The Illinois Campus Cluster Program governance model is structured to provide a clear delineation of roles, responsibilities, accountability, and stakeholder inclusiveness for effective and efficient execution of the Program to meet the needs of the campus research and education community.
The three bodies of the organization and their high-level roles are as follows:
- Executive Steering Committee—decision-making
- Investor Forum—recommendations
- Illinois Campus Cluster Operators—implementation
Executive Steering Committee
The Executive Steering Committee is the oversight and decision-making body for the Illinois Campus Cluster Program. It reports to the University of Illinois IT Governance Research Subcommittee (ITGRS). The committee makeup will include the Investor Forum representatives, the Director of Illinois Campus Cluster Program (ex officio), a representative of the Illinois Office of the Chancellor (OC), a representative of the Illinois Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR), a representative of the Illinois IT Governance Research Subcommittee (ITGRS), and a representative of the Illinois CIO’s Office. Each entity will appoint their own representative(s). The Executive Steering Committee will annually select a chairperson. Subcommittees may be formed with members from the Executive Steering Committee, Investor Forum, Illinois Campus Cluster Operators, and other stakeholders such as prospective new Investors to focus on specific issues. The Executive Steering Committee is responsible for annually reviewing and updating, as necessary, the SLDs for the Illinois Campus Cluster Program. The Executive Steering Committee is also responsible for reporting regularly to the ITGRS on the status of the Illinois Campus Cluster Program.
The current Illinois Campus Cluster Program Executive Steering Committee members are:
- Kaiyu Guan, Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (Office of the Chancellor Representative)
- Dan Davidson, Director of CNRG and Research Computing, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (OVCR representative)
- Vacant (CIO’s Office Representative)
- Vacant (IT Faculty Advisory Committee representative)
- Josh Henry, Associate Director of Information Technology, Agricultural, Consumer, & Environmental Sciences (Investor Forum representative)
- Gianni Pezzarossi, Computational System Analyst, Grainger College of Engineering (Investor Forum representative)
- Rebecca Wiltfong, Director of Information Management, Department of Physics (Investor Forum chair)
Additional ex officio non-voting members:
- John Towns, Executive Director for Science and Technology, NCSA (Director of Illinois Campus Cluster Program)
- Christopher Heller, Assistant Director, NCSA (Operations Manager, Illinois Campus Cluster Program)
- Jed Willard, Project Manager, NCSA (Project Manager, Illinois Campus Cluster Program)
Investor Forum
The Investor Forum represents the interests of the Investors in the Illinois Campus Cluster Program governance process. The Investor Forum will annually elect a member to serve as the Chairperson of the Investor Forum. The Chairperson is responsible for convening regular meetings of the Investor Forum and for bringing recommendations from the Investor Forum to the Executive Steering Committee.
The Chairperson, along with two additional members also annually elected by the Investor Forum, serve as representatives to the Executive Steering Committee. For purposes of electing the Chairperson and the additional representatives to the Executive Steering Committee, each investor shall receive one vote regardless of the number of nodes or Instances in which they have invested. No one may serve more than two consecutive terms as Chairperson or additional representative. The timing of elections for these positions will be tied to the timing of selection of new representatives for the Illinois IT Governance Research Subcommittee.
Illinois Campus Cluster Operators
The Illinois Campus Cluster Operators are responsible for installing, operating, and maintaining all Illinois Campus Cluster Instances and for providing basic support for users. This team will implement and execute the policies of the Illinois Campus Cluster Program and Instances as directed by the Executive Steering Committee. The Campus Cluster is operated by Technology Services under the leadership of the Deputy CIO for Research IT, John Towns. Technology Services contracts with NCSA for the technical personnel who operate the cluster.