Over the next decade, 47 percent of academic chief information officers plan to retire. The problem isn’t a shortage of people stepping up to replace them: Unlike the college presidency, a position academic leaders are increasingly hesitant to fill, being the top techie on campus remains desirable. No, the real problem is a lack of people with the proper training and mentoring to step into these complicated jobs.
That’s the argument made by Wayne Brown, vice president for information technology at Excelsior College. “You can’t go someplace and say, ‘Train me to be a CIO,’” says Mr. Brown, who studies the role and effectiveness of campus technology officers. Classes focused specifically on higher education, he says, “really don’t exist.”
Now they do. Mr. Brown runs a new training program at Excelsior, the Center for Technology Leadership. This week, the center holds its first classes for aspiring and newly appointed CIO’s. Check out the classes here, and drop a note in the comments below to tell us whether you agree with Mr. Brown’s diagnosis of the CIO training gap.
5 Responses to Next Generation of CIO’s: Plenty Want the Job, but Training Is Inadequate
3224243 - October 28, 2010 at 8:24 am
Plenty of existing opportunities to train for a CIO position. A tech-focused MBA program, an MS in MIS, a PhD in MIS – any of these would suffice as the educational background for someone with management experience and all are readily available.
itschronicle - October 28, 2010 at 11:55 am
In my view, there remains no better ‘training’ than doing. And while learning “in the job” is not the best approach, developing a career path across and through the discipline is the better approach. Aspiring CIOs should look to assemble their skill-sets by successfully accomplishing varying roles in infrastructure (network and operations), systems development, user support, and research enablement. Further, understanding that resources — human and financial — are the key to the job, as is a strong service orientation and a care for the community that is enabled by IT. We oversimplify (and under-value) the role if we think we can “book-learn” our way to the knowledge. Courses and exposure to viewpoints through courses are good tools; but alone they are of little value if one can’t actually learn from applying what is learned. There is no single right set of approaches — and the individual’s own make-up is a huge factor.
bill_mayer - October 28, 2010 at 2:29 pm
I agree that there is a lack of people with the adequate skills to be an effective CIO, but i strongly disagree about lack of training. One need look no further than Educause (www.educause.edu) for a very broad view of opportunities and venues for learning. As a Frye fellow (’05 – a great year!) i also think the Frye has been immensely helpful – especially if you were to catalog all the leaders in HighEd tech today who are Frye-rs.
As “itschronicle” commented above, learning by doing is key as well – so how does current leadership mentor and plan succession? Not terribly well, imho – especially since when current CIO’s depart, there’s usually a near-irresistible desire to make broad changes, resulting in a whole new dept being ushered in.
Excelsior’s program is also good, no doubt, but i encourage Educause connections for those who seek the best in tech in Higher Ed.
pmasson - October 28, 2010 at 6:06 pm
I’ll echo bill_mayer’s comments and point to another common discussion point within EDUCAUSE, what is a CIO? Depending on the campus, the role might function primarily in a budget and planning capacity versus a role with responsibilities in technology design and implementation.
The variety of organizational structures a CIO can find herself might also provide some insights into the varied perception of the role itslef. Does the CIO sit on the president’s cabinet, report to the Provost, or the VP of Business and Finance. The varied reporting lines indicates ambiguity about the role of the CIO and even the view campuses have of technology. More interestingly this also highlights the difficulty in defining exactly what a CIO is, and thus the best training for preparing for that position.