The Office of Information Technology

Commitee Terms of Reference


IT Steering Committee


General Description:

A standing committee with representation from all campuses and units of Antioch University.

Specific Accountabilities:

  • Advise on strategic directions for IT at Antioch as part of the IT Strategic planning process.
  • Advise on relative priority of IT initiatives
  • Advise on IT organizational issues
  • Advise on IT related policies and procedures
  • Advise on methods for ensuring effective two way communication between the steering committee, the central IT organization and the overall Antioch community including students, faculty, and staff.

Member Responsibilities and Qualifications

The members of the committee will represent the university, college or administrative area from which they are appointed. However members are expected to make decisions and provide advice based on the best interests of the overall Antioch University system. They will also be responsible for facilitating communications between the Steering Committee and the areas they represent.

Members should be managers or senior faculty who are 'IT aware'. They do not need in depth IT technical skills but they should have

  • A good understanding of the directions and potential uses of information technology in higher education,
  • An awareness of student expectations and concerns regarding the use of information technology at Antioch,
  • An awareness of how IT is currently being used in the Antioch University system,
  • A detailed understanding of some of the functional areas within the Antioch system and of the problems and inefficiencies within those areas which could benefit from the more effective use of Information Technology and,
  • The creativity to envision how information technology could be used to further the goals of the system in new areas.
    • They also need to be good communicators and good at working in a team environment to reach consensus on difficult issues.

    Organization and Membership

    • The committee reports to the Vice-Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer
    • Members include the CIO, at least one person from each campus, and at least one member from central administration. Members should also be selected so as to represent a broad cross section of the various functional groups within the system (e.g. faculty, registrars, library, etc.)
    • Members are appointed by the Chancellor in discussion with the campus Presidents.
    • The committee will be chaired by the CIO.
    • The committee will meet a minimum of two times a year.
    • The committee may form sub-committees or working groups as necessary to fulfill its responsibilities.

    Academic Technology Advisory Committee


    General Description:

    A committee set up to provide leadership on matters relating to the use of Information Technology for teaching and learning at Antioch University. The committee and its members will make recommendations to and act as liaison among the individual campuses / programs, the University Academic Council, and the IT Steering Committee.

    Specific Accountabilities:

    1. To provide leadership on matters relating to the use of Information Technology for teaching and learning at Antioch University. This includes:
      • Identify areas where Information Technology may improve the teaching and learning processes at Antioch.
      • Assist in establishing priorities for new Academic Technology initiatives.
      • Provide advice regarding enhancements to the existing Academic Technology infrastructure.
      • Share successful examples of cross-campus collaboration and recommend potential opportunities for future collaborations.
      • Provide leadership in developing, implementing, and promoting best practices of online pedagogy.
    2. For specific projects the committee will advise on implementation plans and strategies to ensure the success of the planned projects. Examples include major efforts, such as:
      • Sakai implementation, rollout, maintenance, and improvement
      • Portal planning, implementation, rollout
      • Web conferencing software for teaching, learning, and conferencing online
      • Antioch University Virtual Commons planning and implementation
    3. The committee and its members will act as a liaison among the campuses / programs they represent, the University Academic Council, and the IT Steering Committee. This includes:
      • Gathering information and feedback from their campus / program constituencies, summarizing the issues and passing them on to the IT Steering Committee and UAC representatives.
      • Communicating information, outcomes, and other results related to academic technology from the Academic Technology Advisory committee back to their respective campuses and programs (it is expected that committee members will consult with the campus CAO to establish best messages to be delivered to campus audiences).
    4. The group will make recommendations for evaluating the effectiveness of academic technologies deployed at Antioch University and whether or not they meet the needs of the university.

    Current Membership:

    Daniel Tyger (Chair)
    Katie Golus AT Team
    Elizabeth Holloway
    Wendy McGrath    		PhD Program
    Cheryl Armon Los Angeles
    Tina Dawson Seattle
    Christine Forte
    Lillian Seldeen    		Santa Barbara
    Liz Fitzgerald
    Jean Amaral    		 New England
    Jim Allen
    Michael Robinson
    Harold Hale (Student)    		 McGregor

    At least one of the Committee members representing a campus or program should also be a member of the local campus Academic Technology committee, when such a committee exists.

    Meetings and Reporting:

    • The committee will meet as required but no less than bi-weekly, approximately one hour in length.
    • The committee will report results of its deliberations to the IT Steering Committee and the University Academic Council
      • Recommendations and feedback will be delivered to the IT Steering and UAC groups on a monthly basis.

    Web Infrastructure Committee


    General Description

    A standing committee with representation from all campuses and major programs at Antioch University. The main purpose of the committee is to provide coordination of Antioch’s external Web sites in terms of infrastructure, software tools, security, and support. In general this committee will not deal with questions related to Web site content or “look and feel” – these questions will be dealt with by the individual campuses and/or the branding committee. The committee will however act as communication channel between campuses and other WEB based development activities (e.g. the University Portal project, YourMembership, etc) so as to avoid duplication and promote consistency where appropriate. The committee will be a sub-committee of and report to the IT Steering Committee.

    Scope

    The committee’s mandate will include the main university Web site (Antioch.edu) as well as the main Web sites for each campus and program. Their scope will also cover the Web sites for other University units such as Glen Helen and WYSO and other Web sites developed by the campuses. It will not cover Web based applications such as the University Portal, YourMembership, Hobsons, Sakai, etc.

    Specific Accountabilities:

    • Recommend software applications and development tools to be used for developing and maintaining Antioch’s external Web sites. Where possible the recommendations should aim towards standardization to achieve economies of scale, and to promote sharing of skills and development efforts between sites.
    • Advise on hosting of University Web sites.
    • Advise on security standards for University Web sites.
    • Advise on other technical issues related to Websites including analytics, methods for maximizing search engine ratings, etc.
    • To act as forum for communicating between the various Web sites and also with other WEB application development activities (eg University Portal project, YourMembership, Hobsons, etc) to avoid redundancy of content.
    • Advise on staffing for support of Web sites. Recommendations should try to achieve an appropriate balance between responsiveness to University needs for WEB development, total cost, and managing the risk to Web sites in the case of staff turnover. Staffing recommendations may include a combination of internal and external resources as well as training recommendations for staff.

    Organization and Membership

    The committee reports to the IT Steering Committee
    • The committee will be chaired by the IT Director of Administrative Technology.
    • Members will include:
      • The University Web Application Administrator.
      • One member per campus to be nominated by the Campus Presidents.
      • one member to be nominated by the chair of the PhD Program.
      • Others??? (Lynda Sirk? WYSO? Librarys?)
    • Many issues discussed by the committee will be of a technical nature and in general the members should have a technical background.
    • The committee will meet a minimum of four times a year.
    • The committee may form sub-committees or working groups as necessary to fulfill its responsibilities.

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