As we enter this season of thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude for the warm welcome that many members of the University community have extended to me and my family over the course of my first 90 days at Stony Brook. I am forever grateful for the rich conversations that I am having as part of my listening tour and particularly for the thoughtful suggestions that are being brought to my attention. A summary of the themes that are emerging from my conversations with various stakeholders includes the desire to:

• Improve the overall IT user experience
• Promote digital equity
• Increase and enhance overall support for research computing and innovation
• Enable greater exposure to many facets of AI (in administrative functions, academic enterprise, research and creative pursuits)
• Foster a greater culture of inclusivity and technical relevance within the IT workforce
• Increase collaboration with our key partners around technology acquisition, vendor management and relationships
• Further strengthen collaboration with our key partners around safe computing practices and cyber-security overall
• Help prioritize IT investments to support the University’s strategic direction

As I continue my listening tour, through the remainder of the fall and into the spring semester, I will engage key stakeholders, including Stony Brook Medicine, the SCIT, the USG and the SBGSO for their input and feedback about the state of Information Technology on campus. Ultimately, the information that I am collecting during my listening tour will inform how we go about creating a bold and relevant IT strategic plan to advance the mission of Stony Brook University over the next several years.

For now, I would like to share my overall first impression of Stony Brook University, where I feel so fortunate to be working with such talented and dedicated colleagues. In DoIT, in particular, I have quickly developed a deep respect for the high level of knowledge, talent and the expertise of our staff whose professionalism is unparalleled. The dedication of the DoIT staff to the success of the University is an asset that we will continue to celebrate in the quarterly IT Town Hall meetings, which will begin in January 2024. Also beginning in January 2024, we will start producing an IT newsletter every other month to provide updates and highlights about Stony Brook’s IT Division.

An institution as complex as Stony Brook continues to experience great success in part because of the partnerships we have forged within the University community, within SUNY and with some of our service providers. For that reason, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all my colleagues both within DoIT and throughout the campus community for their recent contributions to our numerous projects, some of which include:

• The successful implementation of TeamDynamix, which now serves as our enterprise IT issue tracking system. TeamDynamix will ultimately serve as the foundation for service management across the institution once it is adopted by other offices on campus
• The successful migration from Blackboard to Brightspace as our new Learning Management System
• The successful implementation of modern and sophisticated classroom technologies in seven lecture halls in the Javits Center
• The successful migration of the entire University’s telephone system to a new infrastructure
• The ongoing implementation of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to improve the business continuity and disaster recovery aspect of our Student Information System
• The ongoing implementation of myTIME, a modern time and attendance system, to better serve the Stony Brook staff
• Embarking on the implementation of WolfieONE, which will revolutionize our enabling technologies as well as the business processes of HR and Finance
• Deployment of the SeaWulf High Performance Computing Cluster Expansion, designed to advance science and engineering research capacities across an array of multidisciplinary fields
• The ongoing deployment of 4 Petabytes of compliant (NIST 800-171) research storage for use by campus faculty, their students and staff with strict funding agency compliance requirements

I have been very impressed to witness the level of partnership between DoIT and many of our stakeholders, and I feel so honored to be serving as Vice President for IT and CIO at this remarkable institution. I am committed to strengthening our existing partnerships and I am truly looking forward to our collaborative efforts to propel our institution to its next level of eminence.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sincerely, 
Simeon Ananou, D.Ed.
Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer 
Stony Brook University