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March 26, 2001
Q&A:
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"My objective is to provide people with the technology they need to do business better and smarter, and to make everyone's lives easier and more productive." |
Ed
Chapel
associate vice president for Information Technology
A sociologist by training, Ed Chapel promotes a user-centered approach in his
work as associate vice president for Information Technology (IT). Bringing to
campus a variety of experiences, Chapel was associate vice president of IT at
Fairleigh Dickinson, a faculty member at Seton Hall and a director for Institutional
Research at a CUNY community college before joining Montclair State last May.
Here, Chapel shares his vision for the University's technological future.
INSIGHT:
What attracted you to Montclair?
Chapel: Montclair State has a long-standing reputation as one of the best institutions
in the state. I have lived in northern New Jersey most of my life. Friends and
family members earned their degrees here and all have spoken well of their experience
and education. Montclair has been and remains an excellent higher education
choice, and we are well positioned to further distinguish ourselves by using
technology in creative ways to enhance the way we serve the educational needs
of our students.
INSIGHT: What is your role as associate vice president for IT?
Chapel: The good news is that the appetite, among our users, for information
technology capabilityÑmore storage, faster networks, faster Internet, wireless
technology, etc.Ñis great. I strive to provide the best information technology
resources possible within the constraints of human and financial resources at
our disposal. Doing so requires planning and working closely with the campus
community to meet its needs. My goal is to facilitate delivery of the most current
technologies, the best networking performance and reliability possible. It is
also my goal to ensure that our users receive appropriate levels of training
and support so they can make the most of these resources. Quite simply, my objective
is to provide people with the technology they need to do business better and
smarter, and to make everyone's lives easier and more productive.
INSIGHT: What are your priorities?
Chapel: Installing a new student e-mail system is a short-term goal that we're
aggressively pursuing. We've purchased the device and the software, and we're
working with professional services and a project team to build the schematic
to get that up and running. It's a complex project that's going to serve up
to four sectors of our population. I would like the University to be recognized
as among the most wired. I also want IT to ensure that the capability for mobile
computing is distributed over the entire campusÑand that presupposes leveraging
wireless technologies. I'd like to update our installed base in one felt swoop
so we can incorporate a rolling replacement schedule that guarantees that no
device is approaching obsolescence. The turnover period would be between two
and three years. Finally, we need to renovate our space in College Hall into
what we are going to call our Technology Solutions Center.
INSIGHT: Tell us about the center.
Chapel: I'm pursuing a user services-centered organization model. The Technology
Solutions Center will be the physical place where all members of the campus
community can come for advice and have their technology questions answered and
their needs met.
INSIGHT:
To what extent will each department be responsible for its own technology?
Chapel: The manner in which technology gets integrated has become distributive.
It's natural for the disciplines to have specialized knowledge and applications,
so as the technology becomes more diffused throughout the community, people
with specialized knowledge and interests will appropriately choose to set their
own technology agenda.
INSIGHT:
Are there plans to restructure IT?
Chapel: Our public face needs to be simplified. That's the intent and spirit
behind the Technology Solution Center. Our users need to know that the person
who greets them will direct them to the appropriate group, rather than expect
our visitors to figure out the particulars of IT's organizational matrix. It's
a more streamlined customer service model.
