Kent State University’s Division of Information Services provides critical technology-related support of President Lester A. Lefton’s visionary agenda of excellence in teaching, learning, research and innovation.

Ed Mahon, Kent State’s vice president for Information Services and CIO, recently took the opportunity to highlight the division’s accomplishments in the past fiscal year and thank his staff for their service and commitment.

“I feel it is important to recognize our division’s numerous contributions to university-wide strategic goals, and to thank each member of the division for their efforts, as we look back on an extremely productive academic year,” Mahon says.

The IS division serves the entire university community – students, staff, alumni and faculty members. The division’s more than 150 full-time employees, numerous student workers and part-time staff provide connectivity, devices, security and support that affect every area of university life.

“We serve the university in person, online and on the phone,” Mahon adds.

The division provides reliable services in baseline efforts, such as email, voice and data networks, wireless, facilities, tech support and other crucial functions, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. The division completed an impressive list of additional major initiatives in the last academic year.

“These special and innovative projects could not have been accomplished without the hard work and talent of those in all IS areas including network and telecommunication services, end-user and business services, and infrastructure and operations,“ Mahon says.

Mahon makes special note of the productive partnerships with other university divisions to accomplish key projects.

A small sample of these collaborative projects include:

• Redesigned the online admissions application to streamline entry and eliminated the requirement for the applicant to create a User ID and PIN.
• Redesigned the look and feel of the Kent State public website, featuring better navigation and functionality for the freshman suite of pages.
• Developed an interactive Web application to provide a user-friendly experience for prospects in their search for degree, majors, minors and certification searches that assists prospective students in finding a degree/major in undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Provided mobile applications to keep students updated with news, maps, images and videos, as well as information on courses, events, athletics and more.
• Provided the capability to build a conflict‐free schedule for critical courses.
  

For a complete list of the IS projects from last fiscal year, visit www.kent.edu/is/pmo/CompletedFY11.

For more information on the Division of Information Services, visit www.kent.edu/is.