New vice president Leydon ready to direct revamped OIT

In mid-June, as many Princeton students were working hard at internships, in classes around the world, or at jobs in their hometown, Betty Leydon was working hard on the Princeton campus, busily reorganizing and preparing for the return of students.

Leydon, however, is not the administrator in charge of Freshman Week or Outdoor Action or manager of the U-Store. She is instead the recently appointed vice president for information and technology at the University who now heads a new version of CIT, now known as the Office of Information Technology.

"We really took the summer to get to know the organization better, and to understand the goals of the University from the president's and provost's view," Leydon said. "I think we did a good job of getting to know who we were, as well as getting to know other groups."

And working to understand the needs of students is something that will continue, and likely expand, now that everyone has returned to campus, she said.

The Office of Information Technology is the umbrella organization over not only CIT, but also the Educational Technologies Center — a multi-media lab that offers consultation and development for faculty who wish to integrate technology into their teaching — and Partnership 2000, a program to convert the University's outdated mainframe to a modern, more efficient system. According to Leydon, among the most significant summer accomplishments of the office was the development of a statement of missions and goals.

"The mission and goals of the OIT are really all encompassing, but a primary goal will be to deliver the products and services that meet the needs of the Princeton community," Leydon said. "Customer satisfaction will be very important to us, and an important part will be creating a process that will allow faculty and students to say what their needs are."

Indeed, Leydon's attention to the needs of all members of the University community is probably most seen in her desire to create an advisory council for her office, consisting not only of staff, but also of faculty and students. "The network affects everyone," Leydon noted.

Additionally, the OIT has created a new website, located under the "Campus Services" link on the University's homepage. Also located on the webpage is a copy of the office's mission statement. In addition to this online information, Leydon has begun a campus-wide newsletter for the organization, entitled "IT Matters," which is due out this next week.

The newsletter will be available in print for administrators, faculty and staff, and on the OIT website for students and anyone else interested. If deemed useful, though, Leydon made clear her willingness to look into producing a print version of the newsletter for students as well.

Among the topics covered in the first issue of "IT Matters" will be the importance of virus protection programs. Information on how students can find free protection software online, which they can download and use on school computers or their PCs at home, will also be provided.

This information may prove to be of significant help, as Leydon noted the University has already been faced with several virus problems this young academic year, including a virus that struck the library's E-Reserves.

Even with these recent hits, Leydon confirms what seems to be the consensus among students: The infrastructure of the Princeton technology system is sound and impressive.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"We have a very, very solid infrastructure at Princeton, and I think everyone would agree," she said. "The fact is, though, that you can never stop — technology keeps evolving and the needs of the community keep growing. At some point, we will definitely have to update."

With such a technological base, the University has begun to increase the information that may be found and the transactions that may be performed online. According to Leydon, financial information is already available to administrators through the web, and soon students should be able to register for courses in the same way. Even student advising, she said, may follow registration as an online occurrence.

The success of Leydon's ambitious goals for her new office and the difficulties that inevitably face any large institution rest on more than her determination: Leydon comes to Princeton with more than 15 years of experience in the field of university technology issues. Most recently, she was the vice provost for information technology and chief information officer at Duke University, where she worked for seven years. Prior to that, she spent eight years at the University of New Hampshire, ultimately filling a similar position.

Leydon's enthusiasm for the new position and school is clear. Certainly, she is fully committed to finding ways in which her role in the University community improve the overall experience of everyone.

"To me, the thing that is most exciting about Princeton is the very strong emphasis placed on teaching here. Like any university, research is important, but teaching is extremely important here," Leydon said. "Technology has evolved in ways that relate to teaching and learning that we couldn't do before. So an objective for us will be finding our what technology can do in and out of the classroom to help learning."