Michigan State University

• Dush Fernando, Academic Technology Services • Jeff Carpenter, Telecommunications Systems • Esther Reed, Graduate School Dean’s Office• Matt Kolb, Academic Technology Services• Jerry Aubert, Health Information Technology

Founded in 1855 as the nation’s pioneer land-grant university, MSU was the prototype for the 69 land-grant institutions established under the Morrill Act.

• Agricultural College of the State of Michigan (1855)• State Agricultural College (1861)• Michigan Agricultural College (1909)• Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied

Science (1925)• Michigan State University of Agriculture and

Applied Science (1955)• Michigan State University (1963)

• 5,200-acre campus with 2,100 acres in existing or planned development

• 553 buildings• Instructional site in Dubai, United

Arabs Emirates• Extension and Research stations

throughout Michigan

Campus Today

MSU ranks No. 4 among the “Best Places to Work 2008: Academia,” published in the November issue of The Scientist magazine. The university moved from No. 16 in the sixth annual survey by the research trade magazine. MSU’s nearest rival among Big Ten universities is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, now at No. 16.

Hot IT Issues at MSU

• Funding and budgeting • Enterprise Business Systems Project Infrastructure• Staffing

Future Strategic Choices at MSU

• Generating economies of scale• Develop multi-institution resources • Outsourcing IT services to 3rd parties • Discovery and alignment of new IT services • IT’s role in the new mission

Content of slide taken from CIC4 conference – 2008-09

Hot IT Issues at MSU: 2009/10

• Funding and budgeting• Enterprise Business Systems Project Implementation• Reduction• Leadership

Future Strategic Choices at MSU

• Adopt a different model• MSU Cloud• Combine resources and technologies• Money is tight, reward good behavior

• Colleges and Departments are the experts for their areas– they know best what is needed to teach their material– they know best what is needed to foster excellent research– if they can afford it, they may choose the best IT approach for

their needs

Michigan State University Federated Environment: MSU’s philosophy of Freedom

Michigan State University Federated IT: Units may choose which to follow

Central Services

• Provided by Libraries Computing and Technology, Academic Technology Services and Physical Plant– Campus network infrastructure– Central email system– Central file server– Central course management– Campus helpdesk

• Offers what works best for most

College and Department Services• All or some provided by

individual units– Internal and independent

networks– Independent email systems– Independent file servers– Research support– User support– Academic and business support– their own IT staff sensitive to

their own needs• Flexible, custom, and tailored

IT approaches

Distribution of organizational resources and

control• Many Colleges• Many Support Units• Lots of room for innovation

and creativity• Lots of overlapping

infrastructure

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw

The most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

Philosophical Conflict

Culture kills the best of strategies

John Nance – Why Hospitals Should Fly

Thank You