Director of the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) Terris Wolff announced to his staff last Thursday that he would be stepping down from his position in order to take on new responsibilities in the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC).

The college plans a full search to fill the position, during which Wolff will continue as director, with the possibility that he will be replaced by an interim director at some point in the future.

According to Vice President for Planning Richard Fass, the change in Wolff's position comes as the result of an ongoing discussion in recent weeks between himself and Wolff to develop a position dedicated to working as an advisor to faculty in technical matters.

"Terris Wolff is moving into an area that is a high priority for the faculty and will bring additional programmatic focus to the Teaching and Learning Center.... His efforts there, which are yet to be worked out in detail, will involve working directly with faculty to help them develop and implement instructional uses of technology," Fass explained. "This is a newly created position, though the function has been on the 'wish list' for some time because of faculty requests for more of this kind of assistance," he added.

Fass further stated that the decision included consultation with Professor of History Kenneth Wolf, chair of the committee on the TLC.

When contacted for comment, however, Professor Wolf stated that he was not in any way involved in the decision to create a new position for Wolff. "I'm not even sure what the connection [between technology and the TLC] would be. I only heard about this second hand; nobody talked to me directly," Wolf said.

Sources close to OIT suspect that Wolff's relocation was not a mututal decision initiated to meet faculty computing needs-Fass could not recall who proposed the change-but rather was related to perceptions of his performance as Director of OIT.

"Terry was asked to consider stepping down [from his position as Director of OIT] in response to various unspecified complaints," stated one such individual who wished to remain anonymous.

"He was offered a way to stay at Pomona, but he would no longer be associated with OIT." The source speculated that problems with email and administrative terminal service may have created an impetus for change. "Everybody's disappointed with the quality of services they've been getting and the overall level of problems. There have been lots of contributing factors which led to disappointing performance," Fass stated.

However, he denied that Wolff's change in position-which will end his association with OIT-was caused by these or other possible problems with his management. "This was not a demotion," Fass stated firmly, declining to comment when asked whether Wolff's new position would involve a change in pay.

This reassignment comes in the midst of increasing student and faculty frustration with OIT, stemming from problems with the new email system and the departmental web servers. Following a bug-ridden email migration last Spring, students have expressed a wide array of concerns with the new system, causing many to question Wolff's ability to competently manage OIT.

"Ever since Wolff has overseen technology changes at Pomona College, things have gone wrong," said a student on the condition of anonymity.

OIT's administrative staff, on the other hand, had nothing but praise for Wolff and his management style. Director of Academic Computing Peg Schultz stated, "The success I've had working with the faculty and staff has been due largely to the support I've had from Terry [Wolff]. He's been a fabulous boss."

Although opinions of Wolff's managerial effectiveness vary, OIT's techni-cal problems have begun to be resolved. Power issues have been remedied and a consultant was hired to repair the malfunctioning mail servers. One source close to OIT expressed the opinion that "it is not constructive to cut off the head of the organization just as things are beginning to improve."

The fears of many close to the situation are that the recent improvements may be disregarded by a new director unfamiliar with OIT's procedures. Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity indicated that news of Wolff's departure came "out of the blue-there was no consultation, no warning at all that this was going to happen."

Staff members indicated that they had been deeply affected by the news of Wolff's departure.

Sources connected to OIT have speculated that with Wolff's dismissal the administration is sending a message to OIT that the department has performed poorly and needs to re-evaluate its strategy.

One individual, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed discontent, asking "why did they feel the need to replace Terry without trying to work with him to fix the problems they identified?"

The college will conduct a full search for a new director as soon as it has a chance to review and possibly update the current job description. Fass hopes to construct the search in such a way that faculty, students, and administration are all involved.

The search committee will be looking for a candidate with good managerial skills, an understanding of the academic environment, and a high level of technical knowledge and experience. A wide-scale search such as this could take up to a year to complete, with Wolff possibly remaining director until the search is complete.