More Stats
Women take the lead when it comes to graduate degrees, with 73 percent of respondents attaining a master's or doctorate.
Education Level
A hefty number of our respondents boast
high-level education degrees, with the
largest portion (47 percent of respondents)
attaining a master’s degree. Interestingly,
women take the lead when it comes to graduate
degrees, with 73 percent of respondents
attaining a master’s or doctorate.
Perhaps even more striking is the variance
between the education level of our survey
set and the corporate populace: While 93
percent of our respondents have completed
a bachelor’s degree or higher, 2006 US
Census data indicate that just 54 percent of
people ages 18 to 64 in “management,
business, and financial occupations” can
say the same.
IT pros must continually update their own knowledge and professional 'networking' capabilities.
Professional Development
In any industry, professional development can help enhance job and
leadership skills, and generally advance one’s career path. But in the
IT world, where administrators must not only keep up with constantly
changing technologies but must also prepare for myriad future
unknowns, professional development is even more essential. Fortunately,
higher ed institutions fully recognize the importance of professional
development, as evidenced by the spending levels
reported in our survey: In the past 12 months, 26 percent of respondents
(IT professionals, and those influencing the deployment of
technology on campus) received $2,000-$4,999 toward training,
conferences, workshops, etc., and 28 percent expect to receive that
much funding next year.
If you’re not in that 28th percentile, consider the following reasons
you should be, from the Society for College and University
Planning Director of Media Relations and Publications
and CT IT Trends eNewsletter columnist Terry Calhoun
(excerpted from “Top Reasons Why IT Staff Should Attend Conferences!”):
- Overheard in the computer section of Borders: A guy says into
his cell phone, “Yes, I know the server is down.” He listens to
the reply, then answers, “I know, I know! I’m looking for a book
on it right now!”
- Information architecture and tech product deployments must
constantly evolve to meet changing demands and needs. IT
professionals and others who influence this evolution must
continually update their own knowledge and professional “networking”
capabilities.
- When do we know enough about
our campus community members
and prospects, where do
we store what we learn, and how
can we push that information to
the right people at the right time?
- Do we want to pay $2K now for
staff to travel to and attend a
conference, or $10K next year
to bring in a consultant who was
at the conference?
- Our IT pros will get professional
training in the coming year.
The question is, do we want it to
be at our institution, or somewhere
else?
- Network intrusion, network
intrusion, network intrusion.
- Face-to-face meetings—in hallways,
at lunch, at dinner—give
you personal connections to people
you can call with questions
and ask for help.
- It takes knowledge and skill to
do more with less.
Some IT issues are too big for a technology head to handle
alone, but also too technological for the institution to face
without the CIO taking a leadership role.
A Seat at the Table
Given that our survey sample encompassed just under 400 different job titles, it stands
to reason that only a portion of those positions would participate in the president’s
cabinet. The question is: Is 16 percent a large enough portion? Moreover, we note that
when our survey results are broken down by gender, the numbers indicate that a
greater proportion of males “sit at the table” than do females.
Why is a seat at the table so important? Some IT issues are too big for a technology
head to handle alone, but also too technological for the institution to face without
the CIO taking a leadership role. Consider the following reasons for including the CIO,
for instance, in the president’s cabinet (excerpted from “Earning Your Seat,” CT May
2006):
- Intellectual property management, litigation, and liability. The danger of
the institution being sued by the RIAA because of student downloading; litigation
over existing technology by owners of patents.
- Threats to the security of network and servers from viruses, worms, spam,
or new students bringing infected computers to campus; policies are needed
to contain these threats.
- Student ownership programs for laptops.
- Budget. Influencing the setting of priorities; determining how big a part of the
pie goes to IT, capital, and operations.
- Cost of replacing IT equipment versus other budget priorities.
- Role of IT in recruiting, enrollment management, fundraising. • Improving national rankings that depend on IT facilities.
- Risk arising from actions by vendors and other corporate partners in the
IT area.
- Training campus staff on technology, with the complications of unionization,
work rules, standards, and competency requirements.
- Safeguarding e-mail and other fundamental services.
- Disaster recovery from hurricanes and other natural and unnatural disasters;
business continuation planning.
- Alliances with other institutions, with businesses, and with local and state
government.
- Operating as part of a larger entity (system, state, etc.).
- Centralization vs. decentralization. Keeping a handle on the IT infrastructure
as it becomes cheaper and more possible for smaller units to manage their
own technology.
- Student life facilities. Securing the dorms, security, vending, laundry, etc.
- Installing new major systems. ERP, content management, learning systems,
calendaring and scheduling, e-mail, single sign-on.
- Providing new online services to students, such as music downloads, and
access to information databases.
- Wireless access, controlled and uncontrolled.
- Access to campus IT from off campus, for students, faculty, parents, and
international students.
- Expectations of service from the user community, and from the department
support units.
- Outside grants and research support.