The Office of Information Technology is set to relocate off campus to the Metron Building next to Tyson Park, marking another change in the shape of the campus.
Denise Barlow, vice chancellor for finance and administration, said the move will help relieve the effects of growing enrollment and the renovations of new facilities designated by the Campus Master Plan. Barlow said after OIT moves off campus from buildings like Dunford Hall and Andy Holt Tower, the music department will relocate to Dunford while a new music building is built, along with the industrial engineering department, which will move from the handicap-inaccessible East Stadium Hall.
Space freed in Andy Holt Tower will allow for a “vitally needed” communications laboratory funded by the Scripps Foundation, Barlow said.
“They need overflow space,” Michael McNeil, executive director of computing system services, said. “The campus is growing. There is good and bad news. The good news is a lot of us will be in one building. The bad news is we’ll be off campus.”
However, only some IT services — such as business offices, computing system services, research computing, security, telephone services technicians, Web services, and parts of network services and telephone services —are moving to the Metron Building, Barlow said. Customer services in the Commons and the computer labs will remain on campus, McNeil said.
“The one that’s most difficult to move off campus is the instructional technology group,” McNeil said. “The biggest impact will be on the faculty.
“Faculty will have a challenge getting down to the instructional technology folks. You can’t take the trolley, (and) if you drive down, you may lose your parking spot. But one advantage is there is a much nicer training facility (in the Metron Building). The one we have now has holes, and the new one doesn’t.”
However, Barlow said if enough faculty, staff and students needed transportation, a “T” bus route might be extended to include the building.
McNeil added that having most of the IT business offices and other non-student related services together in one building will benefit OIT in the long run.
“Space currently assigned to OIT has been made available as the function expanded in whatever areas could be cobbled together,” Barlow said. “This has resulted in OIT being housed in several buildings and has not allowed functions that work together to be housed together. The relocation should allow OIT to provide better, more coordinated services.”
Both Barlow and McNeil said student accessibility to IT functions and services will not be hindered either with the move in general or during the office’s actual relocation. Most student customer services will still be located on campus, at the library and in the computer labs, and McNeil said relocation will take place without any interruption.
“What we have to do is coordinate our services,” he said. “We’re not going to be moving during (registration) or during real stressful periods.”
McNeil said an exact date for the relocation is still undecided, but is expected in January or February.
— Staff writer Allen Thomas contributed reporting.
