BY ELENA CHOPYAK

In print | November 1, 2007

After months of reviewing applications and interviewing candidates, the search committee for the new director for Information Technology Services has narrowed the pool to two possible replacements for current ITS director Judy Downing. Downing is to retire after 20 years of work at the college.

Over the next week, current ITS Associate Director and Humanities Coordinator Eric Behrens ‘92 and Williams College Director of Instructional Technology Gayle Barton will present themselves and their vision for the college’s ITS department in a forum open to the campus community.

Behrens already spoke in front of a group of faculty and students this week, and next week Barton will do the same.

Behrens, who has worked within the college’s ITS for the past 14 to 15 years in various capacities, outlined his experience and contributions to large-scale projects before answering questions. Originally a Theater Studies major, Behrens worked on developing the college’s first website in 1994 and was a project leader of Blackboard, describing himself as a “spark plug in the adoption [of Blackboard] on campus.” He also negotiated a significant contract with Blackboard, which currently treats and charges the Tri-College community as a single institution.

Behrens emphasized that his planning and leadership abilities are evident in the intricacies involved in the recent re-launching of the college Web site. Behrens identified the issues of communication, mobility and privacy as possible areas in which ITS may face challenges in the near future. Behrens would like to see the college implement technology tools to improve the college community’s cohesiveness, but also recognizes that technology is a “rapidly evolving legal landscape,” in terms of privacy and security issues.

Questions posed to Behrens concerned his projection of ITS’ future in community communications and social networking. Behrens said that he wanted to make ITS’ project progression more transparent. “Once you decide to do a project, people should know you’re working on the project,” Behrens said. Behrens also wants to see ITS take into account what campus technology users themselves want. “I would like to have ITS become more adept at working on the client experience,” Behrens said.

Registrar and search committee member Martin Warner said that the position was posted and advertised nationally, resulting in over 100 applications for the position.

The committee reviewed the applications and conducted telephone and face-to-face interviews before choosing the two final candidates. “We have been working on this for months. It has been a rigorous screening process,” Warner said.

Chemistry professor and search committee chair Tom Stephenson said that the committee conducted eight face-to-face interviews, and from those candidates, Behrens and Barton were selected due to their “management experience and thoughtfulness in technology and education.”

According to Warner, “fabulous leadership, excellent communication and keen awareness of possibilities” are among the qualities the search committee is looking for in a new ITS director.

The search committee has solicited student opinion since the beginning of the process, starting in May when a campus-wide e-mail asked for students to consider the professional and personal qualities important for a new Director of ITS to possess. Stephenson said he received only a handful of e-mails from students. Two students, Armando Leon ’09 and Eric Christiansen ’08, serve on the committee, along with college faculty and staff.

“We are hoping we’ll be in done in two weeks,” Stephenson said. Stephenson also said that a final announcement might be made later than the projected two weeks due to delay between notification of hiring and a candidate’s acceptance of the job. Furthermore, Stephenson encouraged students to e-mail him, or other committee members, with their input in the hiring process.

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