Matt Eventoff in eCampus News
How to defend your campus IT budget
IT administrators strategize to maintain technology programs as college budgets feel the pinch of a struggling economy
By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor
Matt Eventoff, a partner with New Jersey-based Princeton Public Speaking, has helped chief technology officers nationwide better communicate with deans and provosts who pass down final budget decisions. Eventoff said “removing the tech speak and presenting in terms that a [university official] can understand” is vital to defending IT budgets, regardless of the economic outlook.
“In the majority of instances, anytime IT is seen as less essential than other departments, it is [owing] to the lack of messaging and communication. When competing for dollars, it’s important to note that the onus doesn’t fall on higher-education officials, who dole out funding, to understand the language of IT,” he said. “The onus falls on IT leadership to message the importance and relevance of IT in clear, coherent, compelling terms that a higher-education official would clearly understand.”
In explaining the importance of IT security funds, Eventoff said, CTOs should simply tell officials that a vulnerable campus network could lead to devastating hacks, resulting in stolen student information. This would directly impact enrollment–and therefore, tuition–as students lose trust in the school and leave for campuses with more secure, reliable technology.
“In the majority of instances, anytime IT is seen as less essential than other departments, it is [owing] to the lack of messaging and communication. When competing for dollars, it’s important to note that the onus doesn’t fall on higher-education officials, who dole out funding, to understand the language of IT,” he said. “The onus falls on IT leadership to message the importance and relevance of IT in clear, coherent, compelling terms that a higher-education official would clearly understand.”
In explaining the importance of IT security funds, Eventoff said, CTOs should simply tell officials that a vulnerable campus network could lead to devastating hacks, resulting in stolen student information. This would directly impact enrollment–and therefore, tuition–as students lose trust in the school and leave for campuses with more secure, reliable technology.
