Presented at EDUCAUSE Annual Conferences and Strategic Planning, Institutional

The e-Framework for Education and Research is an initiative created by public funding bodies in Europe and Australasia. It coordinates information relating how educational institutions across the globe are using technology to support their strategic priorities and how this can be supported by a service-oriented approach to technologies based on open standards. The session will give an overview of the e-Framework and raise some points for discussion.

Senior IT leaders in higher education function at the intersection of two worlds. CIOs serve as the interface between the processes and practices of the technological world and the ambiguities and diversity of the academic world. This seminar will review the various roles CIOs are expected to play, as well as how those roles may be changing. We will explore strategies IT leaders can use to align their organizations and themselves with the institutional missions.

While the session is especially designed for new and relatively new IT leaders, experienced CIOs will also find value in it, as it will help them reassess their roles and the their institutions' changing expectations of them. Topics will include what senior institutional leaders want and need from senior IT leaders, relationships with faculty and staff, the importance of customer service, organizational structure, leading as a change agent, and career issues.

This session will present the EDUCAUSE "Grand Challenges" initiative, which will be the major focus of the association's initiatives in 2007 and beyond. Higher education faces major issues of access, affordability, and accountability; how IT can make a difference in these arenas needs to be demonstrated. This session will highlight EDUCAUSE's ongoing process of evaluating and identifying IT's role in these issues and the initial projects that will contribute to this linkage.