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Retiring CIO Reflects on 41 Years at Siena Heights University

Bob Metz recalls the former data-processing department with two employees growing into an IT office with eight full-time and two part-time employees, student workers and a campus full of new hardware and infrastructure.

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Credit: Siena Heights University Facebook page
(TNS) — When Bob Metz started working in what was then the data processing department at Siena Heights University, there was one other employee and the university’s main computers were a model more commonly found in manufacturing.

In the 41 years since, the department has grown to eight full-time employees, two part-timers and student workers, and the university’s computing needs have changed as new technologies became available, from portable computers to the Internet to smartphones.

“To me it is still amazing how your cellphone now has five to 10 times the computing power that we had that used to run the whole university,” he said. “And the fact that you are wireless — that technology has just freed people up so much.”

The next big shift is 5G, which, he said, will enable more mobile technologies.

But he won't be overseeing SHU’s foray into 5G or any other upgrades that come along. Metz, SHU’s chief information officer, wrapped up his career at the university last week.

Metz came to the Adrian area from Grand Blanc, first working at Merillat Industries for a couple of years before moving to SHU. He and his wife, Katherine, moved here when they were married. She worked for the county government, overseeing its computer systems for a while.

Both Merillat and SHU were using the IBM Series/1 minicomputers, which were a step between large, mainframe computers and the desktop personal computers that were being developed. He started with an associate degree from Mott Community College in Flint and later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastern Michigan University.

More and more university functions became computerized over the years. In the 1990s, SHU became the first educational institution in Michigan with Wi-Fi access available campuswide, indoors and outdoors, he said. That system continues to be upgraded every two years or so.

SHU’s Adrian campus has grown, too, adding buildings, labs and other facilities that needed to be brought online.

SHU also has a highly regarded online learning program. Metz said that capability became more widely used by the university during the pandemic as more classes took place online to avoid gathering in classrooms.

“When we had to pivot the Adrian campus during the pandemic,” Metz said. “We had a substantial number of faculty that we could fall back to, to help our faculty who have not yet really gotten into online learning. So they helped them with that pivot to make it as effective as possible for our students who were thrown into something new, as were our faculty. They did an excellent job of that pivot.”

Now, about 95 percent of the university’s classrooms and meeting spaces are set up with the audio and video capabilities to do online classes, he said.

“It was tough, but they really pulled together quite well,” he said. “We were very pleased with how quickly the faculty were able to begin moving.”

This has opened up new opportunities, he said, where online learning can be advantageous to certain disciplines or locations.

“We’re going to be looking to much more flexible scheduling in terms of when you take class and where you take class,” he said.

The big challenge now is keeping up with data security, Metz said.

“You hear every day about accounts and businesses being hacked, and that’s probably the one thing that keeps a lot of us up late into the hours is, are we building a system that has enough security into it, but not so much that it’s onerous, that people get sick and tired of it,” he said.

That means watching for new threats and working with the students as they want to try new things. Working with the students is part of what makes working at SHU enjoyable, he said.

“We rely on the students to kind of keep us up to date on what they’re seeing and what their peers are doing out there in the day-to-day world,” he said. “It’s nice that we have those student workers. They keep us young.”

One of the more publicized tech-related changes at SHU was the addition of e-sports, which, Metz said, was “kind of a surprise.” It required setting up a special Internet connection that bypassed some of the security systems in order to maximize response time “because milliseconds’ response time is a major thing.”

Some of the challenges over the years from students came from the art department, Metz said. The art department’s computer studio used to be in the Merillat Computing Center in Dominican Hall, where Metz’s office is.

“It drove me nuts sometimes, but I loved having them up there because they could always think of these off-the-wall things,” Metz said. “That was a really cool thing. I loved it when the art students were up in our area. It was great for us, and it helped us keep remembering the mission is we’re here to help educate our students, that’s what we’re here for — to help make sure we have competent, purposeful and ethical students.”

He’ll miss those interactions with faculty and students, which helped the university understand the technology the students need for their careers.

“It’s quite amazing how that technology has changed,” he said. “The students are a reason that we drive that technology change — so when they walk out of here, they at least have a handle on the tools that they’ll be using in their employment.”

The Metzes, who have three grown children and two grandchildren, have some trips planned, but he says he’ll be around campus, going to football games and theater productions.

©2021 The Daily Telegram, Adrian, Mich. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.