RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
Information Technology will restructure itself to become more responsive to student and faculty needs, Senior Director Jonathan See announced Wednesday at a presentation for all IT employees.
“We’ll be working more tightly as a department, using existing talents,” said See, who leads client services and administration.
Students who call IT should see faster response times within 30 to 60 days, he said. He said he planned larger changes afterward.
Other goals include standardizing technology at Pepperdine’s five schools, following up on a random sample of calls to Tech Center to verify student problems are being solved, and solving problems in person if the workload that day is small enough.
“The goal is to create human interaction,” See said. “That’s gold.”
Tim Chester, chief information officer for IT, said the reorganizing was less drastic.
“When you say ‘restructure’ or ‘re-allocate,’ it implies that people will be fired or terminated, and that’s not what this is,” he said. “This is two people being promoted and some increased efficiency.”
See, however, called the changes the most significant since he began working at Pepperdine two years ago. He also said any vacancies created after the changes were implemented would not necessarily be filled by hiring new employees.
Gerry Flynn, who recently became a director of IT, agreed the changes were needed.
“On occasion we impinge on each other,” Flynn said at the presentation. “The three C’s in my approach, folks, are collaboration, consistency and communication.”
Tom Hoover was promoted to be a second director of the department.
“The goal is to have the same level of service at every campus, the same equipment at West L.A. or Drescher,” he said.
Several employees raised concerns, such as how smaller divisions of IT would have time for performance review, but most said they support the changes.
03-29-2007