Steady As She Goes
How do you lead IT through the turbulentwaters of economic crisis? Take your cues from five stalwart CIOs.
WITH COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES struggling to minimize the effects of thetroubled economy, it certainly isn't an easy time to be a CIO. Recently, CT sat down with a panel of highereducation IT leaders to pick their brains about best practices for steering IT through economic crisis.Panelists included Jan Biros, associate VP for instructional technology support and campus outreach at Drexel University (PA); Wayne Brown, VP for information technology at Excelsior College (NY); KamranKhan, vice provost for IT at Rice University (TX); Rick Peterson, chief technology officer at Washingtonand Lee University (VA); and Adrian Sannier, VP and university technology officer at Arizona StateUniversity. Here's an edited transcript of the conversation.
CT: How, specifically, have your IT budgets been affected by the recent economic downturn?
Jan Biros: The instructions at our university are that all budgets will be at current service levels, so we don't expect any increases at all in anything, and that goes for IT as well.
Wayne Brown: We've frozen all hiring, and when anybody leaves, that position has to be evaluated by the cabinet to decide whether to replace that person or not. All other spending receives a high level of scrutiny; in some cases, we've even given money back.
Kamran Khan: So far this year, on non-salaried portions of the budget we gave back 1 percent. And [as of] July 1, I [had to] cut my budget by 5 percent. We also depend on our endowment here at Rice, so that has an impact, too.
Rick Peterson: At Washington and Lee, the way our budget works is that we are allocated a capital-side budget and an operating-side budget. On the capital-side budget we've taken a large hit in replacing desktop computers and printers, and we're cutting our usual expenditures in classroom technology upgrades. On the operating side, it hasn't been so bad: We had to cut 12 percent in travel and a little bit in postage. We don't have any imprimaturs from the administration, just to watch closely and don't spend anything stupidly.
Adrian Sannier: At Arizona State we're feeling things a little more keenly than some of the others. In addition to freezes, we have a university-wide furlough that applies to IT. On top of that we've cut at least $2 million off our $67 million budget and may have to give another $1 million back. And as we look toward next year, the scenario could be even bleaker.
CT: When it's time to make cuts, how do you decide what goes first?
Brown: It's all about prioritizing. Those things that aren't attached to a project are the first to go. Professional development, conferences-- those come off the list pretty quickly.
Peterson: We developed a five-year strategic IT plan and have an associated five-year budget. So the first thing we do is look toward items in the strategic plan that match up with funding that may be available. We've had some deferred maintenance, too.
CT: To what extent have these cuts made your job more difficult?
Sannier: Certainly they put a much greater strain on the management of the staff as a whole. The planning effort also becomes much more intense. On top of that, at least at ASU, a comprehensive furlough has put an additional load on us.
"We've been able to renegotiate several of our strategicpartner relationships to increase service anddecrease cost. And we've called on our strategic partnersto do more for the same money." -- Adrian Sannier, Arizona State