Area Report Board of Trustees

Information Technology Services staff are busy working to support the end of spring quarter and plan for a new year of work, including a number of classroom and meeting space projects we are working to get completed over the summer. ITS staff are looking forward to participating in and supporting the upcoming Commencement ceremony, and we want to congratulate all the graduates, and especially our own student employees Jordyn Ceplina, Veronique Fick, Edmeralda Ramdas, and Saleebaan Suleiban, as well as ITS staff member Olga Mandzyuk, who is receiving her Bachelors in Cybersecurity & Forensics from CWU!

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Become an anti-racist college through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps.

• The new iteration of the Strategic Planning Council (SPC) began meeting during spring quarter. This group is now chaired by CIO Tim Wrye, Co-Chaired by Dean for Workforce Partnerships and Extended Learning Gabrielle Bachmeier, assisted by Jennifer Johnston, Project Manager for the Office of the President as Communications Officer. The SPC’s first task was to review and analyze the feedback from winter quarter meetings with campus constituents to review our current year Mission Fulfillment Report data and make recommendations regarding our annual priorities.  After much discussion, SPC proposed the below priorities for the 2026-2027 academic year. Executive Cabinet approved this recommendation, and these priorities and additional background and details were sent to campus on Friday, May 22. With these priorities confirmed, the SPC is moving on to further tasks focused on ensuring clear documentation of strategies being enacted to achieve our strategic planning targets, as well as working with campus stakeholders to create indicators, measures, and targets for a handful of objectives which are currently missing those. This work will continue over the summer and SPC plans to have an update for campus on this work during Opening Week in fall quarter.
  • Student Retention: Strengthening support to ensure more students stay on track from year to year.
  • Student Funding: Expanding financial support to remove barriers to completion.
  • Credential Completion: Unifying our goals for transfer, workforce, and BAS degrees to help every student reach the finish line.
  • Infrastructure and Safety: Ensuring our physical and digital spaces remain accessible, modern, and safe.
• ITS was pleased to host the Information Technology Commission meeting on campus at Highline in May.  This regular meeting of statewide IT leaders in the Community and Technical College system is a critical component of how we work together across the colleges to support each other and we were excited to share Highline’s campus with our colleagues while fostering collaboration.
• ITS continues to evaluate our IT security posture and planning in the wake of the recent Canvas incident, and also while keeping a close eye on the risks brought by continuing developments in how AI is being used by outside attackers. We are discussing additional continuity of operations planning and mitigations that need to be considered, and are also going through an engagement with a third party IT security firm that is intended to inform the college where there might be areas of greater risk that need special attention to protect our systems from future attacks.

Report submitted by Chief Information Officer, Tim Wrye