EDUCAUSE Review Articles, CIO, and IT Effectiveness

The authors discuss the common assumption that a CIO in higher education controls IT at his or her college or university—from operational issues to future directions.

The authors discuss the importance of university CIOs and other senior executives having basic IT knowledge to make IT investment decisions.

The authors state that "although it is important for a campus to have a good CIO, the CIO alone is not responsible for how well IT is used on Campus." It is the executive team as a whole who is responsible for effective IT use on campus.

In a time of discussion on whether IT investment still matters in higher education, the author points out ways CIO's can continue to demonstrate the importance of investing in IT.