The Office of Information Technology’s (OIT) Shared Services Initiative created and launched the Academic Technology Council for IT governance at SMU this week.

The goal of the Academic Technology Council is to ensure that technology services are effectively aligned throughout SMU, which will allow faculty and staff to participate in providing strategic direction in technology decision-making.

The council is composed of 14 members and is led by council chair James Quick, associate vice president for research, dean of graduate studies and professor of earth sciences.

“Our council members will talk to faculty within their individual schools about their tech needs, and also talk to peers at other universities about their IT functions to gain outside perspectives,” Quick said in an OE2C press release. “They’ll collect and prioritize recommendations for technology projects that will be best for SMU, and provide open and honest feedback to OIT staff.”

Each member of the council is required to maintain an understanding of the academic technology of his or her school or organization while advocating for technologies that enhance SMU’s capabilities.

Their responsibilities include, “providing input to the annual update of their school or unit’s academic technology strategy, helping to prioritize academic computing projects, providing input to service levels, advocating for SMU’s IT users and serving as an ambassador to OIT.”

The members of the council include Amit Basu, Cox; Katherine Engel, Tom Fomby and Elfi Kraka, Dedman; Mark Nausha, Guildhall; Nathan Cortez, Dedman Law; Halit Uster, Lyle; David Sedman, Meadows; Anthony Cuevas, Simmons; Theodore Walker, Perkins Theology; Sreekumar Bhaskaran, Faculty Senate; Mary Boyd, libraries; and James Quick, provost’s office.