About

The College of Arts & Sciences Information Technology (CAS-IT) department consists of professional full-time, student, and intern staff that provides desktop support, computer lab support, server administration, application development, training, and website support.

CAS-IT, with the guidance and review of the CAS Technology Advisory Committee, have crafted a CAS-IT Operational Plan. This plan is in response to the CAS Strategic Plan and the Illinois State University Strategic Plan.

Are you new to the College of Arts & Sciences? Would you like a quick overview of CAS-IT and technology in general at ISU? Please see this document: What every CAS faculty and staff member should know about IT (login required).

CAS-IT is required to abide by all University policy and appropriate Illinois state and federal laws. The following University policies impact CAS-IT services and procedures:

• Data custodians - a policy listing those who are responsible for defining, managing, and granting access to University records. 
• Intellectual Property Policy - a policy regarding intellectual property and copyright.
• University Property Control Policy - a policy disallowing personal use of University property.
• Procedures for Minimum Retention Times for Electronically Stored Information. 
• Contracting Policy - a policy that only the Board of Trustees, the University President, and those authorized explicitly by the President may authorize contracts or agreements on behalf of the University. 
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

CAS-IT supports Illinois State-owned equipment and processes for assigned duties only.

Mission, Vision, & Values

Mission

(Last updated in 2017)

The sole mission of CAS-IT is to provide value in the form of IT services to the College of Arts & Sciences and its units so that they are enabled to achieve their overall objectives and goals. (Adopted from the ITIL V3 definition of Service Management and Value)

Vision

(Last updated in 2017)

The vision of CAS-IT is:

• to provide the technical services needed, that are not offered or offered at a level of service beneath our needs by other Illinois State offices, for faculty to teach, conduct research, or otherwise provide service to the University.
• to be a strategic partner with the College of Arts & Sciences and the units within it.
• to be a trusted go-to resource for technology planning and support.
• to be a representative voice of CAS faculty and driving factor in technology services across the University.
• to understand the current state of technology in higher education and to look forward to future capabilities.
• to support, through technology, an increasingly enriched intellectual community, built with the collaboration of faculty, students, and staff that supports students' development as engaged citizens.

Values

(Last updated in 2017)

The CAS Technology Advisory group suggested refreshing CAS-IT's stated values in 2015. The previous values were established in early 2010. With much consideration, the following list was created in 2017. All members of the committee had the opportunity to influence these values. CAS-IT sees this as a clear view of how faculty and staff expect CAS-IT to operate and to guide our decisions.

CAS-IT values:

• people: by listening to, respecting the expertise of, and showing empathy to everyone we encounter on a professional and personal level, and expecting the same from people we work with.
• compliance with all Federal, State, or University laws, policies, or procedures.
• security, in compliance with University policy, of the services and data we steward.
• accountability in our work.
• input through Department, Faculty, Staff, and Student guidance and feedback through representative committees or advisory groups.
• fiscal responsibility and strategic spending.
• continual improvement of operational excellence through the on-going development of CAS-IT staff and the College of Arts & Sciences as a whole.
• collaboration with Department, Faculty, Staff to meet College or Unit strategic goals.
• stability and security in service through the use of best practices, competent personnel, and proactive efforts like regular maintenance and software updates.
• adaptability in preparation of or response to strategically changing needs of the College of Arts & Sciences and the units within.
• integrating students into daily operations and fostering their development.
• transparency of policies, procedures, and process by leveraging open communication and thoughtful business processes.
• innovation by encouraging creative and critical thinking in the development of technology services and solutions.
• ITIL framework ideologies, especially a service mentality: We strive to provide excellent service by being consistent, reliable, and accessible.
• a lean and well-supported service catalog.

History of CAS-IT

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is a diverse and multifaceted academic entity composed of sixteen departments and nine support units that exhibit equally diverse and complex technological needs. As the use of information technologies for research, instruction, and administration within the University has evolved, a variety of technical support units emerged within the College. These independent units assumed a wide variety of functions based on the needs of the individual disciplines. As time went on, this led to duplication of services in some areas, while other areas were under-served. To ensure adequate service to students, faculty, and staff across the College, to reduce unnecessary duplication of services, to take advantage of the administrative and budgetary efficiencies afforded by centralization where appropriate, and to build a more cohesive IT team within the College, existing units were merged into a single unit in the Fall semester of 2004. This unit is called CAS-IT and reports to the Dean. The objectives of this new unit is to effectuate and promote proactive planning processes that establish and prioritize technology needs, develop and maintain ongoing projects for a wide definition of technical applications throughout the College, proactively and reactively enact efficient and helpful support mechanisms in response to complex outcomes resulting from the use of technology, evaluate instructional technology, train technical personnel and clients on the use of instructional technology, and facilitate ongoing projects and personnel maintenance at all levels throughout the College as consistent with the larger mission of Illinois State University, and particularly as addressed in the Educating Illinois II document.  

In 2005, Dean Gary Olson charged CAS-IT to craft their own strategic plan—building on Educating Illinois and the CAS Strategic Plan—to ensure that the service and support necessary to advance the aspirations of our students, faculty, and staff were provided. The result was the CAS-IT Strategic Plan 2006-2010. As consistent with the Educating Illinois document and the final committee report on Organizing Distributed Technical Support (aka the Chizmar Report) the assumption here is that "technical support includes both reactive and proactive assistance to users as they utilize information technology to accomplish professional, organizational, and instructional tasks." A final assumption is that the above-mentioned assistance facilitates or enables the constituency to, in turn, better support the College. In some complex organizations, goal statements stand as justification for existing actions and structures and can also serve as a basis for evaluation. Measurable goal statements for the proposed technology support unit within CAS included:  

• Provide a variety of ideas, practices, and technologies for faculty, administrators, and staff throughout the College as well as provide a walk-in facility for computing support.
• Impact the effective implementation of technology in teaching, learning, research, and training.
• Establish a planning procedure whereby technology resources become distributed without redundancy and waste. 
• Create a curricular model for the technology development of students. 
• Provide users with a local support person as well as a college-level support team. 
• Develop, enhance, and maintain an integrated server farm and secure computing environment. 
• Improve administrative online functions. 
• Facilitate mobile computing needs. 
• Interact with the University networking, training, marketing, and other centralized computing groups. 
• Maintain a college-level location for specialized but shared equipment. 
• Create policies to improve the college computing environment. 
• Centralize fiscal purchases and personnel at the college level. 

In the summer of 2009, the members of CAS-IT resolved to revise our strategic plan. We did this because from 2005 to 2009 we experienced a number of organizational changes and outgrew the original strategic plan for 2005-2010. Through a series of discussions and mini-retreats, we have devised the CAS-IT Strategic Plan 2010-2015.  

In the summer of 2017, CAS-IT with the guidance and review of the CAS Technology Advisory Committee, have crafted a CAS-IT Operational Plan 2018-2021. This plan is in response to the CAS Strategic Plan 2015-2021, and the Illinois State University Strategic Plan, Educate • Connect • Elevate 2018-2023.    

CAS-IT leadership by date & title:  

• Fall 2004-July 2006, Sam Catanzaro, Associate Dean for Faculty and Administration
  
• July 2006-July 2010, Ann Beck, CAS-IT Director and Associate Dean for Technology 
• 2007-November 2012, Badri Rajagopalan, CAS-IT Assistant Director
• March 2013-Present, Mike Regilio, CAS-IT Director

The Merging of ELDCF / LILT / Training & Advanced Projects

ELDCF was created in 1994 by the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the Vice President of Academic Computing James Carter, and several interested Department Chairs and faculty. The organization was a service unit of multiple colleges and the Provost office and housed in the Research Services Building then moved to Stevenson Hall in room 227A. In early 1995, the ELDCF changed their name to The Laboratory for Integrated Learning and Technology (LILT). LILT grew to support the College of Business and many grant-based projects on campus. In 2005 LILT became a service unit of College of Arts & Sciences but continued to support technology campus-wide, like Select Survey. LILT then merged responsibilities with CAS-IT in 2008 forming CAS-IT Web Services. According to Dr. Ann Beck, then Associate Dean, “This name change will make clear that the College’s web services are provided through CAS-IT.” CAS-IT Web Services offered College faculty and staff assistance with web design and support, custom application development, team management projects (such as SharePoint sites), survey and form development, print design and support, among other web-based services. In 2008 CAS-IT Web Services transitioned to CAS-IT Training and Advanced Projects which had a nearly identical mission as CAS-IT Web Services.

James Carter was the founding Director of LILT and served until July 2006. Sarah Walczynski was the director from July 2006 to July 2014. Mike Regilio was appointed as the Interim Director of CAS-IT Training & Advanced Projects in July of 2014 until October of 2017 when it absorbed into the CAS-IT Director role.