Technology Equity Requires Intentional Enterprise Architecture

With funding from the legislature, the Chancellor’s Office supports systemwide technology investments to maximize equitable student outcomes in partnership with grantees (e.g., the California Community Colleges Technology Center, (Tech Center), the California Virtual Campus, and Tech Connect), colleges, and districts. While the pandemic forced unprecedented attention toward online course and services delivery through technology, the craze of the last two years is thankfully subsiding. Spring 2022 represents an opportunity for reflection around the system’s information technology (IT) and enterprise architecture (EA), specifically how the latter can help us collectively tie together strategy, business and technology to achieve the Vision for Success.
 
The Chancellor’s Office has reinvigorated its EA work on existing and future IT investments and related support services. The Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Committee and System Architecture Committee (a subgroup of TTAC) are contributing to this, but more needs to be done. To complement this effort, the Chancellor’s Office is engaging with colleges about their IT context, capacities, cultures, and maturity. This data collection can meaningfully drive resource allocation in a system where IT infrastructure varies considerably, but where there are shared goals (e.g., protecting students ability to apply and enroll). This spring, the Chancellor’s Office and/or Tech Center will begin contacting CISOs to better understand and catalog current status.. For those of you able to attend the CISOA Summit, there will be limited time for direct engagement/intake and to provide input on EA-related topics. For more information about the current EA activities, to set up time at CISOA, or share other related questions please contact David Kendall (dkendall@cccco.edu) or CCCTC College Relationship Managers (crms@ccctechcenter.org).