Continue to provide central support for the development, implementation, and maintenance of enterprise-wide administrative applications. Leverage Brown's purchasing power by researching and negotiating favorable pricing from software vendors and IT service providers for products and services that are used widely across the university. Articulate the University's goal for instructional technology and define campuswide services needed to achieve that goal. Exploit the Web for information access, delivery, e-commerce, and process support. The University is rapidly outgrowing current support models.
Technology is no longer an adjunct to work or a personal productivity enhancer.
Departmental, local support has developed to provide more targeted assistance closer to the users, but the availability of such support has been inconsistent, often depending on soft money or a department's ability to scrape together funds for a few hours of support a week. Much of both central and local support has focused on applications training and problem-solving. Support for research computing and instructional use of information technology has been far less readily available. Models that provide differentiated support closer to the users are needed to make effective use of existing technology. Research and instructional computing support are needed to reap the real benefits of information technology.