Recently, I had the opportunity to interview the campus's new Deputy
Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for IST, Michael Mundrane. Among other
things, I asked him about his impressions of Berkeley, and what his
goals and priorities are as the head of IST. He also answered questions
regarding his background and his views on the current budget
situation.
You started here on January 5. By now, I guess you've probably become pretty acclimated to UC Berkeley. Were there any surprises or challenges?
Anytime you go to a new place there are challenges. IST is a fairly large organization, and Berkeley's a fairly complex institution. I had a lot to learn. I spent the first three months trying to figure out exactly what the organization did, how it did it, how it fit in at the University, how the University functioned — all that detail. I spent 14 years at Rutgers, and I was an expert in all that detail at Rutgers, and when I came to Berkeley I was a novice. So that was the biggest challenge. And of course, the details are always a surprise, because there's all sorts of variation in how people do things and why.
Anything in particular?
Mostly it's processes — who has to be involved, and where certain functions reside. Spending so much time at one location, I had sort of a preconceived idea of where certain functions would reside. Here it's a much more distributed environment, so there are responsibilities that are really spread among business units, which I would have thought would be combined. It's just a different way of going about it. Berkeley's actually smaller than Rutgers, but even in the context of a smaller institution, it executes in a more decentralized way.
How would you describe the transition to California and the city of Berkeley from New Jersey?
I love the city of Berkeley. I would compare it to parts of Philadelphia — the parts of Philadelphia I like the most, actually. But in terms of the transition, well, it was a long drive.
You drove the whole way?
I drove three thousand miles, yes. It was a four-day trip, so I had a lot of time to think about leaving New Jersey and coming to California.
What's the weather like right now in New Jersey?
Well, it's a mixed bag. I was just back there to visit my family, and we had at least one gorgeous day. Now, by California standards it was chilly, but trust me, it was a gorgeous day. New Jersey has such cold weather at times that anything above 50°F is considered a really nice day. Here, 50°F is considered cold. Today, for example, was a phenomenal morning. It was clear, it was cool; and yes, I walked in with someone who was wearing a coat.
What are three of your top priorities for IST this year?
It wasn't my original goal, but among the top three right now would be to recover from this budget situation — to get through the existing financial challenge, and then to successfully move the service organization forward. It wasn't my original plan, but the financial situation and what was necessary to respond to it have been so significant, in terms of the organization, that it's become one of my early priorities.
Another priority is to continue to evolve financial models inside the organization. I have a strong interest in financial models, and I think that the financial component of an organization is a very important component, so I intend to focus on that.
And I'd say the third thing I really want to focus on would be the customer experience. There's a lot of detail that goes into this. Billing, for example, is one aspect. My organization hands a customer a bill. They see that bill, and they evaluate my organization by what they see on that bill — whether that bill was correct, whether that bill was clear — and so for them, my organization was either good or bad based on the content of that bill. Their experience with that bill directly relates to their impression of IST at Berkeley. That's a very small example of the customer experience, but it actually is very important. And it's a whole set of those things. It could be when they pick up the phone and call the Service Desk, it could be the types of communications we do, and how those communications are received on campus. It's the customer touch-points, where customers actually interact with individuals from IST.
How do the current budget challenges compare to those you faced at Rutgers?
It's interesting, because New Jersey has been cutting budgets for years. And we're talking eight percent cuts, six percent, even one nine percent cut. I've been involved in a contracting IT environment for the last eight years; that's not uncommon. And frankly, the contracting IT budget is pretty much consistent across the country right now. I'd say that there's nothing unique at Berkeley in regards to the cutting of the budget — but I've found that Berkeley, as an institution, has pulled together, and is approaching it very sensibly. Nobody's happy, which is to be expected, but the institution is rallying around this challenge and trying to approach it in a calm way. I like what I see.
How do the two schools' funding models compare, and how do these funding models affect the situation on the ground?
At the end of the day, regardless of what state you're in, the revenue gets collected and thrown together. It's all money. I'm not sure it's that different here. The bigger challenge — but this is a challenge in higher education in general — is that the percentage of state resources that contribute to these schools' overall operation has been diminishing over time. With most state institutions, a minority of funding now comes from the state itself. Rutgers is the State University of New Jersey, and Berkeley is part of the UC system, so their situations are actually very similar.
What does this mean for public institutions?
It's a challenge. I think public institutions are asking this question. How far does the state's contribution have to go for the school to still be a public institution? I don't think there's an answer to that. State support for these institutions has not grown at the rate at which these institutions have grown. The size of the operation, and budget pressures within the states themselves, have further reduced the contribution. This has been happening in New Jersey for years. It's a more recent phenomenon in California — but it's currently a national phenomenon, so I think everyone's in much the same boat.
Are there ever moments when you think, "I picked the wrong time to enter the UC system?"
My first weekend here — I arrived on Friday, and I had Saturday and Sunday alone in Berkeley before I started work — that was the only time. I didn't know a soul on the West Coast, but here I was, walking around Berkeley, looking at the next three or four months ahead before I was going to get to go home and see my family. I did question it then, leaving one coast, one institution, for another. But once work started on that Monday, when I was working with the people, and actually being out on campus, I didn't question it.
Your family still lives on the East Coast?
Yes, I'm bi-coastal for the moment.
What are some of Berkeley's weaknesses, and what are some of its strengths, in terms of facing this economy?
Berkeley's weaknesses, I think, are identical to the weaknesses facing higher education in general. Institutions of higher education don't respond quickly. They take more time to make decisions, to make changes. That's just a function of higher education; it's the way higher education does business. And there's nothing wrong with that. But in a situation where you have a quickly changing environment — the economy goes south so quickly, all these budget situations happen very quickly, all in a short period of time — higher education in general, and Berkeley is no exception, struggles to deal with those sorts of events in the timeframe that those events require.
So what are the strengths? I think that the strength of Berkeley — higher education in general, but particularly Berkeley — is that Berkeley sees itself as a community, and it's responding to these challenges like a community.
This is also a time when sustainability and energy efficiency enjoy what seems like universal support from the campus and community. How do you see sustainability fitting in with everything else?
I have never seen more hybrid cars than in the Berkeley area, I will say that. The Bay Area seems very focused on green initiatives and sustainable energy. And we're doing it, too. We're trying to reduce energy consumption in data centers, looking at a number of things — but almost everything is taking a backseat to responding to the budget situation. After we get past this budget situation, I hope green initiatives are attractive. There is a challenge, though. We are in a resource-constrained environment. And if the green alternative is significantly more expensive than the non-green alternative, that's a difficult choice to make, at a time when our resources are so pressed. I'm thinking of an example I was involved with at Rutgers University where we were moving to recycled paper, and initially there was a significant cost-penalty to using recycled paper over virgin-bond. Rutgers was also operating in a continually constrained budget situation, so that was tough. But we made an effort to get the price close, and once it was close, it was an easy choice. And I think there'll be more of that at Berkeley, too.
Some situations do exist where we can both cut energy and save money, and those are the most attractive ones. For example, again in the data center, if we can reduce heat-generation, we can reduce cooling costs. Or if we can more accurately control temperature in narrower regions, we can actually allow for higher temperatures in the data center in general, because we don't have to worry about hotspots. All these things reduce energy consumption; reducing energy consumption potentially saves money at the institutional level.
Where do you see IST and the campus five years from now?
Well, I think this campus has continually struggled with the notion of central versus distributed operations, and what I would hope is that in central IT we can achieve efficiencies and deliver services that the campus can recognize will solve their problems and meet their needs, at price-points that are attractive to them. Five years from now, I think IST will be delivering a larger set of core services to a larger community on campus.
What about one year from now?
I think this first year is going to be about delivering services in a greatly constrained environment, because it's not just IST — the entire campus is going to be struggling with the same set of challenges. And I definitely want to focus on the relationship between IST and the campus, how the campus views IST. Those are more near-term. We'll continue to advance projects, of course; we have a number of big projects that are already taking place with IST partnering with other departments on campus. We'll continue with those. But in terms of the question as to what is done centrally, and what's done distributed, this next year will be a catalyzing period toward centralization for many departments on campus, and IST will be there for them.
Let's say you found yourself in an elevator with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Is there anything you would want to say to him?
For me it would be hard to separate Arnold the body-builder and actor from Arnold the governor, since my whole experience with him, except for the last three months, has been defined by the former and not the latter. But I think I would ask him about state support for higher education, what he sees as the role of higher education in the State of California, and whether he sees the state as having an obligation, as being a partner in that regard. And I'd be curious to see what he'd say about it. I'm sure he'd tell me things about his own budget pressure, but I'd like to ask the question.
What if it was President Obama with you in the elevator?
I'm interested in where he sees science during his tenure, and what concrete things he's going to do to deliver on the position that he stated at his inauguration, to return science to the forefront. I believe that science is one of the things that made this country great, and I'd like to hear how he's going to contribute to that.
Speaking of science, since you have a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, do you get a lot of "rocket science" jokes?
Not a lot, but a few. Technically my doctorate is in Computational Fluid Dynamics; it was in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Rutgers University. The bulk of the jokes I get are along the lines of, "Are you a medical doctor or merely a Ph.D.? Ha-ha-ha." But I would never have pursued an advanced degree if I didn't think research and science were important.
Have you had the chance to visit any of the University's laboratories?
Funny you should mention it — I have a visit this week to LBNL [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories]. They sent me an email asking if I'd like to come, and I confessed that I was secretly trying to angle a way up there anyway, so I'm going to get to go up and see it. I would love to see that lab.
How did you get started in IT?
I was a mechanical engineer, and in terms of doing research, I ended up falling into the thermal sciences and doing, in effect, experiments with a computer. It was a good thing for me, because in doing that, I also did some freelance IT consulting. Then, when I finished my doctorate, I ended up moving into the IT business, and I became a systems administrator in the center where I had done research. I've always enjoyed the university experience — in fact, every time I walk across campus here, I think how great it is. So it makes sense that I ended up in IT, but in a campus environment. And that was my path into IT. I can't say it turned out poorly.
What makes you the right person to serve as DCIO?
Well, I'm probably not the right person to answer that question. Early on in the hiring process, though, there were a lot of questions about financial transparency; there were a lot of questions about dealing with budget situations, and even budget reductions. And I had done a lot of that at Rutgers University. I've spent a lot of time doing budget analysis and really dealing with budget changes. That probably didn't hurt me, considering what people saw coming ahead. And I have been in IT for a fairly long time — I guess 14 or 15 years is lengthy by some people's standards — and my background was in a public research institution, a fairly large one, like Berkeley. In terms of other things, I would like to think that some of my approaches will be useful here at the University. Only time will tell.
Is there anything you'd like to add?
Well, I think I've said most of it. I'm very happy to be here. I like the job, the institution, the area, the people I'm working with, the people I've met on campus. I'm very appreciative that I've been given this opportunity. My goal is to make good. I think, over a period of time, there are opportunities to evolve the organization, to evolve its relationship with the campus. And I think we can deliver on that. We'll sit down and talk again nine months from now, at the end of my first year, and we'll see if I have a more compelling story to tell then.
Related article
- Announcing Deputy CIO Michael Mundrane. iNews, November 7, 2008.