By Laurie Babinski
Editor in Chief
Vice President Dr. Nancy Magnusson announced Wednesday that Chief Information Officer Dr. John D. Lawson has been named vice president for information technology at Tulane University.
Although the move will be a promotion for Lawson, the choice to leave was not easy to make.
“We had to really kind of struggle with the decision to leave Pepperdine,” Lawson said. “I love that Pepper-dine has the combination of strong academics with a Christian viewpoint.”
Lawson is the latest in a string of Pepperdine administrators and faculty members who have left or changed positions since the inauguration of President Dr. Andrew K. Benton in fall 2000.
Lawson, a five-year member of the Pepperdine family, oversaw the implementation of the student residential network, the installation of the original messaging system and the Unified Voice Messaging system switchover in 2000, and the Y2K compliance and conversion. He also established the Microsoft campus agreement and numerous other technology innovations.
His contributions also include the inauguration of the initial version of Campus Pipeline or PepXpress, a digital campus that offers administrative services to students and faculty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The program was a result of a 1997-98 University Planning Commission review of the university’s technological needs.
“That brought a lot of functionality will bring a lot of functionality to Pepperdine in the future.” According to Lawson, the open system has allowed the university greater flexibility with its money. Lawson estimates that a new version of the future-proof program will be out within the month.
“Dr. Lawson has not only developed the technology infrastructure and advanced the use of technology at Pepperdine during the past five years, he has contributed to the planning and direction of the university though his membership in the university planning and management committees,” Magnusson, vice president for planning, information and technology, said in a press release. “Dr. Lawson is knowledgeable and well-read about the work of the university and he is an excellent communicator and strategic thinker.”
President Dr. Andrew K. Benton thanked Lawson for his service at Pepperdine as CIO during his Wednesday morning President’s Briefing in Smothers Theatre.
At Tulane University, Lawson will be in charge of the technology infrastructure and academic computing as well as general vice presidential responsibilities.
“I think I’m moving from one great school to another one,” Lawson said. “Tulane is larger, more complex.” Tulane has an undergraduate enrollment of 7,170 compared to Pepperdine’s undergraduate enrollment of under 3,000 students. The 110-acre campus located in uptown New Orleans houses most of Tulane’s 12 schools.
What is Lawson looking forward to in New Orleans? “Great food,” Lawson joked. “More seriously, it is the opportunity as a vice president to participate in the planning and seeing the ways information technology can be integrated into the entire campus.”
Lawson, his wife Sue Ann, and two of his three children will leave for New Orleans, La. in May. His daughter Rebecca, a freshman at Seaver College, will remain at Pepperdine.
February 07, 2002