IT Community Message - 5/6/2020

Hey, out there. Wherever you are.

I was thinking that it's been a while since I sent a note. Believe it or not, we're 7 weeks into this new world, and for many of us this new way is now becoming just "the way." We've all adapted to get our work done. For some, I hear you have found that you're much more productive in the new remote working model, focusing more on what needs to get done and shedding non-value added steps. For others, you express a sense of missing some of what you love about our environment and what makes the UCI experience unique. In the end, we all have to adapt and find our way.

While things might be settling down on one front, like clearing one big wave, in many ways we're heading right toward another. For the campus, we're grappling with challenging topics like, "What will Fall look like? How many students can we support on campus? How can we utilize classrooms?" In healthcare, we're looking at, "When can we start elective procedures? How do we support COVID and non-COVID zones, and how quickly can we adapt them if a surge hits?" For faculty & staff, "What will come-back-to-work look like? When can it start for researchers? How will our workspace change? To what extent will we (need to) keep remote work models?" And, I could go on.

What's fun, for those of us who like change, is these are just the next set of vexing challenges of our institution. The urgency around many of these topics are fast-tracking the conversation to meet the new need, and technology is very much at the front of those conversations to help define what is possible as well as how is it that we can adapt as new information becomes available. We wouldn't be operating right now without our strong technology backbone, the ability to extend our capabilities, and the talent & ingenuity of our staff (all of you) to make things work.

Has it been perfect? No.

Have we been able to continue to operate and serve the mission? Yes.

Will we continue to evolve and improve things? Yes, of course, that's what we do.

What I know is that there is no lack of interesting issue to tackle right now. What I also know is that we need a lot of help. If you find you have free cycles and want to find a way to contribute, just reach out to me and I can help connect you.

Take care out there.

Tom