Dear CHASS Faculty and Staff: 

Through a formal IT Partnership Agreement developed over the past several months, CHASS has entered into a service partnership with Information Technology Solutions (ITS). Effective July 1, CHASS instructional technology and multimedia services and staffing have been integrated into central ITS, and IT services and support for CHASS are now provided by ITS. 

Over the coming months, our familiar IT and multimedia professionals transition to the ITS organization, where they will continue to draw on their areas of technical expertise and their deep knowledge of CHASS.

This is undoubtedly an important change, and it is a deliberate one. CHASS has agreed to a collaborative future designed to directly support immediate needs and long-range strategic planning, mindful of current and future costs. As a diverse community of scholars, artists, and faculty dedicated to exploring the human experience, we build a flexible, sustainable, and secure IT ecosystem to meet existing instructional and research needs, cybersecurity and accessibility compliance, and the anticipated demands of data-informed student success, business operations, communications, and artificial intelligence. 

What This Means for You and Your Work

While the organizational change is real and permanent, your day-to-day experience of getting help will change incrementally and thoughtfully. We know that a standard, one-size-fits-all support model cannot meet the unique needs of our diverse academic departments and research centers, and ITS shares that understanding.

Here is what you can expect during the transition:

• Continued On-Site Assistance: To maintain quick, accessible support, two dedicated ITS technicians will be physically present in CHASS spaces to handle support requests. You can request assistance in person in HMNSS 3611 or by email at: chassit@ucr.edu. 
• Your Current Request Channels Still Work: Your existing methods to request IT services and support (e.g., BearHelp, email, phone, instant messaging) for supported office, classroom, laboratory, and off-site activities will remain functional during the transition. As ITS consolidates support channels over time, any changes will be communicated with clarity and sufficient lead time to ensure no interruption to your work.
• Collaborative Review and Assessment: Beginning this month, ITS—working alongside the transitioning CHASS IT staff—will launch an intensive discovery and audit period to document every specialized local service need. This includes auditing our 100+ CHASS-affiliated websites, specialized software licensing, and custom support for research projects.
• Service Quality Commitments: Over the next several months, ITS and CHASS leadership will work with unit heads and administrative leaders to establish clear service quality commitments, so you know exactly what level of support to expect from the new partnership.
• New ITS Roles for Transitioning Employees: The talented IT and multimedia professionals who understand the unique needs of the College join the larger ITS workgroup, where their college-specific expertise will be matched to roles within the larger organization. While their reporting lines and responsibilities will change, their knowledge of CHASS remains a core part of how we will be supported.

Why This Change Matters

This transition allows CHASS to align our technology resources with our core academic, research, and student success priorities in several key ways:

• Equitable Access: A single, unified IT service model enables a standardized, secure, and equitable technological experience across all CHASS units, ensuring that each faculty member, staff, and student has the tools needed to succeed.
• Compliance: The Office of the President has imposed a number of compliance mandates that cannot be managed piecemeal. A unified ITS operation will ensure that CHASS is at the same level as all campus units in cybersecurity, accessibility, privacy, and risk management. 
• Advanced Research Environments: This alignment facilitates direct access to campus-wide innovations, such as specialized high-performance computing, advanced digital security, and modern automation tools.
• Modernizing Our Classroom and Learning Spaces: To improve undergraduate student learning, our strategic plan prioritizes upgrading instructional technology. ITS has committed to deploy standardized, reliable multimedia equipment across all CHASS instructional and event spaces, ensuring our students learn in modern, high-functioning digital environments.
• Multidirectional Professional Development: CHASS IT colleagues gain access to enterprise-level resources and professional development. Campus ITS professionals, in turn, develop their careers with the humanities, arts, and social sciences as core constituents. 

I am deeply appreciative of our long-serving, highly dedicated CHASS IT staff. The core ITS staff, the multimedia specialists, and the many student interns who have supported our IT functions have shown unwavering dedication over many years of distributed service to the College. They remain key partners for sustainable and secure instructional and research technology across UCR. 

I thank you all for your patience during this transition, and your ongoing contributions to the CHASS community.
 

Sincerely, 

Daryle Williams
Professor and Dean