I’ve been in IT at Indiana University since 2008. In that time, Bradley Wheeler has always been the CIO, head of all technology.
I really don’t know where this post will lead me, but I feel I need to write it to get it out of my head, the subject matter bothers me.
Recently, and shockingly it was announced by the president of IU that he would “retire” his role, take a sabbatical and then return to his roots as a professor at the Kelley School of Business.
Replacing him? The head of my very own department. A person that has went from essentially a nobody that I had never heard of before, to being the head of IT in just a short 2 years. It doesn’t pass my sniff test. Not by a long shot.
When I was just beginning to really make a name for myself in the pit of nameless souls called IT, Brad would come to the office I worked at and talk to me on a level that was personal. He would talk about how the office in which I resided was one of the first big projects he had been in charge of. My office at the time had a long curved desk, with a meeting area that was turreted with long vertical windows.
He spoke of that office like it was his baby. Genuine care and pride. He never made me feel like the hourly nobody that I was, and never did. I appreciated his vision and I appreciated his leadership.
As time marched on, and I did create a name for myself I was given a bonus and a letter from Brad. It was for being a IU Brand Ambassador, in my work in helping other centers of the School of Medicine across the state. I hold that letter in the highest of regard. It sits framed, right next to my degree from IU.
To get to my point however. I don’t think this is something Brad wanted to do, I think it’s internal university politics at play, with him paying the price.
The current lead of my division came to us more like a blue collar person, not a white collar leadership person. His speech was rough, his ideas even more obtuse. Overtime it was like he went through a makeover for executives. I found it very odd, and still do.
At the same point, we are all working off campus and working on paths to return to a new normal. My leadership are pushing unreasonable expectations to migrate our computers to a different build, regardless of what problems this causes the users of said computers. Users who have little to know real computer / operating system knowledge, medical research labs that are working hard to fight cancer, and computers that are accessed remotely by users that need them for their job.
They don’t care, they just want their dashboards to say X numbers of computers have this. There is no security threat, there is no significant reason for the change other than the change itself.
I sent a message to several of my research labs and faculty members to make them aware of this today. What came out of that message was one thing, consent. That’s what is missing here, consent.
My people rely on these computers to do work, and store data important to their work on them. If I were to blatantly rebuild these machines, there is a possibility that data that is important to them would be lost. To me, an unacceptable risk.
I haven’t connected all of the dots yet, but there has been increasing measures to combine IU and IU Health’s computing resources. Those measures didn’t increase until the head of my division started his role. Coincidence? I really don’t think it is.
I sent Brad an email, not expecting a response. I had to air some of my grievances at what is going on. He replied in kind, and thanked me for my kind words. I know he will be okay, I know I’ll be okay. I just do not like the direction I see the world of education going. A world that welcomed me in where the real world never did.