up to its expectations will be patient, as the program is still unfolding. In order to make an institutional change of this size there are formidable challenges to address. For example, faculty and graduate instructors need access to and familiarity with the technology before they are in a position to decide whether integrating it into their particular subject area makes sense. This is a cumulative process that takes place over time through workshops, individual experimentation and reflection.
