Many of us in ICIT have never known this organization without Nick Ciesinski, whose last on-campus day is June 26. Although he’s accepted an exciting new opportunity with Cisco, he will continue with ICIT until August 25. We all wish him success in his new role but will miss his institutional knowledge; extensive memory of projects, people, problems, and solutions; and most of all, dedication to UWW.
Over the last (almost) 20 years, Nick has worked to design and manage a reliable, secure, and intelligent technology environment in order to provide a high-quality experience. Nick has introduced countless technology solutions to serve students, faculty and staff, frequently positioning UW-Whitewater at the front of technological innovation.
As a graduate of UWW’s Management Computer Systems and Accounting programs, Nick’s first project right out of college was to deploy a wireless network here. Years later, he facilitated the merging of UW-Rock Campus into the Whitewater network infrastructure, which included replacing UW-Rock wired and wireless networks among other improvements. At the start of the pandemic, Nick was instrumental in enabling hybrid teaching, learning, and work modalities on both campuses.
He fostered a long-standing relationship with Cisco, helping us to establish and later expand Webex capabilities to effectively provide voice, messaging, and virtual meetings/events. His keen ability to work with our technology partners has saved considerable amounts of money, allowing more funding to be allocated to teaching and learning initiatives.
This is a short list of Nick’s considerable accomplishments benefiting us all. In fact, he’s been recognized for his work at the campus- and System-level. In 2013, Nick received UWW’s University Staff Excellence Award. In 2022, he was a nominee for the Regents University Staff Excellence Awards.
ICIT thanks Nick for his dedication and hard work, which is greatly appreciated. We look forward to formally saying farewell and celebrating his new adventure in August (watch for details). Cisco Cybersecurity will be lucky to have you!
