Information Technology (IT) professionals from across Illinois State University came together in the State Farm Hall of Business on November 30 for the fall Continuous Improvement in Technology Extension (CITx) conference.
CITx is a half-day conference that sprung from the full-day CIT conference held each summer since 2013. CIT brings Illinois State’s over 200 IT professionals together to learn about upcoming projects and to discover collaboration opportunities.
The conference began with a networking breakfast before transitioning into a cross-campus IT news update. Illinois State University Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Jan Murphy got the event underway by giving a presentation to the attendees about how technology can help the University meet its goals in student outreach and retention.
Following Murphy’s talk, staff from across campus shared updates from their units. Some of these updates include:
- Associate Vice President Charles Edamala spoke about continuously digitally transforming campus in order to better serve our students.
- TSC Assistant Director Tyler Piper highlighted upcoming changes in Cherwell to make the program easier to use and more responsive.
- ETechnologies Director Arturo Ramirez spoke about numerous new technologies on the horizon, including chatbots, virtual assistants, and improved management platforms.
- AT-ION Director Craig Jackson announced that Eduroam, a secure wi-fi platform that allows users to have internet access at any participating institution, will be coming to campus in January 2019.
- Student Affairs IT Director Rob Bailey announced several updates and optimizations for several constituencies on campus, including Human Resources, University Police, and Registered Student Organizations (RSOs).
- Learning Spaces and AV Technology Director Doug Smith spoke about the formation of learning spaces working group to help improve those spaces across campus.
- Student Technology Support Director David Greenfield updated the group about new Adobe products and information on the purchasing of new Apple, Dell, and Lenovo machines.
- Office of Identity and Access Management Interim Assistant Director Dan Taube recapped progress in Identity Management over the past year, including the AD/LDAP project, and previewed the coming year’s plans
After IT news, the group split into four Redbirds of a Feather discussion groups. Topics included collaboration, Microsoft Teams, everything about Endpoint, and taking charge of your IT career.
Planning committee chair Carla Birckelbaw said she was pleased to see CITx continue to grow and be supported by constituents across campus.
“We had a great CIT event today, including remarks from Provost Jan Murphy that brought home the true value of what IT staff do in support of the University, sharing of news, and good roundtable discussions,” she said. “The Planning Committee continues to be very pleased with the participation of the ISU IT community in these events.”
CITx is sponsored by Administrative Technologies, the Office of Academic Technologies, TechZone, Student Affairs IT, and the College of Business.
If you are interested in assisting the committee, email isucit@IllinoisState.edu. Learn more at CIT.IllinoisState.edu.
