As we prepare to enter the next century, the University of North Texas will continue to invest significant resources in its Information Technology (IT) infrastructure - a vital component supporting the University's mission. This strategic plan for information resources describes the priority objectives to be supported by UNT's "IT providers" during the fiscal years 1997 through 2001. UNT's IT providers are comprised from multiple organizations within the University, from the central Computing Center to Telecommunications to the Microcomputer Maintenance Shop to local technical support personnel within academic and administrative offices. Successful achievement of this plan's objectives is contingent upon the commitment, cooperation, and coordination of all UNT IT providers.
In general, this strategic plan calls for continuing efforts in the support of instruction, research, and administration. While many of the strategies suggest that we maintain our present activities, a particular emphasis in this planning period is placed upon IT support of the teaching and learning needs of faculty and students. Some of the high priority needs include equipment, software, and technical expertise to support new modes of instructional delivery; increased development of services available through the World Wide Web; access to up-to-date workstations for all faculty, as well as academic and business support staff; specialized resources to support advanced scientific research and general science instruction; and increased capacity for off-campus access to computing resources. To meet the demands of students entering the future workforce, the University will need to continually update programs and technology. The need to maintain these high standards in information technology will require substantial resources to install/upgrade and support more sophisticated distributed computing systems. Finally, new approaches to professional development are required to help faculty and staff increase their skills and knowledge about the use of this technology.
This plan also emphasizes the need to continue the support of what we are already doing. Notable within administrative programming projects is a new system being designed for Automated Purchasing and Accounts Payable (called APAP). Not only will this system provide much needed information and functionality to users campus-wide, but its development carries far-reaching implications for UNT administrative information systems - APAP is designed as a client/server application which exchanges data with our administrative databases on the mainframe, and it will utilize an electronic approvals process.
The projects and strategies mentioned above, along with others in this Strategic Plan, are proposed in support of UNT and State of Texas goals. Further, they are consistent with the UNT VISION FOR THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:
Information technology can provide powerful tools that must be used strategically to ensure the success of the University of North Texas in tomorrow's emerging information economy. These tools should be used to:
Implementing this set of goals will provide information access for all members of the University community in a manner that enables them to achieve their designated objectives and that supports the educational mission of the University. (Vision Statement from UNT VISION FOR THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, developed by the UNT Information Resources Council, Fall 1993.)