Wednesday, January 27, 1999
New position plans to aid centralization of computers
ADMINISTRATION: Board redefines office; groups will be
integrated slowly
By Lawrence Ferchaw
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA still plans to add a new administrator in charge of
computing, but the initial responsibilities of that position have
changed since it was first proposed.
The duties of that administrator will be different from what the
Academic Information Technology Board (AITB) proposed to executive
vice-chancellor Rory Hume. Instead of having control over all of
central computing, the administrator will initially manage only one
office – the Office of Academic Computing (OAC).
That person will also work to coordinate other computing offices
across campus. Eventually, the administrator will manage all the
central offices involved in computing.
"There were some areas of direct responsibility that the AITB
recommended that I did not think were wise," Hume said.
"I felt that I wasn’t able to agree with all the direct
positions at initial hiring," he said.
The recommendation of the board, which includes faculty members
and a student representative, was for a Chief Information Officer
(CIO), who would have authority over all of the campus’ central
computing offices.
"The campus needs cohesiveness in the area of information
technology," said Edward Tsai, a first-year computer science
student and a member of the AITB.
"The CIO should oversee all major central information technology
units," including the OAC, Communications Technology Services and
the Administrative Information Systems, Tsai added.
Though the proposed duties are different from what the AITB
recommended, the position is essentially what the AITB recommended,
according to Marsha Smith, associate director of the OAC.
"It’s good that they all agree that all central computing should
be under one person," Smith said.
Board members cited a difficulty in immediately having one
person in charge of all of the central computing offices.
"In an ideal world, we would like to have this happen
instantaneously," said Rajive Bagrodia, a board member and computer
science professor. "But, it’s hard to move an organization."
"(Hume’s) in agreement with the position of the AITB that these
do need to be coordinated, but he considers it infeasible to do it
in a short period," Bagrodia added.
This separation of responsibility will most likely leave the
networking parts of information technology under Allen Solomon, the
associate vice chancellor of administrative services, for the time
being.
While the new definition of the position is not what the AITB
had proposed, most members indicated that they understood the
reasoning behind the changes.
"A transitionary role can work only if (the computing offices)
are kept in close collaboration with each other," Tsai said.
Tsai added that some board members have "reservations" about the
role of the CIO as it is now defined.
Hume described the discussions between himself and the board as
"direct," and added that he expected some disagreement from the
board members who he described as "strong advocates" for their
causes.
Another board member said he appreciates the difficulty in
moving to a CIO coordinating all the offices.
"The question is, how can we get there from the fragmented
leadership we have now?" said law professor and board member Jerry
Kang. "It might be hard to get there immediately."
A draft proposal of the job description is awaiting approval
from the UC Office of the President.
Once the description is approved, a formal search will begin for
someone to take that position. The AITB will interview candidates
and some members of the board will serve on the search committee.
The goal is to have someone appointed by July 1.
Kang said the differences between what the AITB recommended and
what Hume decided are understandable.
"To get smart people with deep convictions to agree is almost
always impossible," he said.
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