One of the smartest administrators I know has a saying that he applies to the work we do in Student Affairs. “Anything good we do will require Collaboration, Cooperation, Coordination, and Communication.” The Four C’s, as they are known, have become a mantra for professionals in our division. While we don’t always succeed in implementing the four C’s in our work, we strive to, and things seem to work better when we do. Cultural shifts, especially at an institution of our size, do not come quickly. But after several years of work, our departments have traveled substantially down the four C path, and certainly agree that we could do more.
And so it is with this mindset that I’ve approached working with my IT colleagues across the campus on several projects that will require us to honor the four C’s if we are going to be successful. Yesterday, the IT Advisory Committee hosted the fourth Campus Conversation on IT, focusing on email as a shared service. ITAC recently released its recommendation for shared email. There were almost 100 people in attendance at the session. Adam Mikeal from Architecture hosted the event, went over the recommendation, and then moderated our three content experts to discuss both Microsoft 365 and Google Apps as potential solutions. Participants were asked to fill out a feedback survey to give ITAC information to pass on to the larger university committee which will make the decision about which way we will go.
The questions asked were detailed, informed, indicative of a community that is ready for this to happen. After the Deloitte phase one and phase two reports, many of our IT professionals are beginning to see a shape of the changes to come, but they are hungry for information, communication and direction on these issues. In short, they are hungry for the four C’s. Â They are reporting varying levels of technical and administrative preparedness which is reminiscent of Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations curve (see below).
ITAC has provided much needed communication on these issues and has begun to prepare the campus community for shared IT services, but so much work still needs to be done. IT governance, strategy, collaboration, implementation, funding. The laggards and late majority make moving forward difficult and time-consuming. And like I said already, this is big ship to turn (think Titanic without the iceberg, hopefully). Although it seems email will be the first shared service to be implemented campus-wide, there are others that will require greater integration, resources and commitment to pull off. We need the four C’s badly, now more than ever.
