Computing & Information Services
Information Technology Governance
Information technology decision-making may be viewed as a three tier hierarchy consisting of strategies, policies, and operations. While the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) plays a coordinating role at all three levels, IT decision-making at Reed is highly collaborative and involves many different individuals and groups.
Strategic Planning and Priority Setting
Strategic planning is conducted every five years with input from all constituencies. The outcome is a list of strategic technology goals that is adopted by the college. More information about the strategic planning process, and past strategic initiatives is available at the CIS Strategic Planning site.
IT Policy-Making
Thanks to the honor principle, the small size of the Reed community, and the commitment of CIS staff to devote sufficient attention to individual problems, many technology issues are resolved without the need of formal policies.
When the creation of a policy is required to ensure fair and responsible use of technology resources or to comply with statutory rules, the task generally falls to the Computing Policy Committee (CPC). Topics that have come before the CPC in the past few years include illegal peer-to-peer file sharing, email as a form of official college communication, file backup and retention protocols, instructional technology support, network management issues impacted by CALEA and FCC rule changes, five-year strategic planning goals, data security, theft/loss/damage of College-owned computer equipment, and periodic review of the Computer User Agreement.
Although the CPC is responsible for developing technology policies, when issues have curricular, budgetary, or strategic implications for the College the committee refers policy drafts to the President's Senior Staff, the CAPP Budget Advisory Sub-Committee or the entire faculty for review or endorsement before action is taken.
The Web Policy Committee is charged with developing web policies and monitoring appropriate use of the Reed College web site.
The Committee seeks to balance the needs and demands of many constituencies, both internal and external, to pursue the goals of Reed's web site, as articulated in Reed's Web Policy:
The Committee works cooperatively with the Office of Public Affairs, Computing & Information Services, faculty, students, and others to fulfill its mission.The Reed College World Wide Web (WWW) site is a campus-wide information system that enhances the intellectual life of Reed students and faculty as they pursue curricular and research activities through a diverse, world-wide network of electronic resources. The Reed Web also provides faculty, students, and staff with an effective communications medium to distribute information to the Reed community and to the world at large about the college's mission, academic programs, library resources and information technology, admission and financial aid, campus policies and procedures, student organizations, events, publications, and people.
Operational Decision-Making
As is true of strategic goal setting and policy creation, operational decision-making for IT is also a high collaborative activity. In addition to soliciting input from individual students, faculty, and staff, Computing & Information Services utilizes various external and internal groups in the decision-making process:
Administrative Users Group (AUG) –– The AUG includes the staff of Administrative Computing Services (ACS) and representatives from administrative offices. It meets on a regular basis to discuss user needs and to plan changes in Reed's administrative computing environment. In addition, ACS meets on a weekly rotating basis with representatives of major administrative offices.
Technology Support Exchange –– This group brings together CIS staff and IT staff in the Library, the art department, the foreign language departments, the admission office, college relations, and elsewhere to collaborate on campus-wide technology issues.
Ad hoc interdepartmental groups –– As needed, CIS creates ad hoc groups that may include faculty, staff from departments outside of CIS, students, alumni, and others to deal with specific technology issues, such as the selection of a new software package or the delivery of a new online service. A number of CIS Task Forces are currently undertaking a variety of technical investigations.
CIS internal activities –– CIS staff collaborate extensively on operational decisions by holding weekly technical meetings, monthly meetings of the entire CIS staff, and a day-long annual retreat to exchange information about operational goals identified annually by the staff in each CIS department.