Posted on

Roles and Responsibilities Change in AIS

Because of the announced retirement of Rick Buerger, IS Data Services Specialist, staff members in Administrative Information Services (AIS)  will have the following changes in roles and responsibilities:

  • Ryan Wenzel, currently the lead person managing SQL server databases, will assume the additional role as primary lead for Oracle database administration.  
  • In addition to serving as back-up for SQL server databases, Michael Miller will assume the back-up roles for both Oracle and SQL server databases.
  • Betty Thompson will also start to work in the Oracle database environment, specializing on table/index optimization and other projects as needed.

All of the people listed above will continue to report to David Wallace, Director, AIS.

“I want to thank all of the AIS staff members for their interest and commitment to these vital functions within our organization,” said David.  “Please offer them your support and assistance to help make these transitions successful.”

All of the changes are effective immediately.

Posted on

Richard Buerger Announces Retirement

Rick Buerger, IS Data Services Specialist, has announced that he will retire from UW-Whitewater on December 31, 2010.

As most of you know, Rick has played a vital role at the University supporting the Oracle dB environment and enterprise applications, most notably, WINS (PeopleSoft). Rick has provided 12 years of dedicated service to UW-Whitewater, and a total of  more than 30 years working in state agencies and higher education.

Please join all of his friends and colleagues in wishing Rick well during the next phase of his life. Enjoy your retirement, Rick!

Posted on

Technology Open House Draws Praise for Interactive Opportunities

iCIT’s annual Technology Open House was a great opportunity to showcase  the campus technology culture.  It also offers a way for faculty and staff to meet the people and companies behind campus technology.

Held on Aug. 26 during Faculty Orientation Week, this year’s TOH featured the theme “Make IT Possible,” focusing on how technology enables more efficient work processes. Consistent with the theme, the Open House allowed hands-on demos of several new technologies.

iCIT staff members demonstrated a variety of services, including:  Class Climate; D2L; Clickers; Smartboards; MeetingPlace/WebEx; Ironport Spam Management; Online Syllabi; Events Calendar; TSC Helpdesk; SecondLife; HP Self-Service System, and GoogleDocs.    Several of iCIT’s technology partners, namely Dell, Apple, AT&T, US Cellular, McAfee and Cisco,  also attended the event and supplied  great prizes for attendees.

Approximately 65 faculty and staff members attended the three-hour, open house event.  Attendees were given a USB flash drive preloaded with information about the featured technology services.  Notably, the feedback from attendees was that they most enjoyed the one-on-one interaction with iCIT team members.

“Everyone did an amazing job of explaining and promoting our services.  On behalf of iCIT management team, thank you to everyone for their time and input in making this year’s Technology Open House a successful event,” said Elena Pokot, CIO.

Special thanks go to those staff members who worked at the event:  Melissa Adams, Shelly Allen, Aaron Axelsen, Nick Ciesinski, Stephanie Feirn, Susan Degen, Sean Diamond, Jacob Feder, George Jura, Derek Milz, Chris O’Connor, Lisa Rowland, Robin Schutte, Karen Skibba, Daniel Weiss, Carolyn Wilson, Mark Wozny and Julie Zaukas.

Posted on

Greg Roehl, Tech Purchasing, Update

As some of you may be aware, Greg Roehl, who manages the technology purchasing program for campus, will be out of the office on an extended medical leave for the next few weeks.  

To ensure continuity of service during Greg’s absence, CTSS staff members will coordinate tech purchasing activities and manage the tech purchasing work flow.  Customers are asked to direct all queries, including requests for new purchases and order status, to Techpurchasing@uww.edu.   If you are  aware of any customer issues or concerns, please forward them to Techpurchasing@uww.edu so that they can be addressed.   Thank you for your help in ensuring our customers do not experience service disruption. 

All of us in iCIT extend our best wishes to Greg for a full and speedy recovery.

Posted on

Search to fill two NOC positions is underway

Two new positions in the Network Operations Center (NOC) have been posted and the search to fill the positions is underway.   The new positions represent iCIT’s success in moving forward on two key strategic initiatives – iDM and Server Virtualization – and will allow us to be prepared to take them to the next level.  

Identity Management Engineer.  This new position will focus on integrating our campus identity management system with UW System’s HRS project, integrating electronic workflow into existing processes and providing automated provisioning processes to users. These activities will forward iCIT’s strategic vision of enabling self-help and automated delivery of services to end users. The growing importance and increased demands of the initiative requires full-time effort.  Nick Ciesinski has done an outstanding job performing this role on an interim basis in addition to his many other duties and his oversight is appreciated.  

Virtualization / Storage / Platform Engineer.  This new position will focus on managing the tremendous growth in storage and virtualized server infrastructure as iCIT expands use of these technologies, and will help manage the large numbers of servers currently supported by existing system administrators. This position will further the strategic goal of virtualizing infrastructure when possible, with resulting cost and energy savings for the institution. Virtualization and storage infrastructure have been admirably managed by Joe Uselding and Chris O’Connor in addition to their many other duties, and their dedication is appreciated.  This new position will allow us to continue to grow without overburdening staff.

If you have questions or would like more information on these positions, contact Tom Jordan, NOC manager, or Elena Pokot, CIO.