The chief information officer at a college or university is a key position, says Wayne A. Brown, who may be forgiven a slight bias: He is the CIO of Johnson County Community College. But he has data to support the claim. Four times since 2003, Mr. Brown has surveyed CIO’s and their managers, either college presidents or vice presidents, about the job. The 2008 survey has just come out. (Mr Brown says it will be available online here shortly.) Everyone agrees the job is important, but not why, or what a CIO should really be good at.

Q. How is your survey done?

A. There are two parts. One is sent to the CIO, and we got 435 responses from technology officers at places including community colleges, liberal-arts colleges, major research institutions, and service academies, all in the United States. I asked about their roles, their career paths, and some demographic information. The second part went to the management team of these CIO’s, which I define as college presidents and any vice presidents that the CIO’s report to. I ask their ideas about the CIO’s role and effectiveness. I got 130 responses from this group of people.

Q. Do the groups have different ideas about the CIO’s role?

A. Well, the CIO’s thought they were most effective as classic IT-support providers. That’s basically putting PC’s on desktops. But their managers thought that CIO’s were most effective in explaining and determining the college’s technology course into the future. Managers really want their CIO’s to be “informaticists.”

Q. Is that a problem?

A. Yes, because obviously there’s a big disconnect there. Presidents have different expectations for the CIO’s than the CIO’s have for themselves.

Q. How can CIO’s change this?

A. I think there is an opportunity here for CIO’s. The role of “IT educator” is at the bottom of their list of what they think they are effective at. But educating the management of a college about technology, or educating the faculty, is exactly what those managers want. Because we as CIO’s say it’s least important to us, we’re going to be least effective at it.

We should embrace that role as educators. We always complain that management doesn’t understand us and doesn’t appreciate what we know. Well, we have to teach them about technology. That’s our job. Who is going to do it if we don’t?

Q. Is that part of the evolution and maturation of the CIO position?

A. Yes. Degrees in technology management have not been around that long. For example, the guy I replaced here at Johnson County had a music degree, I think. That’s changing, and it will continue to change as current CIO’s reach retirement age—which, the survey shows, is coming soon for many of us.

Categories: Leadership