Spotlight on Ohlone

IT director to keep tech fresh

By Kathy Sung, Staff Writer.

Thursday, February 28, 2008 — Monitor.

Bruce Griffin hopes to shake up the technology here at Ohlone. — Photo by Andrew Cavette.

Bruce Griffin, Ohlone’s new Information and Technology director, looks to change our technology and how we use it.

Since Jan. 7, Griffin has been working with Ohlone staff to change the different stages of technology, including ideas like better e-mail for faculty, a plan to replace computers, and other things as part of the Technology Master Plan.

Griffin graduated in 1993 from the University of Arizona and completed his MBA in 2001 at Cal State Los Angeles. Afterward, Griffin served as an on-site CIO for Claremont University and then San Berdino, where he was able to spend more than 10 years as a higher education information and technology specialist.

Griffin will be taking over Ralph Kindred’s job and will help manage jobs such as training, WebAdvisor, and the air conditioning at Ohlone. Some exciting new changes include modification to WebAdvisor, the site all students use to register for classes. The technology department hopes to change WebAdvisor, from Datatel, to allow students to come back to school after skipping a semester without having to turn in another paper application. Eliminating the paper process will allow students to simply confirm their address in order to start registering for classes again.

Other than this change, the technology department is also in charge of things such as replacing old technology with new. With the present advances in technology, Griffin said the technology department is trying to develop a model to figure out how the technology will be replaced. One of the most common ways to replace the technology would be to start from the oldest and move on to the newest. The technology department would try to replace the oldest computers and, as the budget allows, replace the machines little by little. The model would be a way to make sure that through budget changes, Ohlone’s technology would still be up-to-date.

At Ohlone, Griffin will be processing absences, managing finances and supervising staff as well as working on the Technology Master Plan the Technology Committee has been formulating.

The Technology Master Plan stretches over a period of three years starting in the year 2007, to be completed in 2010. Issues that the Tech Master Plan addresses include making sure web courses are compliant with ADA, changing how people learn using distance education and upgrading WebAdvisor.

Although there has been an issue with outsourcing Ohlone jobs, Griffin will be handling the outsourcing through a variety of ways. He believes that outsourcing is a positive thing because there are fluctuations in staff every year.

There are two types of outsourcing: that which takes place on a person-to-person basis, and that which adds “additional people or resources from the outsourcing firm.” This means that outsourcing would “create long-term value” because Ohlone is paying for several people and their knowledge combined. Griffin believes that participating in the latter type of outsourcing will allow Ohlone to take advantage of the knowledge of a group of people rather than just one person.

When not updating technology, Griffin lives in Castro Valley with his wife, Marie, and his two-year-old daughter Isabel. Griffin’s main hobby at the moment is “chasing a two-year-old” around.

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Related Links at Ohlone College

• IT Department
• TechComm