B-W: IT Mission Statement

In support of the academic program and congruous to the overall mission of Baldwin-Wallace College, it is the objective of the IT Department to maintain a reliable and secure information technology network infrastructure, coordinate a dependable system of administrative databases, provide comprehensive and responsive service to the campus computing community, offer educational technology training resources, monitor and utilize forward-thinking practices in planning for the future, and establish a ubiquitous system of effective electronic communication among all constituencies.

To fulfill this mission, the IT Department strives to achieve the following goals:

Academic Goals:

To maintain a facility for faculty that is housed with up-to-date equipment and a highly-qualified staff capable of providing a wide-range of training options in both established and progressive technologies that can be utilized in the classroom to enhance the teaching/learning process.
To provide numerous computer lab facilities for students that are generously equipped with current hardware and software options and have 24-hour access to accommodate various scheduling needs.
To remain abreast of current and emerging trends in educational technologies as well as perform environmental scanning to assess our status with regard to competing institutions.
To support a college-wide intranet (portal) system that utilizes features such as the development of online course content for faculty, information sharing between faculty and students, and an area to create and maintain a personal web space and e-portfolios for students.

Administrative Goals:

To provide information technology systems that efficiently automate the recording, processing, reporting, and storage of institutional data.
To coordinate, through networking and programming efforts, the integration of information sharing between numerous offices to better ensure the accuracy and consistency of reports generated from multiple databases.
To support the administrative activity on campus with desktop computers, software, and peripherals that are up-to-date and appropriately meet the needs of each user.
To act as the resource center for official institutional research, thereby fulfilling data requests and providing statistical information to external constituencies.

Service & Support Goals:

To operate a reliable network of servers and global access that adequately meets the needs of the campus.
To provide the highest level of security for data storage, data transmission, threats of intrusion, and virus attacks in order to protect the integrity of the network.
To offer campus-wide access to the network through extensive computing options, both wired and wireless.
To operate a HelpDesk assistance service to all areas of the campus that provides both telephone support and onsite repair capabilities.

Communication Goals:

To make IT policies and publications readily available and electronically accessible in order to provide the most current information to the campus community.
To facilitate internal and external electronic e-mail communication.
To maintain a reliable telephone system capable of adequately processing the telecommunications needs of the campus including local, long-distance, and emergency 911 services, with necessary accessibility for optimal benefit.
To supervise the accounts of numerous campus cellular phone users in order to achieve consistency and cost with various vendors.

Planning Goals:

To consistently monitor the ever-changing hardware and software requirements of the College, assisting faculty and administrative staff in the selection and purchase of appropriate equipment and packages.
To monitor the release of new technologies, thereby researching their appropriateness for implementation in this institution.
To ask as the technical liaison between the President and Officers of the College, making recommendations for appropriate changes to what is provided.
To establish and maintain legal and ethical guidelines and standards with regard to licensing, distribution, and data sharing issues.
To provide professional development opportunities to the IT staff in order to achieve a greater knowledge base and more comprehensive talent pool.
To develop annual computer capital and operational budgets that work within the parameters of the funds received by the institution.
To regularly monitor and update the Strategic Plan for Information Technology in order for it to remain a current and effective document, guiding the decisions made, and keeping in line with the overall mission of Baldwin-Wallace College.

Information Technology

IT Mission Statement