Category: General News

The newest member of the ICIT team, baby Amelia Michelle Baldridge, was born on March 30th. She weighs 8.6 lbs. Proud Dad, Jacob, and family are doing great!

Andy will be retiring and his final day with ICIT will be Friday, March 12th. On behalf of the entire ICIT organization, we would like to say thank you for 35 years of service and dedication to UW-Whitewater. With 2 years at UW-Osh Kosh, that is a total of 37 years with UW-System!

​Andy’s first position at UW-Whitewater was being a Cobol Applications programmer for the Financial Aid Office. He was responsible for the installation and integration of one of the campus’s first large third party software products that processed student financial aid information. The software was from the company, Sigma Systems, and called Student Aid Management (SAM).

The second position Andy undertook at UW-Whitewater was what was called System Programming. This position was a technical support position and at the time UWW was still using computer punch cards and lots of green & white bar paper. His position was created when two of the three key punch people left just as UWW was to migrate away from punch cards. He is probably the only person to help migrate two UW campuses away from computer punch cards. His position spent much time expanding the IBM green screen/3270 terminal environment, this eventually gave way to integrating IBM, DEC, Wang, Gandalf, token ring, fddi, atm, and Ethernet systems. Eventually Ethernet became the unifying environment and replaced all others. This is the position that he is currently involved in as he has gone from 80 character punch cards to 40 Gig Ethernet while working here.

Among some of Andy’s many accomplishments while here at Whitewater:

• ​The SAM system integration was a gigantic accomplishment and its successful deployment removed the campus away from having to stay abreast, interpret, and successfully program ever changing federal regulations.   
• The successful migration of the campus network from the Cabletron vendor to the Cisco vendor. There were many hoops to jump through for the migration and establishing the routed environment.  
• What Andy is most proud of is the many student workers that he has had over the years that have gone on to be successful in what they have chosen to do once they left UWW. A number of the students still send him cards during the holidays.

Andy’s advice, “Just keep an open mind as leadership all the way up to the UW-System President sets a direction that you may or may not agree with, decide to embrace it as an opportunity to better serve the students and to preserve their transcripts. After all, if it wasn’t for the students and their transcripts there would be no need for us.”

After retirement Andy and his wife plan to continue to provide encouragement to their daughter who enrolled in Vet. school in the Caribbean.

Please take a moment to wish Andy well on his retirement and thank him for his many years of hard work, service and dedication to UW-Whitewater. We will miss you Andy!

The newest member of the ICIT team, baby Clementine Ann, was born on March 4th, at 5:42 pm. She weighs 8.2 lbs. Mama and baby are doing great!

On behalf of the entire ICIT organization, we would like to welcome Jeffrey (Jeff) Thomas as the new Assistant Director for Learning Technology with the LTC.

Jeff’s primary responsibilities will include:

• Consult with Deans’ Offices and various other academic and non-academic campus leaders to identify and meet their unit needs regarding campus technology.
• Relate their feedback to ICIT Service owners and leadership so ICIT can plan and align instructional and non-instructional technology and service delivery with the identified needs.
• Provide guidance and support, and facilitate the professional growth of the LTC team.
• Provide support and training for instructors and administrative staff in coordination with members of the LTC.

Jeff comes to us from UW-Madison where he worked as an Instructional Design and Technology Consultant. Jeff’s professional background is in French Language & Literature and Second Language Acquisition. He also has a wide variety of experience in instructional design, curricular development, and technology training in administrative and instructional settings.

During his time at UW-Madison, his responsibilities included designing and delivering professional development sessions in technology-driven pedagogy and academic technology, facilitating faculty development through the Blended Learning Fellowship Program, and acting as the curricular liaison for the COVID-19 Continuity of Instruction response team.

Jeff is originally from Atlanta, GA, and recalls fondly his first “true winter” after moving to Wisconsin (he currently resides in Madison).

Jeff and his partner enjoy outdoor sports as avid cyclists and snowshoeing enthusiasts. Jeff also loves spending time in the kitchen working his way around the world when it comes to new and exciting recipes (I think Jeff will enjoy the LTC food events)!

We are thrilled to have Jeff join our team, please take some time to welcome him when you can!

We are happy to announce that the LTC’s Shane Degen has accepted a new position within ICIT!

On Monday, December 14th, Shane officially transitioned to his new role as Teaching, Learning, and Technology Consultant for the LTC.

In this new role, Shane will assist in the development of training for faculty with regard to teaching in online and hybrid formats. He will also be supporting the LTC with faculty consultations and continue his duties as LMS Administrator.

It is always exciting to share this kind of news which serves as a great example of the caliber of people that we have the privilege of working alongside. Please take some time to congratulate Shane the next time you see or speak with him, this is well earned!