1. Copyright Melissa Mills and Adrienne Moore. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

2. Features of a Successful Distributed Support Model Arts & Sciences Duke University EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference Baltimore, January 16, 2003

3. Overview The proposition Background Broad strokes Mechanics Successes Current challenges

4. How to…. Provide comprehensive & transparent services to faculty Meet individual needs Maximize limited resources Support both high-end users & newbies Foster growth for IT staff Anticipate needs Shape priorities

5. Symbiotic Balance Need to listen for what faculty need Need to lead - open possibilities and guide through choices Need to harness the energy of IT staff Need dynamic synchronization

6. Communication

7. About Duke University IT 9 schools with individual IT orgs Center for Instructional Technology Office for Information Technology supports 6,300 undergrads, telecom and enterprise apps

8. Ancient History Central acad & admin orgs Mainframe computing Good infrastructure planning Insufficient department level support Lots of “funny money” Lack of real money

9. Dahntay Jones, www.goduke.com Home of the Blue Devils

10. Academic Council Advisory Committee on Academic Computing –ACAC –ACACAC Series of reports established principles Dissolved itself in protest (1992)

11. Advent of President Nan Keohane 1993/1994 Requested IT report Joint faculty/admin committee Appointed search committee for VPIT/CIO Combined acad & admin orgs

12. President Keohane

13. A&S Computing 1993 Assistant Dean appointed No A&S Computing budget Departmental IT staff: 14 FTE The plan: write a plan

14. Broad Strokes

15. Simple Idea Make decisions as close as possible to the user Centralize vanilla services Create structure to allow transparent movement between central and decentralized services and resources

16. Components FacultyIT Staff Resources

17. The Faculty Producers and disseminators of knowledge Jewels of the institution Tenure-holders Primary clients

18. IT staff Independent yet interdependent Restless intelligence Curious and intense Mentors and mentored Defy categorization

19. Resources - Central Free! Classroom multimedia Web design Network Site Licenses IT staff salaries

20. Resources - Departmental Annual computing budgets Based on individuals’ IT use Spent in context of departmental IT plan Require participation & prioritization

21. The power of money Irrespective of amount, money: –Delegates responsibility –Empowers –Begs the question of priorities –Gets attention –Provides leverage

22. Why a Distributed Model? Starting from decentralized Need department insiders Career path for IT staff Scales resources

23. Central Elements Quality Standards/policy development Best practice/consultation Communications Community

24. Decentralized Elements Priorities (funding and services) Processes Customized implementations

25. Desktop Support Technical Hardware Support User Support ASNA: A&S Networking Administrators Classroom Support Multimedia Design Workshops Web Support Database and Web Programming DukeNet Servers “Best practice” technical practices Security policies Environment/Infrastrucure Arts and Sciences Computing Support “Fuzzy” Diagram Department Faculty A&S Computing Committee A&S Deans OIT CIT Perkins Library

26. Features Symbiotic balance of IT staff & faculty Peer Recognition Teamwork Common values Trust Community

27. Harnessing the Energy Dept’l Faculty LiaisonsBest practice & forums Policies & Budgets

28. Mechanics Lines of report Faculty advisory committee Departmental budgets Departmental Faculty Computer Liaisons Meetings & forums

29. About Arts & Sciences One of nine schools at Duke One of two schools granting undergrad degrees Includes ~ 70% of the faculty

30. Who are we supporting? 34 academic departments & programs 13 acad support & admin offices 580 regular rank faculty 570 post-docs, research faculty 600 staff 1,000 graduate students

31. A&S Computing 2002/2003 Departmental IT staff: 40 FTEs Central IT staff: 22 FTEs Annual budget $3.2M Add’l departmental salaries $2.2M

32. Reporting Structure Associate IT dean is member of Dean’s staff Faculty & chairs report to dean IT staff have dual report –Managerial: departments –Technical: A&S Computing

33. A&S Deans Assoc. Dean for Computing Faculty Departments A&S Computing Dept IT Staff Fabric of Communication Central IT Staff

34. Faculty Advisory Committee Advises on annual budget Advises on policy development Provides conduit for unsolicited input

35. Departmental Budgets Based on annual computing census –67% response rate In the context of departmental computing plans

36. Meetings & Forums Monthly “A&S Networking Administrators” (ASNA) Weekly/biweekly platform centered work groups Mailing lists Source of advice & direction “Best practice” & policy development

37. Evaluation parameters Quality of role within a team Level of expertise in job-related areas Initiative and learning appropriate new skills Timeliness of completing specified work and projects, including quality documentation Effectiveness and timeliness of communication with colleagues & clients Quality of participation in/contributions to A&S and university community

38. Measures of Success Few complaints Some praise Low rate of undesirable IT staff turnover IT literate faculty and staff Effective use of technology

39. Examples A&S IT Security Policy 15,000 hours of classroom multimedia use/semester with 3.5 FTE Development of standards & guidelines for Web development Remotely managed Linux and W2K distributions On-line budget system

40. Staff Identified centers of expertise Appropriate distribution of expertise

42. Local Expert Web Documentation

43. Department Web Design Team New Site Department New Site ???

44. New Site Department Ben

45. The Faculty Database

46. Programmer Deans

47. ProgrammerWeb Designers C FS C FS C FS C FS C FS

48. Challenges Scaling up –Identify leaders Local vs “best practice” –Patience –Processes, policies & priorities Communication!

49. Current Challenges Web support –Web design & maintenance –Web programming Home support 24 x 7 classroom support Avoiding grid-lock…

50. Features Modes of Communication Leadership at the highest level Faculty involvement Mechanisms supporting community Economic incentives supporting goals

51. Communication

52. Contact Information Arts & Sciences Computing Duke University www.aas.duke.edu/help/about/ Melissa Mills melissa.mills@duke.edu Adrienne Moore adrienne.moore@duke.edu