OIT Takes Key Role In Computer Policy

The University's Office of Information Technology (OIT), which issued its first-ever long-range report earlier this week, has become the central planner in Harvard's effort to update computer and data transfer capabilities, officials said yesterday.

Made public on Monday, that report touched lightly on several long-range plans made by the OIT to upgrade computers on campus within the next five to 10 years. The report also outlined the new "leadership" role the OIT--which is chiefly known for selling computers--will play in guiding the University to that future.

According to the report, which is the first indication of the new planning mission of the OIT, the office will set standards for equipment used throughout the campus. It will also advise the various faculties on security measures for these centralized informational systems and take responsibility for establishing these networks.

Citing a meeting between OIT administrators, Vice President for Administration Robert H. Scott and President Bok, the 16-page "abridged" report announced that the OIT has "recently redrafted its mission."

"OIT's traditional role has been to provide cost-effective information technology-based services to the campus community. Our role is changing, however, as technology use becomes more widespread, as technology expenditures increase, and as our customers see needs for change and seek advice," the report said.

The "new focus" of the OIT came about as the University slowly recognized the need for a "leadership role from a centralized position which can look across the entire landscape" of Harvard, said Ronald L. Orcutt, associate director in charge of planning at OIT.

"By showing competence, enough people believe that OIT can implement a University network," Orcutt said.

"OIT is now in the business of helping people plan their future," Scott said about the change in the mission of the office. He added that the change has been contemplated for a long time.

The OIT will use its new central role to assist faculties, which have had difficulties in implementing their own computer systems, by developing ways that technology can be used for a broad range of scholarly and administrative purposes, officials said.

Among the long-range plans already outlined in the OIT report are:

the laying down of new cables to improve the capacity of Harvard to transfer computer information throughout the campus;

the creation of a data base which would allow various administrators to tap into

a centralized collection of official

records--called an "information utility;" and,

the development of a system that would allow

access to the existing Harvard On-Line Library

Information System (HOLLIS), which would give

students and faculty members the ability to call

up portions of the Distributable Union Catalogue

(DUC) from their rooms.

But the report makes no mention of plans to

increase the use of computers in augmenting

instruction, an area which officials said Harvard

is far behind other universities.

The University has been "slow" to use

technologies for instructional purposes, Orcutt

said.

In his 1983-1984 annual report Bok investigated

the future of using computers in the classroom.

While acknowledging that computers could become

key in teaching rote material like foreign

language tenses and mathematical formulas, the

president wrote that computers would be useless in

teaching more open-ended fields such as history,

philosophy and religion.

To meet with the demands of stepping into the

technological limelight, the report projected that

within the next five years there will be a 9

percent annual increase in staff size and a 7

percent increase in space requirements at the OIT.

Within that time period the OIT, which currently

has 200 employees, will be looking for 11,000

square feet to house equipment and staff.

But in assuming this new role, the OIT may face

several barriers stemming from the traditional

structure of Harvard's administration.

A key issue which OIT will have to deal with is

the historic independence of the faculties, Orcutt

said. The current administrative system has been

characterized as being top to bottom, with the

individual departments proposing their own uses

for computers.

But Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences A.

Michael Spence said in an interview earlier this

week that a consensus had been reached among the

different faculties to back the university-wide

technology planning effort.

The move for a uniform computer system "makes

all kind of sense, it would be folly for the FAS

to get in the telephone business," Spence said.

The OIT is now considered a "full cost

retrieval" agency within the University's

governance structure, requiring payment at cost

for services it provides to the faculties. It is

still an open question, officials said, whether

the change in the mission of the OIT would make

the agency more like an arm of the central

administration rather than a independent agency.

"We haven't decided yet," said Scott. He added

that a decision on this question would be made

over the next year.