By Tyler Huggins, Contributing Writer
Joe Rodella was selected as the new director of Information Technology at West Liberty University back in April. He brings 25 years of experience in the fields of entrepreneurship and technology business to the IT Department.
Rodella is a man of many talents and experiences when it comes to technology. Before coming to WLU, Rodella was director of technology at Carlynton School District, a school district located in Robinson Township, Pa. In 2005, he was named as CIO (Chief Information Officer) of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council.
Rodella has been given the task of creating a technology master plan to help the university with all the issues it has run into over the years. Since starting at the end of the spring semester, Rodella said he has been observing and taking note of the process as it is now so that way he can “listen, and try to analyze what’s here, what’s working well, and what needs added.”
Rodella said, “The most obvious thing to work on is lack of network infrastructure.” According to Rodella, to move forward in making sure WLU has the services it needs, the network must be able to communicate and offer said services.
He is working with vendors to quantify and fix those issues. Upon fixing the issues, Rodella hopes to give the university more abilities such as disaster recovery, storage space, sharing capabilities and the ability to control print services.
While pursuing his goal with the technology master plan, Rodella also aims to help professors in any way he can in the classroom.
With the lack of certain digital medias, students may not be as engaged as they could be. Rodella said, “The professor teaching chemistry may need different tools than the art professor. So, I must understand those things and have those people give their input in the technology plan. I need to understand what they want, and what they need.”
Overall, Rodella wants to develop “Policy, Procedure, and Operations” to do all he can to help make sure the IT Department at West Liberty University can be running as smoothly as they can.
Photo Credit: Media Relations
