{"id":29927,"date":"2026-03-24T13:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=29927&preview=true&preview_id=29927"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:17:21","slug":"message-from-the-vpit-cio-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/24\/message-from-the-vpit-cio-63\/","title":{"rendered":"Message from the VPIT-CIO"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Ravi
Ravi Pendse, vice president for IT and chief information officer (Joel Iverson, ITS Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Greetings everyone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you are all enjoying the early signs of spring across our campuses. As we look ahead to commencement and the close of another academic year, it is a meaningful time to reflect on the energy, dedication, and collaboration that define the Michigan Technology Community. This season always serves as a reminder of the impact our work has on our students, faculty, and staff, and I am grateful to be part of a community that continues to support the university\u2019s mission in such thoughtful and innovative ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most inspiring examples of that collaboration recently was the return of Hacks with Friends<\/a>. This event continues to grow as a space where creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving come together in a truly unique way. It was energizing to see colleagues from across schools, colleges, and units connect, share ideas, and build solutions side by side. The spirit of the event reflects what makes this community so special. It is not just about technical skill. It is about openness, partnership, and a shared commitment to improving the experiences of those we serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The projects this year demonstrated both ingenuity and purpose. Teams approached challenges with thoughtfulness and creativity, and the results were impressive across the board. I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to all of the participants, and especially to this year\u2019s winners. Your work represents the very best of what can happen when we create space for collaboration and experimentation. Events like Hacks with Friends are a powerful reminder that innovation at Michigan is not confined to any one team or unit. It is something we build together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would also like to take a moment to recognize the collective effort behind the recent Okta Verify rollout. This was a significant milestone for our university, and its success reflects the strength of our entire technology community. A transition of this scale requires coordination, trust, and an extraordinary level of collaboration. Across campuses, we saw colleagues stepping forward to support their users, share knowledge, and help guide their units through change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, I want to acknowledge the network of Okta Change Champions who played such an important role in this effort. Their work in schools and units made a meaningful difference in how effectively we were able to communicate, support, and implement this transition. The success of this rollout is a direct reflection of what we can accomplish when we work together with a shared sense of purpose. It is something all of us should be proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we move into the final stretch of the academic year, I encourage you to continue building connections within the Michigan Technology Community. If you know colleagues who are not yet engaged with MTech, I hope you will invite them to join and be part of this growing network. The strength of our community comes from the people within it, and there is always room to bring more voices into the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish all of you a positive and productive close to March. If you have ideas on how we can continue to strengthen and expand our Michigan Technology Community, I welcome you to reach out to me directly at rpendse@umich.edu<\/a>. Your perspective is important, and I always value hearing from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please take time to care for yourselves and to support those around you. Thank you for everything you do for our university and for each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With gratitude, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ravi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ravi Pendse PhD
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
University of Michigan
rpendse@umich.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hope you are all enjoying the early signs of spring across our campuses. As we look ahead to commencement and the close of another academic year, it is a meaningful time to reflect on the energy, dedication, and collaboration that define the Michigan Technology Community. This season always serves as a reminder of the impact our work has on our students, faculty, and staff, and I am grateful to be part of a community that continues to support the university\u2019s mission in such thoughtful and innovative ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":29255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16,73],"class_list":["post-29927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-cio","tag-leadership-message"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5.jpg",600,375,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5-400x266.jpg",400,266,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5-300x188.jpg",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5.jpg",600,375,false],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5.jpg",600,375,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5.jpg",600,375,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5.jpg",600,375,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5-60x42.jpg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5-600x300.jpg",600,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5.jpg",600,375,false],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ravi_Stadium_101918_9226_8x5-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ravi Pendse","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/rpendse\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I hope you are all enjoying the early signs of spring across our campuses. As we look ahead to commencement and the close of another academic year, it is a meaningful time to reflect on the energy, dedication, and collaboration that define the Michigan Technology Community. This season always serves as a reminder of the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29927"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29929,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29927\/revisions\/29929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}