Education Policy, Business and Technology

The Ever-Changing CIO Job Description

Campus Technology: Jack Suess has worked at the University of Maryland Baltimore County since 1981, and he led the IT organization for several years before being named vice president and CIO in 2000. In the early days, his role was much more narrowly focused. In the '90s, the job of IT director was more of a technician role, he said. "I was one of 50 people on campus who had the title of director — and that didn't get you onto the president's council or on the budget committee. I was reporting to the vice provost for academic affairs. While he may have participated in some of the committees, I didn't. So you were getting your lens filtered." But things have changed dramatically since then, he said. "The skills you needed to be an IT leader in the late '90s were completely different than what you need today."

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