Vice President's Message
A message from Peter Quan, Vice President and CTO, Information Technology Services
During the last several years, the University has engaged in the reaffirmation of its accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). This introspective process has allowed Information Technology Services (ITS) to re-evaluate its contributions to the educational success of our students, validate alignment of technology priorities with institutional priorities and develop new technology strategies to improve the University’s educational effectiveness goals.
WASC has established four standards by which all institutions in the region are reviewed. These standards are described below along with the ITS actions and accomplishments to-date that fulfill them as ITS makes its contribution to the educational effectiveness of Cal State L.A.
WASC Standard 1 – Defining Institutional Purposes and Ensuring Educational Objectives
ITS completed the Information Technology Services Strategic Plan for 2008-2013, which was aligned with the six goals and associated objectives of the University’s 2008-2013 Strategic Plan and CSU technology plans.
ITS adopted the following mission statement: It is Information Technology Services’ mission to provide the technology infrastructure, support services, and resources that support the University’s Strategic Directions and Goals and to ensure that information security assurance remains an institutional priority.
In addition, a vision statement was developed to guide the division toward a future technology environment featuring even richer and more robust services: Information Technology Services strives to provide all students, faculty and staff with anywhere, anytime electronic access to information resources in support of the teaching/learning mission of the University.
WASC Standard 2 – Achieving Educational Objectives through Core Functions
The wireless network, upgraded to N-enabled access points – the fastest and most secure, was completed across 100% of all permitted campus areas. The Student Health Center remained on the wired network due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy restrictions.
ITS successfully completed a three-year project to convert 182 general lecture rooms to technology classrooms. A 36-month equipment refresh was also reaffirmed.
During summer 2008 quarter, the concept of pre-creating student e-mails accounts from the daily enrollment lists was established. This allowed the University to distribute important information, i.e., acceptance information, financial aid missing information and awards, etc., to new students much faster and well in advance of their start date, and allowed faculty to communicate with students on their class rosters.
The ITS Help Desk provided a minimum of 61 hours per week of centralized service during each academic year. Based on results of the 2009 Educause Core Data Survey, which indicated that of 883 respondents at comparable campuses, 31.4% provided between 57 and 84 hours per week of service.
In collaboration with the CSU Common Management System (CMS), ITS continued to improve the GET student administration system performance and functionality, and meet regulatory requirements for financial aid disbursements.
State and federal law and CSU Executive Order 926, Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI), required that the structure and content of all University web pages ensure that these resources are available to all students, faculty, staff, and visitors regardless of disability. During 2009-2010, all ITS web pages were converted to ATI compliance standards. ITS, in collaboration with the other University divisions, continues to strive toward improving web page presentation, delivering meaningful instructions, updating and adding new content in a timely manner and maintaining a professional web site.
Through the IT Training program, students were offered a wide variety of computer workshops in areas such as the use of the campus network, communications tools, common personal productivity tools, and software applications, all designed to assist students without foundational skills necessary for educational success.
WASC Standard 3 – Developing and Applying Resources and Organizational Structures to Ensure Sustainability
The technology infrastructure, the foundation for all campus communications, administrative systems, student services, and collaboration, is continually monitored and maintained by training on-site personnel utilizing an array of tools that include: secure system design, traffic studies, system utilization reports, automated alerts, and security reports.
ITS continues to refresh network equipment and provide security monitoring of the wired and wireless networks. The data center server farm upgrade is underway and final completion is expected at the end of 2010. A network physically distributed within the data center is currently being created, including the reallocation of two chassis-based switches and the addition of 23 modular switches.
A pair of redundant firewalls was installed to allow for more segmentation with an increased number of security zones to provide a higher level of security within the data center.
Following receipt and testing, vendor software patches and upgrades were installed monthly on all ITS-maintained workstations across the campus. Urgent security patches were installed immediately to prevent damage to University networks, systems, and workstations. Anti-virus updates are checked hourly and applied immediately upon receipt of an update.
During 2008 and 2009, the CSULA Information Security Officer (ISO) chaired the CSU ISO team that designed and implemented an online, interactive information security awareness training program created to ensure all campus constituents were aware of their responsibilities to secure student and personnel data. The training, which was mandatory for staff and MPPs, and optional for faculty, was introduced on our campus in May 2009. To date 1118 employees have completed the information security certification.
ITS completed security compliance checks of all twenty areas on campus that accept credit card payments to ensure that students’ financial payment data is secure, thereby deterring fraud and identity theft.
An Identity Theft Prevention Program was activated during the first quarter of 2009 with 29 participants in five University areas. Required by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA), also called the Red Flag Rules, this formalized program ensures that all departments and employees on campus responsible for providing student loans and/or collecting payment for services are actively identifying and reacting to potential identity theft or fraud situations.
WASC Standard 4 – Creating an Organization Committed to Learning and Improvement
Reports and reporting tools available through the GET data warehouse provide faculty and staff with timely student information that can be utilized for modeling and decision making. During 2009-2010 the reports generated from Human Resources/Student Administration (HRSA), Student Financials, and Contributor Relations totaled: Crystal Reports – 1741; nVision reports – 102; SQR processes – 229; WinWord processes – 27; XML Publisher processes – 26; and system queries – 24,531.
ITS introduced SharePoint domains, an online collaborative application that allows for assigned community access to documentation, ability of participants to review and edit documents, and online discussion groups.
Decisions for future information technology projects and improvements on existing technology involve a reasoned evaluation and prioritization process within the context of the University Strategic Plan and the annual budget guidelines of the Resource Allocation Plan. Evidence informing these decisions is obtained from multiple sources that include student surveys, targeted service evaluation questionnaires, web site feedback, campus committee recommendations, and various utilization reports. In addition to highlight strengths and weaknesses, this evidence serves as a measure of success for overall service improvement.
WASC Evaluation of ITS Progress toward Meeting the Standards
In the Report of the WASC Visiting Team - Capacity and Preparatory Review, April 2009, “the [WASC] Team commended the University for its efforts in developing an excellent technology infrastructure.” While the campus technology infrastructure was viewed as commendable, the Team cited recommendations for future advancement. Among the recommendations:
- Continue ensuring and enhancing information security awareness.
- Address the availability and accessibility of CMS data to campus constituents for decision making.
- Simplify current Enterprise Resource Plan (ERP) systems and provide additional training, support, and assistance.
- Simplify the process for end-users to request and access IT services with the goal of decreasing the cycle time for delivery of technology services.
These four recommendations are being addressed by projects currently underway in ITS: increased online information security training and information for students, faculty and staff; CMS data warehousing; GET upgrade to HCM 9.0; and myCSULA Identity with new self-service features and myCSULA YouTube for anytime, anywhere software application training. More specific information on each of these projects will be highlighted in my future messages to the campus.
Additional Resources
The following reports, surveys and presentations were prepared during the WASC accreditation process and are available online.
2010 Status Report to WASC – ITS Strategic Performance Indicators; May 2010, revised September 2010
Educational Effectiveness Review for Reaffirmation of Accreditation; July 2010
ITS Strategic Plan 2008-2013; July 2008
Survey: Strategic Plan Goals and Actions for All Divisions(ITS submission); April 2010
Note: The final review stage for accreditation, the Educational Effectiveness Review, will be conducted October 6-8, 2010.