Greetings, everyone.
As the university calendar reflects, October is a month for building awareness around topics of significance to our community. The University of Michigan’s month-long Annual DEI Summit, Disability Community Month, LGBT History Month, and even National Cybersecurity Awareness Month present us with regular opportunities to participate in activities that broaden our perspectives and contribute to the greater good.
Leveraging diverse ideas and seeing a teacher in everyone is the secret to success, in my opinion. Thank you to the many members of the Michigan IT community who participate in DEI efforts across the university, from getting involved in groups like the Web Accessibility Working Group and the Women in IT community of practice, to writing and sharing tech tips (such as this recent video or this tech tip on designing for accessibility), to supporting unit strategic plans. Thank you for all your efforts.
In the security space, we are increasing our outreach to students this fall as we support their use of Duo two-factor authentication. Much like last year, this will be a collaborative effort between ITS, IT colleagues from across U-M, and university groups and organizations that work closely with students to help get the word out. At the end of the month, U-M will hold its 15th annual cybersecurity conference, SUMIT_2019, where industry experts will discuss their areas of expertise in cybersecurity and privacy.
Looking at your own areas of expertise, in what ways do you help to provide appropriate IT security and privacy in an open university society, while enabling innovation? How can we work better together to share ideas and practices to make this easier for you and the community you support? I would love to hear your thoughts.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to represent all of you in this leadership role at this amazing institution. Thank you, and please continue to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or ideas.
Best regards,
Ravi
Ravi Pendse PhD
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
University of Michigan
rpendse@umich.edu
