People donate to universities for myriad reasons: to create a scholarship, support a school or academic department, establish an endowed professorship, or even name a building. But if private donations can go to supporting a university’s academic mission, why not the vast support structure that keeps it going, too?
In January 2012, University Information Technology Services (UITS) established the Sue Fisher Cutting-Edge Technology Fund, named for a longtime UITS employee, to raise money through private donations to fund IT programs and research in emerging technologies. According to UITS, the program’s goal is to provide a funding vehicle for IT enrichment purposes in the higher education environment. Awards from this fund will allow for research in emerging communication and computer technologies.
“Universities are founded on generating knowledge, and sharing that knowledge in the classroom and beyond in the state,” said Nancy Bull, UConn vice provost and IT leader. “Today’s universities are grounded in a strong infrastructure to meet student and faculty demands. IT must be on the cutting edge of customer needs and wants. That means resources are needed for development, creation, and experimentation with new technologies to better serve the University. Private dollars allow that flexibility and creativity.”
Fisher, who died in 2005, joined UConn in 1983 and served as director of telecommunications from 1983 until 2004.
Robert Vietzke, who worked with Fisher and is now vice president of Network Services, Internet2, reminisced, “Sue used to talk about ‘positioning for the future’ as a first principle of the way she wanted her team to do our work. This meant not just focusing on networking a building or upgrading some technology, but also making sure we could always take another step after that to whatever was next. This positioning for the future, together with her entrepreneurial, creative, and can-do spirit were incredible contributions to UITS and the University.”
“Sue had the foresight in the 1980s to rewire the University so that UConn could control the voice services and provide better service to students, staff, and faculty,” said Lisa Mikolinski, program director for donor relations and gifts. “A service that used to have to be contracted out and take six to eight weeks was then cut down to something that could be done almost instantaneously because it was now in-house. Sue laid the foundation of what network services could be, and we continue to build on that foundation. It is so fitting that this effort is named for her.”
Anticipated projects from this fund will be aimed at solving technological problems University-wide. These projects also will focus on fostering collaborative work within IT and the University to identify opportunities and potential shared service solutions.
For more information or to donate, please visit: www.friends.uconn.edu/fisher
