2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10
#5: The CIO Challenge

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The CIO role has always been hard because it requires balancing tactical operations with business strategy, risk avoidance with innovation, technical expertise with people skills, and unlimited needs with severely constrained resources. Now, institutions are under greater internal and external pressures, which draws CIOs into discussions about the contributions of technology and data to campus safety, free speech, privacy, dwindling finances, climate change, business model innovation, and more. Institutional changes create institutional instability, and such changes are more frequent these days. Today, it's harder than ever to be a CIO. Effective CIOs unlock institutional potential, creating the conditions for the institution to achieve its vision and advance its mission. They don't dictate; they enable. As the risks of data and privacy breaches (and the regulations to protect both) increase, the affordances of technology and data expand dramatically, and the financial and reputational constraints on higher education grow, the sector has never needed strong technology leadership more.

The Promise

Creating a more realistic view of the CIO role. CIOs are not superheroes, and colleges and universities are not command and control environments. Leading institutional technology and data strategy and services is an exercise in radical collaboration and partnership. When working with leaders across the institution, CIOs can become force multipliers. They have an institution-wide view that can enable them to integrate strategy and solutions across the institution, reduce redundancy, identify cumulative risks, and foster greater communication and collaboration among units.

Attracting, developing, and retaining talent. The IT organization is one of the largest units at an institution. People want to work for leaders who are open and authentic, empathetic and respectful, and decisive and competent. IT talent is expensive and scarce. A CIO at an organization that can't compete on money can still attract and retain good people by creating an effective and supportive work environment that values talent.^Footnote1

Creating the space for innovation. Technology is an enabler of innovation, and innovation advances higher education. Part of the CIO challenge is balancing the capacity and culture for surfacing and considering new ideas with managing operations and responding to crises.

Contributing to institutional agility. Institutional agility is "the ability of an organization to renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, turbulent environment."^Footnote2 Agility requires both the ability to move quickly and an established foundation that is stable enough to survive change and turbulence. CIOs can contribute to that strong foundation with infrastructure and architecture; governance and shared success metrics; a supportive, open culture; and a committed staff. Such a foundation will enable them to not only clarify and sustain institutional priorities over time but also change them quickly if needed.

The Key to Progress

A culture of trust, even amid ambiguity, can make all the difference. CIOs can be much more effective when they have strong, collaborative relationships with staff and peers, when they can draw connections between institutional strategy and IT strategy, and when they can demonstrate transparency. Trust is an accelerant that removes the need for labored conversations and deliberations, that makes it possible to state and address the challenges and points of disagreement directly, that makes it feel safe to move forward in the midst of ambiguity or take other risks, and that makes it easier to get to "yes" quickly. A high trust culture enables performance. Establishing that culture is especially difficult in today's environment, when we have so many agendas at play in our workplaces and we all bring our full, complicated selves to work.

QuickTakes

A clear mission makes it easier for a CIO to succeed. When the mission is clear, everyone throughout the institution is aligned. That alignment can help CIOs negotiate trade-offs, set priorities, lead technology-based change initiatives, and adapt more quickly to disruptions and institutional leadership changes.

Define the position to support a radical partnership with other leaders in support of institutional strategy. Today's CIO needs both visibility with and access to the highest levels of leadership to contribute to institutional strategy, as well as the ability to be one among many leaders working in radical collaboration. Where the CIO reports to be a visible and trusted partner will be different for different types of institutions.

Take advantage of leadership changes. Leadership changes can make all the difference in being successful because they can accelerate the resolution of sticky issues. A new chancellor, president, provost, or CBO brings new perceptions of the CIO role and what their relationship with the CIO should look like. This allows the CIO to redefine their relationship with leadership in ways that can sometimes open more opportunities.

Build a diverse pipeline. The easiest way to find a good CIO is to hire someone who already is a good CIO. But that's a small pool of people, and it's getting smaller due to retirements—even though it needs to grow. The best way to expand the pipeline is to diversify it by first developing a broader notion of what the CIO does and what institutional technology leadership entails, and then tapping into the broader pool of those who are leading successfully in these areas. The singular, charismatic leader who was celebrated in the past is going to be  much less effective in the world that we are in now, especially when it comes to the type of work and communities that higher education institutions tend to encourage. A more heterogeneous view of the CIO role may involve encouraging people who don't currently see themselves in the role as it's defined today to imagine themselves doing the job just as well, if not better and differently. At individual institutions, leaders should encourage leadership talent across the organization, build a deep leadership bench that can prepare for succession planning, provide leadership for operational situations that require more time or skills than the sitting CIO has, and give professional development opportunities to people with leadership potential.

Let go of perfection. The CIO challenge can be exacerbated by an institutional culture that is bent on perfection. Perfect really is the enemy of the good because it limits what organizations can accomplish, and it can distort priorities. Institutional or departmental leaders can be reluctant to change something that has been working beautifully, even if it has become less relevant or inefficient. This idea must be available to both teams and leaders.

What got the institution here won't get it there. The pace of change, particularly since the introduction of large language AI models, has dwarfed what we had already thought was rapid change. Institutions that have been successful under old paradigms may struggle to appreciate that there are reasons to do things differently now. Paradigms are shifting, and yesterday's lessons and strengths might be impediments going forward.

BUT . . . exploit institutional advantages. Some institutions have a unique value proposition, whether it's their geographical location, their strength in high-demand research or academic disciplines, or their ability to attract a particular type of faculty member or student. Leaders who understand that now—or at least sooner than leaders at peer institutions—can position their institution to take advantage of their differentiators.

Ask Yourself

How might the evolving role of the CIO challenge traditional notions of academic hierarchy and decision-making processes in higher education institutions? How prepared are CIOs to become facilitators of collaborative, institution-wide innovation?

The Bottom Line

The modern higher education CIO must be adept at collaborative innovation, culture building, and adaptability to successfully tame the "digital jungle" and drive institutional success.

Data Point

A recent EDUCAUSE QuickPoll explored personnel transitions in three key areas of leadership at the institution: the president/chancellor/CEO, the CFO/CBO or equivalent, and the provost or equivalent. The majority of respondents (65 percent) reported a transition in at least one of these roles at their institution over the past twelve months.^Footnote3

From Strategy to Practice

What You're Saying

"Continue to communicate with, provide support to, and earn the trust of university members by providing technology that delivers value and is accessible to all."

"Our CIO is a bold leader; this is a typical day for him. :)"

"Underscore this as an incredible challenge for everyone right now."

"This is perhaps the biggest challenge, especially when leadership within academia tends to come from academia and not industry. As such, it takes a great deal of education on the part of IT folks to convince leadership of the value IT offers to ANY organization. IT is still primarily viewed as a cost center and not as a profit center."

"I actually really embrace this challenge. It's why I do what I do. CIOs are in a very unique position. We are leading institutions and transforming the way we do business. There has never been a more exciting, and scary, time to be a CIO. I love it!"

"The CIO challenge reflects higher ed's challenges. These are expensive issues, pulling budgets away from critical IT investments that are required to keep up in today's world."

"Frequent leadership transitions amplify resource limitations due to lack of institutional knowledge. New leaders bring new expectations that don't necessarily align with reality on the ground."

"As sitting CIOs, we must do a better job of preparing our institutions for turnover in the top role, but we also must be aware that the turnover that happens above us (presidents, etc.) has impact. The people who hire us do not understand what we do or what our role is. We must work these challenges on an institutional level, as broad ideas do not resonate. Resource limitations must be mitigated by better involvement in institutional budget-planning strategies. Failure to properly fund IT as a base element only yields growing 'tech debt' at the institution level. When those debts come due, the funding needed to address them is often tens-of-millions of dollars. Only solid, reasonable, and appropriate funding of IT on an annual basis avoids 'tech debt' and the potential disasters that can result. "

"I really don't know where to begin with this one. We have had a lot of leadership transitions, including our president. This means vast changes in how leadership views the role of technology, oftentimes trying to convince them of the importance and validity of budgeting for technology and making it part of the backbone of the institution."

"I'm glad I'm not a CIO!"

"Balancing each of these elements is a difficult task as the landscape is ever-changing."

"This is our primary responsibility. We must get this done right, and on that journey we need help and support from, and partnership with, the staff, faculty, president, provost, VPs, and the board. We are all in this together."

Solution Spotlights

"SDSU faced the challenge of enhancing its technology support to meet the growing needs of faculty and students—albeit with limited resources. SDSU appointed faculty fellows—experienced faculty members who deeply understand subject matter, pedagogy, and instructional technology. These fellows collaborated with ITS (Instructional Technology Services) to integrate technology seamlessly into teaching practices. They helped design, develop, implement, and evaluate faculty development programs, workshops, and awareness-raising events; engaged in pedagogical research; and conducted workshops, training sessions, and webinars for fellow faculty members. The fellows provided valuable feedback to ITS, ensuring that technology solutions aligned with instructional goals and student needs. A management professor from our College of Business facilitated a twenty-four-month strategic roadmapping process that aligned areas, improved transparency, and led to the creation of well-understood purpose, mission, and values."

James Frazee, San Diego State University

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"It's more important now than ever. CIOs must work closely with cabinet, president, and board to ensure all technology projects have a hard business ROI and someone is accountable for its delivery."

Opinder Bawa, University of San Francisco

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"Upon my arrival as the new CIO, I was tasked with developing a plan to govern investments in technology that would harness its untapped potential. In partnership with campus, I have led this work to be inclusive of all technology and all data so that we act holistically. With it, I have formed a new governance framework which unites the various campus IT and data organizations to collaborate and plan under a common CIO Council, unites the vice chancellors to collaborate and partner under a common IT advisory, and organizes campus IT and data services by portfolio in partnership with our stakeholders. All of this enables campus-level thinking, planning, decision-making, and delivery with the CIO as an enabler.

Scott Genung, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

What You're Working On

Comments provided by Top 10 survey respondents who rated this issue as important

Agility

• We've moved our strategic plan from five years to rolling three years (i.e., we update our three-year plan every year), appreciating that the rate of change (of leaders and technology) will accelerate. This allows us to be more agile to market or employment changes.

CIO role

• Navigating the digital landscape in a university setting requires a CIO to be strategic, adaptive, and collaborative. Developing a long-term vision, prioritizing high-impact initiatives, leveraging partnerships, staying informed about technological advancements, promoting inclusivity and security, and creating a governance structure will help the CIO to effectively lead digital strategy and operations even in the face of significant challenges.
• Our CIO was recently named the chief information and transformation officer in recognition of the role she plays in moving us forward strategically.
• Working as an enterprise CIO across the campus and the system and aligning and moving campuses together under one IT strategy and a "what's good for the whole" thought process.
• Leading and being a strategic partner puts all of our leadership skills to the test to influence and help advance the work of the IT organization in support of the work of the institution. Having a seat at the table (being a member of the cabinet) makes a huge difference.
• As CIO, a challenge that I have is showing my fellow vice presidents that a modern ERP will bring efficiencies and help our staff become more productive. It hasn't been a priority for them because our current platform is stable, and everyone has so many priorities that it is difficult to focus on something that's "not broken."
• The CIO has recently joined the university's executive cabinet, a big step in ensuring the IT organization is a strategic asset to help the university achieve its goals.

Digital strategy leadership

• Through our strategic plan, our CIO is encouraging a digital transformation (Dx) 2.0 strategy as a framework for our institutional goals.
• In the past, we would prepare a strategic plan with a five-year horizon. Now, this plan is updated every six-months. At the same time, we strive to have a team of senior executives who are actively involved in strategy development. We are constantly cultivating collaboration across all units of the university to create a community that supports us in matters of funding and decision-making, so that we can promptly gather and incorporate their needs into our actions.
• Development of a digital strategy, as input to university strategy.
• We overhauled our approach to IT strategy this past year, moving from a five-year "strategic plan" that mostly outlined our services to a more active yearly process to point out our priorities, set time-based measurable goals, and get the whole IT team involved in the process.
• We adapted our digital strategy to a fail-forward approach. All too often, great ideas get caught up in an outdated governance structure. We started by revamping project governance to allow for "start-up" pilots. This allows faculty, students, and staff to pitch ideas for a proof of concept. We also launched a technology internship program for students to address our resource limitations. Going from ten students to one hundred this year, we gained a wealth of new ideas and expertise and expanded our talent pipeline by leveraging our own student body. We have mentorship programs embedded in this program, which allows full-time staff to help develop the skills required, limiting the impact of staff transitions, and keep up with technology advancements. Our institution has also partnered with several companies that have invested in our technology internship program, which now has as many student interns as the central career center for the entire campus!
• Using services to help augment our decisions and strategy.
• The university drives digital strategy and operations in the following ways:
  • Developing and conveying a clear and consistent vision of how technology can enhance the mission, values, and goals of the institution, engaging stakeholders from inside and outside the campus.
  • Working with academic and administrative units to find and adopt innovative and effective technology solutions that support teaching, learning, research, and administrative operations.
  • Supporting its diverse and skilled technology staff and strategic campus partners, providing them opportunities for professional development, recognition, and leadership.
  • Fostering a culture of digital citizenship and ethics, ensuring that technology is accessible, equitable, and respectful of all members of the institutional community and society at large.

Efficiency and cost management

• The demand for digital and the corresponding resources required to support it are increasing, but we need to cut costs across the university, so it's hard to get support for IT investments.
• Reducing spending on redundant software packages, unifying products, and getting better license agreements through negotiations.
• Continue to focus on cost management in building out a five-year roadmap for investment, supporting units on campus who deal with the societal unrest.
• Within all institutions, we can almost guarantee that change is a constant. From escalating software costs to changes in leadership and philosophy to changing financial circumstances, it is up to us as leaders to navigate that change while serving our constituents to the best of our abilities. Our IT organization constantly seeks to operate efficiently by setting savings targets annually and continually looking for opportunities to save in both good and bad financial times to enable us to meet inevitable challenges before they occur.
• Resource limitations is the largest issue. By introducing a project management office, we were able to quantify everything that happens in the ITS infrastructure space and balance workloads within one year.

Influencing and communicating

• Making sure we stay connected to the university strategy. We adopted a partnership approach and influence how technology can support the ambition of the university.
• Meeting with leadership to communicate and prioritize issues on a frequent and recurring basis.
• This has always been and will continue to be the challenge. Keep communicating, keep listening.

IT governance

• Acknowledging that IT is constantly under-resourced and understanding that our work needs to be prioritized accordingly. If we can't get everything done, then what needs to be done first?
• How many systems can we reasonably manage at one time? Every department, every organization has two to three now, and we aren't expanding support and staff to accommodate all the infrastructure, integration, and administration.
• The IT organization has been asked to do more with less funding and human resource capital. It will be important to develop a strategy with senior leadership to determine focus and priorities.
• Our new committee has senior leadership support and broad campus representation. The committee has assisted campus IT leadership navigate and introduce new technologies even from an awareness viewpoint.

Process improvement

• Moving from a data/technology focus to a people, process, technology, and date process with continuous improvement focus (Lean Six Sigma).

Staffing

• Adding staff to prepare for retirements, having a succession plan for all areas of the IT organization. IT staff sit on all technology-related committees to add insight and direction to new initiatives.
• Trying to hire and retain IT staff.
• Outsourced IT leadership (CIO, network and security executive director, and one leader on the applications team) and some remote services (database administrator, system administrator) to ensure systems and services are maintained at latest levels and best practices are being followed.
• Creating incentives that increase tenure.
• Documenting policies, procedures, and processes to help reduce "knowledge drain."

Notes

1. Ben Wigert, "The Top 6 Things Employees Want in Their Next Job," Gallup Workplace, February 21, 2022; Abbey Lewis, "Good Leadership? It All Starts with Trust," Leading the Way (blog), Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning, October 26, 2022. Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩
2. Wouter Aghina and Aaron DeSmet, "The Keys to Organizational Agility," McKinsey & Company, interview, December 1, 2015. Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.↩
3. Mark McCormack, "EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Leadership Transitions," EDUCAUSE Review, May 20, 2024. Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.↩

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Michael Cato is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Bowdoin College.

Jackie Milhans is Director of Research Computing and Data at Northwestern University.

Tracy Schroeder is Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer at University of California, Berkeley.