Music professor Bruce Pennycook has recently been named McGill's first-ever vice-principal (informations systems and technology). What should his first priority be?




Jane Aitkens, Systems Development Librarian, Libraries

It is said that the University's greatest risk is not fire or theft, but the loss of staff with unique pieces of the corporate memory. The University has understood the need for professorial salary corrections to avoid "brain drain." V-P Pennycook needs to investigate the brain drain that is occurring within the ranks of computer support staff. This loss, in combination with the hiring freeze, can and has caused University-wide problems, as departments raid each other for the few remaining qualified persons. Departments desperate to keep their staff resort to time consuming job description rewrites to effect meager salary increases. The priority is to retain quality computer support staff and so offer the essential computer services upon which every corner of the University so heavily depends.



Myron Frankman, Associate Professor, Department of Economics

The student has to be the first priority. Computing facilities at McGill need to be looked at as a whole from the perspective of whether they are meeting the learning needs of our students. We must adopt a vigorously proactive strategy to provide both training and low cost, reliable home and on-campus access to the tools which have become essential complements to a quality education in today's context. Meeting this goal, given current finances, may require shifting the relation between centralized and decentralized facilities.



Michael Head, Software Systems Manager, Computing Centre

His first priority should be to look at re-aligning the major organizations reporting to him. They should be transformed from vertically integrated units based on books, video-tapes, telephones and computers into a single integrated organization based on information and consisting of horizontal units based on content, packaging, manipulation and transmission of information. Information is the lifeblood of the University. It is what we disseminate in fulfillment of our teaching mission and is what is produced in fulfillment of our research mission. At the present time we are guaranteed at least another 6 - 10 years of exponential growth in digital information technology. The V-P must be in a position to integrate these technical advances into McGill's information structure without disturbing the delivery of content to the end-user.



Gerald Ratzer, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science

1. To meet with the directors of all the units that will be reporting to him, to understand the wide variety of areas of interest that will now come under his jurisdiction. This should include a review of the main issues that face each of these directors.
2. Apart from the obvious financial constraints, to understand how the rapid development of technology and the big improvements in price/performance can be leveraged to address the mission of the University.
3. To understand the full extent of the Year 2000 problem, and how this will affect individual McGill computer users.
4. To understand the total cost and risks of changing the FIS (Financial Information System) and the SIS (Student Information System).