During the August 8 Town Hall on Transform IT, Jessie Minton, chief information officer, was asked the following:
Question: “Please address budgets, layoffs related to [communications and IT] centralization efforts, and lost talent due to people leaving.” An audience member also asked this related, follow-up question: “What about the IT layoffs that happened as a result of the communications centralization?”
Answer: After checking later with Kyle Henley, vice president for university communications, Jessie Minton confirmed that University Communications has not conducted any layoffs as a result of integration.
Neither restructuring—University Communications nor Transform IT—is about reducing staff costs. UO cannot afford to eliminate IT staff. There is more demand for IT services than staff to provide those services, and staff reductions are counter to the goals of both initiatives. Transform IT will rationalize the use of IT resources on campus, increase the level of IT maturity, and create equity in the core IT services provided. These goals cannot and will not be accomplished through layoffs.
Budgets are closely related to staffing. As services are shifted in the next set of Transform IT projects, we expect to find some cost savings through consolidation of multiple contracts with the same vendor and better coordination of key enterprise services. We will capture these savings in an index that is specific for Transform IT, and those funds will be re-invested in the university’s IT to better support our institution’s academic and research missions.