Fordham University recently held the Fordham CIO Roundtable, organized by Gabelli School of Business Associate Professor Aditya Saharaia. The Roundtable, which gathered Chief Information Officers and other IT Professionals from Fordham, discussed the issues that a large university faces in order to provide the technology needed for all students faculty and staff.
Frank Sirianni, the Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Fordham University explained that the task was not an easy one but the University meets the challenge through constant efforts to rethink procedures and to provide innovative solutions. He specifically mentioned one of Fordham University’s IT innovations to move to cloud-based management systems.
The CIO Roundtable unites senior IT executives with Fordham academic faculty, whose research focuses on data and technology in the workplace. The group of Fordham faculty and IT Executives meets once a month during the academic year. A participant launches each discussion by sharing a specific challenge or commenting on an industry trend. Group members brainstorm, workshop ideas, and express opinions on possible solutions to the problem that is proposed.
The Roundtable features about 50 senior IT executives, from a number of different industries. There are ten faculty members that take part in the roundtable discussion. The events are mostly held at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus however, some of the roundtable sessions have been held at participant work places such as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, MoMA, the New York Police Department and Google.
Past roundtable discussions have included cyber data security, problems faced when dealing with software service contracts and website privacy policies. The roundtable discussions will not be held again until the start of the 2015-2016 academic year. IT Professionals looking to join the discussion do not have the be Fordham alumni and can contact the Roundtable Coordinator, Professor Saharaia.