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Academic Technology Advisory Committee

The Academic Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) guides technology decisions to support the university's academic mission for teaching, learning, research and scholarship.

ATAC membership is role-based to ensure representation across all academic areas. Members meet regularly to evaluate academic-related technology software and products requested by the Brandeis community, as well as policy and standards related to academic technology, including the learning management system.

Academic Technology Advisory Committee structure with LATTE, Research Computing, and the LMS Implementation subcomittees.

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Responsibilities

Make and receive recommendations, inquiries and proposals concerning the application of technology to teaching, learning, research and scholarship. Provide a channel for concerns and suggestions from the community.
Make decisions regarding proposals related to academic technology applications, policies and standards, including the learning management system (currently Moodle).
Coordinate with other IT Governance working groups to compile an inventory of academic technology products in use across campus.
Discuss and seek to resolve issues which span departmental or divisional boundaries. Escalate issues and funding requests when necessary to the Technology Prioritization Committee when appropriate.
Provide direction to prevent, where appropriate, unnecessary redundancy or non-sustainable implementations and their resulting inefficiencies and risks.
When necessary, solicit information and assistance from other campus offices as needed.

Committee Membership

University Librarian, ATAC Chair: Matthew Sheehy
Program Director, Center for Teaching and Learning: Marty Samuels
Arts and Sciences Division Head, Social Sciences: Betsy Brainerd
Arts and Sciences Division Head, Humanities: Caren Irr
Arts and Sciences Division Head, Creative Arts: Aida Yuen Wong
Arts and Sciences Division Head, Sciences: Susan Birren
Vice Provost for Research: Steven Karel
International Business School, Faculty Representative: Arnold Kamis
Heller School, Faculty Representative: Michael Doonan
Rabb School, Faculty Representative: Carmen Aguilar
ITS Leadership Representative, ex officio: Steve Knowles

Academic Technology Request Process

Requests for new academic software technology products to be evaluated or purchased should be submitted using the Academic Technology Request Form. Representatives from the library will reach out to all who submit a request to be sure the committee understands the needs and to initiate the process for the ATAC to make decisions on requests.

Once the request process has been initiated, it may take up to 8-12 weeks to evaluate the product and secure the necessary approvals. Although the timeframe may vary depending upon resource availability, priority, and committee schedules, evaluation steps* include:

Confirmation of the receipt of the ATAC Product Request Form.
Library review of product request information and academic assessment of the request.
Product endorsement by the requestor, additional stakeholders or the IT Governance Executive Sponsors for funding, initiated by the ATAC chair.
ITS top-level assessment of the product and the vendor.
ATAC review and approval of product request.

ATAC ITS leadership and ITS PMO manager project creation and implementation review involving multiple departments across the university, including ITAC, Procurement and Legal.

* Requesters will be notified if/when their request does not move forward to the next step in the evaluation process. It is rare, however issues may arise that cancel a request even after the ATAC has approved a request.

Available Academic Technology

ATAC Agendas and Minutes

The Academic Technology Advisory Committee meeting agendas and minutes are posted to Box (Brandeis login required).

If you have questions, please contact ATAC Chair Matthew Sheehy.