March 28, 2005, Sarasota, Florida – CampusWorks, Inc. (CWI), an information technology management firm specializing exclusively in community college solutions, announced that Grand Rapids Community College, MI (GRCC) has signed a 5-year extended contract with CWI to provide technology management services.

GRCC, established in 1914 and celebrating its 90th year of service to the community, enrolls more than 24,000 credit and non-credit students and has been a leader in technology use in the academic mission. At a recent College-wide video production describing the CWI contract, President Juan Olivarez commented that "Our contract award to outsource our top IT leadership to CWI was based on their track record and the exemplary work of the on-site team of management and higher education technology specialists, led by Tina Koopmans and Ray Neff. The entire CWI team exceeded our expectations.”

Under the terms of the contract, CWI will continue to provide leadership and technology specialists, and supervise all College-wide technology resources to provide teaching and learning support to students, faculty and staff. This will include the Blackboard, PeopleSoft, network and security infrastructures, printing, graphics, TV production and cable operations, Library, computer labs, College help desks and desktop support, web development, and project management services. CWI will also be responsible to implement a new organizational structure for technologies that will focus on learner resources to promote learner success and the advancement of the integration of technology solutions to achieve the vision and mission of the College.

The new organization structure represents a consolidation of the technical responsibilities at the College and provides for centralization of resources and services that the College needs to provide. This new organizational structure—Learner Resource and Technology Solutions (LRTS) – encompasses technology staff from across the campus with a clear accountability to GRCC learners. The LRTS organization employs approximately 90 talented staff with an operating budget in excess of $10 million.

The clear goal for this new organization is to provide enhanced and upgraded learner support services to GRCC students, faculty and staff. This includes the advancement of technology in innovative ways to increase productivity and improve teaching and promote learner success.

Under the agreement, CWI is providing an on-site leadership team including a Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, a Technical Director and higher education technology specialists to assist the College in the planning and implementation of all current and new IT initiatives. According to Tina Koopmans, CWI Vice President and GRCC’s new on-site CTO, “since we began our relationship with GRCC, College IT constituents have experienced a renewed confidence in current and future technology services and the Five Year Tactical Plan. The Plan, developed by CWI and College staff, represents our technology vision for 2010 and is a roadmap to help the College apply technology in our core business--teaching and learning. We also have a mandate to stabilize costs and at the same time increase services to students, faculty and staff.”

CWI is dedicated to assisting the College achieve these goals and providing technology support and educational experiences for learners anyway, any place, any time.”