Taking Our Place: IT's Growing Role in Higher Education

Ian Hyatt, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, Purdue University

Ian Hyatt, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, Purdue University

Historically IT has been regarded as the enabler of modern business. Many industries, including higher education, have viewed these services as resources on the back end to enhance operations rather than necessities for function. However, it’s time to change that perspective. IT no longer simply enables business; IT is the business. This is especially evident in higher education. Take away the current capabilities IT provides, and business would grind to a halt.

Information technology has permeated all aspects of the higher education system. Enrollment management, marketing, academic advising, financial aid, the registrar – they all depend on IT to function. Not to mention the pivotal role of IT in research, student life, teaching and learning.

IT support on campus goes beyond computer labs and printing services. It’s no longer about simply ensuring connectivity for desktop computers in dorm rooms. Today’s students rely on IT to provide 24/hour network connectivity for their mobile devices campus wide. This need for connectivity isn’t limited to coursework. Students expect a reliable connection for leisure activities as well – streaming their favorite shows, movies and video games. Even student IDs have gone mobile.

For example, at Purdue University, more than 63,000 faculty, staff and students rely on the wireless network for teaching, learning, research and entertainment annually. On the West Lafayette campus alone, there are approximately 100,000 unique devices connected to the wireless network daily, with 4.6 million logins to the wireless system each day.

“On the West Lafayette campus alone, there are approximately 100,000 unique devices connected to the wireless network daily, with 4.6 million logins to the wireless system each day.”

Recognizing the need to invest in information technology, in 2022 the Purdue Board of Trustees approved a five-year, $2.6 million project to upgrade the wireless network for Purdue’s West Lafayette, Northwest and Fort Wayne campuses. Technicians began replacing wireless access points in university residence halls, followed by installation of new access points in academic buildings. In total 12,750 wireless access points will be installed across the three campuses.

Reliable wireless connectivity is critical to all aspects of campus life, and we look forward to further enhancements on the horizon.

In the wake of the pandemic, hybrid learning is no longer a novelty – it is the norm. In addition to smart boards and projectors, effective classrooms are equipped with robust, immersive technology to stream in-person lessons online. At Purdue, our Envision Center uses the latest technology to create virtual reality and data visualization tools for research and educational use. Our team works with faculty in different areas to develop applications that give students hands-on experiences. Examples include the first virtual cleanroom for training pharmacy students, an insect dissection VR application and a virtual environment for visualizing supernova remnants in 3D.

Online-only education requires another set of resources, including adequate IT staff to manage learning management systems and to collaborate with instructional designers when setting up online courses. Likewise, hybrid and remote employees need access to campus servers and software, requiring a solid VPN connection. With the rise of remote workers at the height of the pandemic, Purdue IT had to increase the VPN service to accommodate 200,000 connections.

For research institutions such as Purdue, IT plays a significant role in the operation and maintenance of advanced computational resources. Purdue’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) provides access to leading-edge computational and data storage systems and expertise in a broad range of high-performance computing activities. Purdue’s supercomputers and community clusters support research not only for the Purdue community, but for researchers across the United States.

As we look to protect not only the institution’s data, but also personal security and privacy for students, faculty and staff, cybersecurity remains one of the chief concerns for any university. This is an area that will continue to grow as higher education’s digital footprint expands. According to a 2022 report from Check Point Research, the education/research sector has seen a 114 percent increase in cyber-attacks in the last two years. To proactively defend against such attacks, colleges and universities will need significant IT support to keep systems updated and to educate users on campus about cybersecurity.

In addition to ensuring current operations are running smoothly, university IT teams also need to look ahead to emerging technologies such as VR, AI, blockchain and data science, just to name a few. Not only do we need to understand these technologies, but we also need to be able to advise how they fit in to the university’s structure and goals. Not every trend is a good fit for every organization.

With the growing role of technology at the forefront of higher education, IT professionals have an opportunity to shape the future of their institutions. It’s critical for IT leaders to build relationships with key stakeholders across the enterprise and take part in the decision-making process. The conversation surrounding IT as a driver of business needs to change, and it starts with us. 

Information Technology

Financial

Data Visualization

Entertainment

Storage

Learning Management

Virtual Reality

Blockchain

Marketing