2023 CIO Annual Report

A year of resiliency and rising to new challenges

Resilient, rising, and reinspired was the theme for this year’s UC Tech conference which brought over 1,000 technologists from across the UC system together both on the Berkeley campus and virtually. I think the theme also describes how the last year has played out and how we have approached our campus IT priorities: remaining resilient and making good progress on key initiatives while rising to meet some unexpected challenges.

It is safe to say that FY23 has been a year of transition. We bid farewell to CIO Jenn Stringer at the end of June and are now preparing to welcome a new CIO in the months ahead. Several other leadership roles across Berkeley are in transition as well, which definitely will mean additional change ahead. Transitions bring opportunity, and I am confident the strength of the leadership and amazing teams across both Berkeley IT and the One IT community will provide us with the resiliency needed to continue to support Berkeley’s mission and to help our community do its best work. I thank all of the talented IT and IT-adjacent staff across campus for their dedication, hard work, and commitment to collaboration that continue to help advance our strategic campus priorities. This annual report reflects your work and effort.

Gabriel Gonzalez, Interim CIO

~ Gabriel

Gabriel Gonzalez, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for IT
and Chief Information Officer

FY23 Achievements

The following list is just a sampling of achievements from our teams across our One IT community in FY23. All of these initiatives and projects are great examples of the collaborative efforts that exist between different units on campus in support of the university mission and helping to power the campus experience. Many of these efforts are ongoing and will continue into FY24.

Cybersecurity in a Nutshell graphic for guide

Strengthening Our Campus Information Security Posture

Improving the Network User Experience

Empowering Instructional Resilience

In coordination with the Research, Teaching, and Learning (RTL) Executive Advisory Group and campus stakeholders (Berkeley Law, Engineering, Haas, and iSchool), we developed a design-based plan to identify the next iteration of instructional resilience for remote, in-class, and hybrid instruction. Lead: Research, Teaching, and Learning in collaboration with these projects Berkeley Law: Educational Resilience; Engineering IT: Instructional Services; Haas IT: Refresh of Curricular Planning Tools; I School IT: Instructional Resilience.

Key Measures of Success

A standard definition for Instructional Resilience across Undergraduate Education, Law, Engineering, Haas, and iSchool.
Documented trends, commonalities, and gaps of instructional resilience across all units based on surveys, focus groups, and 1:1 discussions with users.
Initiated one design-based project tackling a component of Instructional Resilience based on findings from previous measures of success.

Achievements

A common definition and understanding of instructional technology.
A document with groupings of existing instructional resilience strategies and gaps across our five areas.
Planned creation of a campus-wide classroom technology community of practice to create an ongoing coordinated effort for instructional resilience.
Planned creation of a shared resource with a list of tools, systems, and vendors used at each school/department.

What does it mean to be instructionally resilient?

Ability to adapt to challenging circumstances and continue to meet instructional objectives using a dynamic process that addresses multiple teaching modes and course types. The process should account for short-term emergencies and long-term trends and be regularly enhanced using an iterative feedback process. Opportunities for training and idea-sharing across schools and departments are critical to its success.

What are some scenarios that can benefit from instructional resilience?

Public health emergencies
Natural disasters (earthquake, fire, flood)
Strikes, labor disputes, and protests
Short-term emergencies (active shooter, power outage, cyber attack)
Campus space constraints
Staffing shortage (instructors, GSIs, support staff)
Changes in market trends for higher ed

Value to the Campus

Stronger and more resilient as a community.
Visibility and collaboration across campus units.
Opportunity for more standardization where it makes sense.
Overall better preparedness for both short-term emergencies and long-term trends.

Learn more about the status of this project(link is external)

Developing a Plan for IT Disaster Recovery

Over the past year, Berkeley IT has been working on the IS-12 IT Disaster Recovery Assessment and Implementation project. A fundamental principle of IT recovery at UC Berkeley is to guide campus departments and units to have appropriate resources in place to recover institutional information and IT resources in the event of an unavoidable or unforeseen disaster, whether natural or human-made. Lead: Berkeley IT Information Security Office and Campus IT Infrastructure in collaboration with Research, Teaching, and Learning; Student Affairs IT.

Measures of Success

Onboarding of Berkeley IT units in phase 1 pilot.
Onboarding of phase 2 pilot units (Haas and Facilities).
Prioritization strategy for engaging with units formalized; Periodic review process defined and scheduled for pilot units.
Processes for unit onboarding and status tracking have been operationalized.
Program for ongoing engagement of recovery leads is in place.

How you can get involved

An IS-12 policy course is available in UC Learning Center(link is external), search for "IS-12" to find the course.

IS-12 Policy implementation will occur iteratively over time. During the initial implementation stage, units will assign a Unit IT Recovery Lead to complete an inventory, via a survey, of IT systems owned or managed by the unit. Characteristics of the systems will be collected and evaluated to determine next steps for each application. The kind of information being collected describes the system’s purpose and users, criticality to the unit and information about the application’s state of readiness in case of a disaster.

In the next phase of the project, users will begin using UC Ready to review existing Disaster Recovery plans migrated from Castellan/BC Catalyst. All DR plans and assets in Castellan are being migrated to UC Ready. UC Ready is a UCOP managed Business Continuity tool where users will maintain existing or create new Disaster Recovery plans. Castellan will be retired. You can find instructions on how to use UC Ready here: UC Ready ITDR End User guide for Unit IT Recovery Leads-UITRLs (link is external)

There will be ongoing operational efforts, since the policy requires an annual inventory and annual testing and validation of Disaster Recovery plans. The survey information and DR plans will help campus stakeholders understand and manage compliance with the IT Recovery Policy, document IT Recovery and Communication Plans, and ensure that appropriate resources are available to recover critical IT systems and data in the event of a disaster.

View the IS-12 webpage for more info and a project timeline

Building an IT Investment 10-year Roadmap

Progressing on Gender Recognition / Lived Name Projects

Engaged with project leadership and Berkeley IT to organize and engage resources supporting campus efforts to implement new policy for gender recognition and lived names that affect nearly all campus applications and data services. This project is ongoing but made important progress in FY23. Lead: Berkeley IT - Campus Applications and Data in collaboration with the office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion.

Key Measures of Success

Established formal project management and engagement structures for the GRLN implementation, including assigning a project manager and setting up project work streams, review processes, status reporting, and recurring meetings.
Established formal governance and advisory oversight, including securing co-sponsorship between the Office of the Chancellor, Berkeley IT, and the Division of Equity & Inclusion, as well as engaging leaders and teams from across Berkeley.
Structured separate project workgroups to manage different areas simultaneously including Business Processes, Communications, Governance & Compliance, and Technology.
Established formal engagement with UCOP and with other UC GRLN teams to facilitate idea-sharing, discuss common challenges, and optimize implementation and timing.
Facilitated the completion of GRLN implementations in key source systems (UCPath and CalNet) in June 2023, including training, support, and documentation.
Encouraged awareness and engagement by presenting about GRLN to multiple teams and groups across campus, including One IT, CIO Forum, DocuSign Community of Practice, Coordinated Community Review Team (CCRT) for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Misconduct & Clery Compliance Committee (CCC), IT Strategy Committee (ITSC), Information Technology Community Council (ITC), Berkeley IT Enterprise Operations (EO), Campus Community User Group (CCUG), Compliance and Enterprise Risk Committee (CERC), and UCPath.
Established and expanded the GRLN website to include FAQs, project team members, name change instructions, video and training content, policy background and details, implementation status tracking, and additional resources.
Set up a legal name request intake form and process for reviewing and approving use cases where legal name access will continue to be required for some systems.
Identified technical implementation milestones for priority and source systems, working with UCPath, CalNet, Alumni Association, Student Affairs IT, and Student Information Systems teams on change management, communication, data hierarchies and flows, and post-implementation support.
Contacted and met with each system team to discuss policy compliance, technical questions, business questions, legal name access use cases, and system readiness.
Developing an accountability and reporting process in collaboration with OPHD, Legal Affairs, and Ombuds that clearly identifies the rights and process steps for individuals to take when experiencing or observing harassment or other non-compliance with the GRLN policy.
Developed and are managing an inventory of 240+ affected systems across campus, capturing details on data flow, system contacts, legal name access needs, app identifiers, and organizational unit identifiers.
Evaluated and approved a timeline extension for the Berkeley Financial System due to delayed release timing of supporting features from PeopleSoft.
Confirmed all systems are now either in progress or complete, with all currently on track to meet upcoming deadlines.

Learn more about this project(link is external)

Ensuring Digital Assets are Accessible for All

Worked with campus stakeholders to further evolve the institution’s posture in relation to accessibility of all digital tools, both existing and new tools, and content developed internally or acquired externally. Lead: Berkeley IT - Campus IT Experience in collaboration with the office of Disability Access and Compliance.

Key Measures of Success

Program creation/build-out and Consent Decree Deadlines (Jan ‘23 - July ‘23).

Hired Consent Decree Web Accessibility Coordinator / Digital Accessibility Program Manager.
Hired new Program staff (2 BSA3 and 1 TPMP4) and pivoted the work of existing staff (BSA4 and AP4)
Created Web Accessibility Procedures and submitted to the US Dept of Justice for approval.
Developed web access barrier reporting procedures and gained US Dept of Justice approval.
Developed and published the program website with digital accessibility resources including training, testing, and how-to resources.
Gained US Dept of Justice approval for the Web Accessibility Procedures, published on the website, and disseminated to the campus community.
Developed, ran, and completed RFP for external Auditor.
Proposed external Auditor to the US Dept of Justice, coordinated US Dept of Justice review and meetings with Auditor and received approval to retain.
Completed procurement and contracting process with Auditor and set up PO.
Completed procurement and contracting process with 3Play Media for legacy content in the Dec 2025 deadline.
Coordinated with and provided guidance to the Digital Learning Services BerkeleyX team to meet the Sept 2, 2023 BerkeleyX accessible content deadline.
Developed, produced, and provided mandatory training for all Covered Individuals delivered from campus training LMS.
Culled the total data set of websites to those within the scope of the Consent Decree and identified new and missed websites (ongoing).
Developed YouTube, Vimeo, and Podcast (Apple, Spotify, etc.) list of channels under the scope of the Consent Decree and their contacts and began direct outreach in addition to CalMessage communications and website information sharing.
Completed a 6-month report and submitted it to the US Dept of Justice.

Learn more about this project on the Digital Accessibility website(link is external)

Creating a Data Center & Cloud Services Roadmap

Supporting Student Success

Two new programs that support student success are the Student Technology Equity Program (STEP) and the One IT Student Leadership Program. Both of these programs empower students in different ways and made great progress in FY23. Lead: Student Affairs IT

Key Measures of Success

Revamp the Student Technology Equity Program (STEP) to develop a sustainable and long-term Student Technology Equity program.
Hire a One IT Student Leadership Specialist to build out the new One IT Student Leadership Program. This program’s priority will be to uplift One IT’s student leadership and employment opportunities and affirm the value of providing strong leadership development experiences.

Student Technology Equity Program (STEP)

STEP provides students with the technology they need for their academic journey. Laptops, tablets, hotspots, webcams, headphones, and microphones are some examples of need-based loans of technology hardware available.

UC Berkeley is a very decentralized institution which means many different units need to collaborate on existing digital equity efforts. STEP is the only campuswide digital equity initiative. Partners and stakeholders involved have included, but are not limited to, the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office, the Basic Needs Program, and Supply Chain Management, plus lots of partners who collaborate to promote the program and make sure students are aware of this resource. In the earliest days of the pandemic, a portion of STEP funding went to the UVA Wi-Fi Enhancement Project, improving network connectivity at the campus-run family housing complex.

During its third year, STEP provided technology to nearly 3,000 students (2,200 continuing and 694 new recipients). About 25% of recipients were graduate students and 75% were undergraduates. The most highly requested item continued to be laptops. Additionally, STEP also resumed distributing Wi-Fi hotspots with a fully paid 12-month service plan; 218 students, all of whom lived off-campus, benefitted from STEP hotspots. For more information about years 1-2 of STEP, read the STEP Impact Report(link is external)

Because of her leadership on STEP, Anne Marie Richard, Director of SAIT, was invited and has been participating in the State of California's Digital Equity Planning Process through the California Department of Technology's Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy (OBDL), which is working to engage communities across the state to understand what barriers exist that prevent all Californians from accessing the internet, devices, and digital skills.

Learn more about STEP(link is external)

One IT Student Leadership Program

One IT employs 300-350 student staff that deliver 140,000 hours of work annually! Selection, training, supervision, and professional development are managed locally, which can result in disparate programs, practices, and employee experiences. Providing shared resources to support new and existing workforces will enable greater consistency and alignment across the student-employee experience. This is why in FY23, SAIT created a dedicated role to lead this effort and Amanda Bent joined their team as their One IT Student Leadership Specialist to build out this program.

Developing an intentional student leadership strategy positions One IT to invest in the professional growth of our future leaders with more deliberate outcomes. Students also significantly impact our work and how we deliver it to the campus community during their employment. Moreover, we create strong pathways to future employment on our campus, particularly for underrepresented IT communities.

Priorities

Align recruitment, selection, compensation, supervision, performance evaluation, and professional development practices for student teams across One IT.
Develop communal resources for supervisors to build their student leadership strategy.
Ensure equity in opportunity and experience for all prospective and existing student employees.
Build One IT student jobs into leadership roles that can become Discovery experiences(link is external) for undergraduates.