.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} What is your main goal for your time here at Drake?

It is hard to say because I don’t know that I have the full scope yet. But one of the things that I care a lot about and will focus on is enhancing the user experience and developing strong clients for services and resources. But really I want to be able to help the community think about how to use technology in a way that reduces its complexity and increases its value.

How do you plan to help people use technology?

In a perfect world, everybody would have their own tech support person, but of course that isn’t possible. Because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, I think offering some menu of options depending on how they select themselves in terms of their technology use. But I think it essentially boils down to providing communication, letting people know what resources and support are available. So people kind of need to think about how they want to use technology and push themselves, but we need to be there to sort of provide some guidance and usher them through that experience and facilitate it.

How much of the challenge will be handling constantly changing technology?

Not only is it a moving target, but the other problem is that in your real world, life outside of your work or school, you are buying books through Amazon.com, you have online banking, you are increasingly using services that are delivered in a digital online format that are designed and supported by companies on a business model. Well, you know a university doesn’t function that way, so how do you provide the same level of service and meet the expectation that is shaped in this other context when you don’t really have the same financial content, in terms of how you are resourcing things?

After five years in New Orleans at Tulane, what brought you up north?

I started there three months before (Hurricane) Katrina. That certainly made it a very interesting experience; it was a very intense time. I had reached the point in my career where I felt that I was really ready to lead my own group of folks. I wanted to find the right institutional environment, and I think Drake really met those needs for me.

Did you get out before the hurricane?

We evacuated the day before, but we had purchased a house in a part of the city that fortunately did not flood, so we were able to be back by the third week in September, although we had considerable wind damage. But we were there living in the city through the fall of 2005 and it was an extraordinary time.

What was it like for you, as someone so involved with technology, to not have access to it in the days after?

But you know I did. I was constantly in touch through the Web and SMS text messaging and cell phone. But I will say that what is interesting is that I had a cell phone that had a phone number out of Ohio, so I didn’t have to route my calls through the 504 area code. Had I had one then, I wouldn’t have had that ability. In fact I ended up within that month, I had a ridiculous, like $800, phone bill.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

I would say holding together a staff of people after Katrina. I had gone down there with the charge of improving the coordination between four IT units. Well after Katrina, we were closed for the fall. We were back up and running by January of 2006, but over that fall, I really had to interact with my staff, who were spread across the country, by telephone, e-mail, text messaging and so forth. People were under enormous personal stress, and many people lost everything. I mean, there were people that died. So holding them together in a way that helped them feel like they could make a contribution, achieve something under those conditions and to gear up to go back and do the hard work that it would take to rebuild once we were back on campus. It was hard and challenging, and I don’t want to have to do it again, but it was very rewarding to have been able to accomplish that.