EDUCAUSE Review Articles and CIO

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.

Thirteen CIOs/Vice-Presidents discuss various aspects of the blending of responsibilities that has led to a current “identity crisis” in higher education information technology and to the organizational confusion over the role of centralized and decentralized IT services.

The author provides key advice on taking a new leadership position.

The author discusses the importance for IT leaders and presidents to think and act differently about the role of information technology on community college campuses.

"Although managing information technology is important, that responsibility goes well beyond the CIO. Perhaps the more important role for the CIO is knowing what information will be needed, how to make it accessible, and ensuring that others derive value from that information."

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

Information security is an increasingly important institutional issue that is not just the responsibility of the CIO - it is everyone's responsibility.

In response to natural disaster recovery concerns, one solution for digital asset management and preservation needs is to create institutional repositories. Developing IR programs is an opportunity for CIOs to address business continuity issues as well as impact the academic community.

The author discusses the various differences between corporate CIO's and those in academia.

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.