Behind the
Machines
OIT's First Vice Chancellor: Moving Forward With A New Mission
After a comprehensive nation-wide search, Chancellor Muñoz appointed Nick Dugan as the inaugural Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer in January 2023. As a direct report to the Chancellor and a member of the Chancellor's cabinet, Vice Chancellor Dugan is well-positioned to drive campus collaboration around technology decisions.
Though his position is significantly changed from previous iterations, Vice Chancellor Dugan is not new to UC Merced or OIT.
Nick has been with UC Merced since 2010, when he started as a technologist in the School of Engineering. Since that time, he has embodied the pioneering Bobcat spirit, holding roles as OIT's first Chief Information Security Office (CISO) from 2014-2016 and as OIT's Deputy Chief Information Officer from 2016-2022.
Following his appointment, Nick undertook a significant divisional re-organization to better support the campus's rapidly growing and evolving technology needs. Under his guidance, OIT also revamped their foundational Mission, Vision, Values statements to more clearly articulate the shift that was taking place in the organization.
Moving Forward with a new Mission, Vision, and Values
Our Mission
The Office of Information Technology facilitates the thoughtful and impactful application of technologies that support the UC Merced community.
Our Vision
OIT enables the realization of UC Merced’s mission and strategic plan by reducing barriers to learning, teaching, and conducting world-class research.
We design sustainable solutions as resilient as our community, we prioritize institutional security and individual privacy, and we deliver technology that puts people and the user experience first.
Our Values
We embrace creativity, innovation, and play. We try not to take ourselves too seriously. We aspire to create delightful experiences that are accessible to everyone.
Our diversity makes us better. Our differing perspectives are key to the creation, delivery, and support of inclusive technology experiences that embody the UC Merced Principles of Community.
Our people are our greatest asset; we enable growth, exploration, and professional development at every level of the organization. We are all educators and learners. We understand our responsibility to our student employees and actively work to enrich their learning opportunities and prepare them for careers in any field.
The Office of Information Technology's new organizational structure has shifted the unit into six larger groups composed of 21 teams.
Strategic Resource Management & Planning (SRMP)
SRMP is composed of the staff who work to maintain OIT procurement, finance and human resources: project management; OIT events and culture; user experience and outreach to the campus community.
- Design, Experience, and Outreach
- OIT Business Services
- Project Management Office
- Office of the CIO
Academic & Campus Technology Services (ACTS)
ACTS is the heart of IT, comprised of staff that provides support for general technology problems at the OIT Service Desk, classroom and conference room support, as well as special event support, software support, and telephony support.
- Learning Management
- Instructional Design
- Software Purchasing
- Software & Telephony Services
- Service Desk
- Classroom/AV/Event Support
Enterprise Products & Applications (EPA)
The EPA group is comprised of developers, programmers, and analysts who support campus-wide platforms, data management and integrations.
- Student Information Services
- Identity Management & Custom Applications
- Digital Business & Integration Services
- Financial IT Systems
- Data Services
Network & IT Service Management
This group works behind the scenes to manage and maintain our campus network infrastructure, manage and develop strong service management processes, and develop and maintain our ServiceNow environment to best serve our campus partners.
- ServiceNow
- Network & Voice Over IP Services
- IT Service Management
Information Security & Cloud Infrastructure
This team works to ensure our general campus information security posture and manage effective security incident response, in addition to maintaining the general stability of our cloud-first service infrastructure.
- Information Security
- Cloud Infrastructure
Cyberinfrastructure & Research Technologies (CIRT)
The small but mighty CIRT team focuses on building and maintaining a world-class research computing environment.
- Cyberinfrastructure and Research Technologies
OIT prides itself on being deeply committed to the mission of UC Merced. We're thrilled to celebrate our staff's Years of Service achievements during the 2023/2024 academic year.
5 Years
- Yue Yu
- Canaan Hawks
- Abhi Agarwal
- Eric Rahilly
10 Years
- Chuck Aby
- Beth Bennett
- Jean Pierre
- Kevin Two
- Joan Holmquist
15 Years
- Joshua Swink
20 Years
- Jose Magana
- Chris Speckens
- Marisela Angel
In 2023, the system-wide "UC Tech" group, made up of representatives from IT organizations across all UC campuses and locations, recognized UC Merced OIT for....
Silver "IT Security" Award
The launch of MercedID and other security improvements in the spring of 2023 were recognized as a massive security success and our teams working on the project were awarded a silver UC Tech award at the system level for their efforts.
Silver "DEI Leadership" Award
Sarvani Chadalapaka, Director of Cyberinfrastructure and Research Technologies, was recognized by the UC system for her work and support for Women in Tech initiatives as well as for expanding access to High Performance Computing across the underserved Central Valley with a silver UC Tech award.
Women Rock IT Highlight
Dr. Yue Yu, member of the Cyberinfrastructure and Research Technologies group, was recognized in a UC Tech "Women Rock IT" article for her efforts in building a high-performance computing (HPC) culture at UC Merced.
UC Tech awards are given out yearly. Each campus location submits projects, efforts, and candidates in a number of award categories to acknowledge their campus's efforts throughout the year.
Student Success Internship Projects
Every year, OIT participates in the Student Success Internship program, allowing students to develop significantly and gain skill-building opportunities. During the 2023/2024 year SSIs helped OIT with:
- Mapping out the IT internal purchasing business process
- Design an update UI/UX for classroom control touch panels
- Launching Linux functionality for our remotelabs system
