UnITed: University IT Town Hall

When Vice President for Business Affairs Randy Livingston announced the formation of University IT in October 2014, he shared with the campus a vision for a centralized IT organization that would "present a 'single face' to our clients so that we can simplify the way you learn about, locate, obtain and use our services."

This vision came tangibly to life at the first University IT Town Hall held on March 26 at the Arrillaga Alumni Center. Staff from the three core IT units that comprise University IT (Administrative Systems, Information Technology Services, and the Information Security Office) gathered together as one group for the first time to meet, mingle and learn about the shared goals for the new organization.

University IT leaders Ganesh Karkala, Bill Clebsch and Michael Tran Duff, along with Randy Livingston, gave a presentation aimed at providing a common understanding across all the assembled staff of the vision and direction for coordinated central IT at Stanford. As a visible demonstration of the leadership team's unity, their first act upon taking the stage was to simultaneously don custom-printed T-shirts emblazoned with "University IT". This got a laugh while also bringing home the point that the three orgs are now one team.

Our hope is that this unity of purpose and presentation is also becoming clearer to our clients across the University. As we work to consolidate and clarify our services, departments and business units should find it easier to access the services they need to get their work done. The University IT Town Hall was an important milestone, as the many faces in the room had an opportunity to meet and take a step closer to becoming that "single face" that Randy envisioned back in October.