Craig A. Fowler, an information technology executive with more than 20 years of private-sector experience with several Fortune 500 companies, is Western Carolina University’s next chief information officer.

Identity management will take the spotlight as a major goal in 2009-10 due to its importance to campus communication, effective business practices, information security, and the eBriefcase component of the QEP.

One of the major IT projects of the 2009-10 academic year is the development of an online entry point, a “front door,” to IT services and information.

During the fall 2008 semester, Western piloted the Education Briefcase (eBriefcase), a component of the WCU Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), with the help of consultant B2B Technologies.

The Division of IT (DoIT) currently has about 80 projects under way. While all of these will have a positive impact on some portion of WCU’s activities, 10 projects will be most visible to the campus.

In receiving feedback from a survey of its campus constituents 18 months ago, the Client Services team responded by making several critical adjustments to its service model and technologies in an effort to exceed support expectations in a time of higher demands and increasing technology needs in education.

The Computer Standards Committee gets to work on revising WCU’s current computer standards list and giving it a lift.

WCU transitioned to Windows Live for student email in 2007. In doing so, students gained access to a more robust email system, increased uptime, and more storage space … and that was just for email! They also gained many additional features that can benefit their academic and social lives.

A new web analytics service that will provide usage information for websites on www.wcu.edu will be rolled out this summer. With this new service, producers of university websites will be able to see where their visitors come from and how they interact with their site.