As part of Industry Insider — California’s ongoing efforts to educate readers on state agencies, their IT plans and initiatives, here’s the latest in our periodic series of interviews with departmental IT leaders.
Dr. Valerie Lundy-Wagner is the vice chancellor of the Digital Innovation and Infrastructure Division at California Community Colleges, a role she has had since January after previously serving as interim vice chancellor since May 2021. Before that, Lundy-Wagner was the CCC’s assistant vice chancellor of the Research and Data Analytics Unit from February 2020-May 2021. Before joining the CCC, she was senior research analyst at California Competes from September 2018-January 2020. She is also an editorial review board member at the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
Lundy-Wagner has a Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles; a master’s degree in education from Stanford University; and a doctorate degree in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Editor’s note: This interview has been updated with additional comments from Dr. Lundy-Wagner.
Industry Insider — California: Can you please talk a bit about the divisions within your agency and how they intersect with technology funding and grants?
Lundy-Wagner: Dr. John Hetts has recently been appointed as the executive vice chancellor of the Office of Innovation, Data, Evidence and Analytics, and there is a realignment around how this office will work alongside the DII Division (Digital Innovation and Infrastructure). Currently, there are four units within DII: Information Technology (Services), our general network support; the Research and Data Analytics team; the Management Information Systems (MIS) team; and the Educational Technology team.
Industry Insider — California: With Dr. Hetts coming on board, will your area of focus shift to grants?
Lundy-Wagner: It’s to be determined. I’m a trained higher ed researcher and so to me, what’s interesting about the educational technology grants is the opportunity that largely goes under-appreciated and unattended — the fact that we have analytics for educational technology products that are student-facing that we don’t systematically connect to data on student outcomes. I’m interested in understanding how use of a learning management system like Canvas can inform where we need to have early alerts more systematically, rather than relying primarily on instructional faculty. That is an example of a system-level intervention that could be explored when we combine technology, data and research, and one reason why I have a big interest in the educational technology grants.
Industry Insider — California: What educational technology grants now exist that IT companies should know about?
Lundy-Wagner: There are five grants: Data Services Program, Data Science Tools, Core Applications, Shared Infrastructure Program, Technical Assistance Providers, and the California Virtual Campus. Those grants are disbursed through districts, often, though not always through a competitive bidding process.
Aside from those grants, IT companies might want to pay attention to conversation around a common systemwide ERP (enterprise resource planning system). It’s a topic that’s complicated by the nature of the California Community Colleges system governance which operates as more of a federation than a true system, where every campus or district uses the same tools and products. Legislation specifically seeks to maximize local autonomy for the 73 districts and yet, we must attend to systemwide priorities. Every college in our system uses Canvas, for example, but each may use a different online tutoring platform. The idea of a common ERP can be enormously beneficial; however, the reality is that ERPs require significant planning and implementation work, and higher education IT is notoriously underfunded and understaffed. There will continue to be conversations about ERPs to make sure decisions are made that facilitate easier student navigation, a reduction in local workload as well as the Chancellor’s Office’s ability to conduct state and federal reporting.
Industry Insider — California: What challenges exist with respect to a common ERP?
Lundy-Wagner: A lot of colleges already have them (ERPs). Another big and related issue involves the overhaul of the systemwide application. Twenty years ago, every one of our colleges had their own separate paper application. We’ve come a long way, but the systemwide application was built in a way that doesn’t necessarily prioritize ease of use for students. We’re in a position, especially as we go into the next fiscal year, of trying to make a definitive decision about whether we continue making enhancements to the existing tech stack or we shift to a brand-new tool. This is important because historically, we have maximized local autonomy and had a very tools-first approach to how this system has supported colleges and districts. At the end of the day, we know an “if you build it, they will come” approach doesn’t work for students. It doesn’t even work in our federated system because we know that some colleges and districts are going to have vastly different capacities to adopt, integrate and monitor technology. I’ve already had some talks over the last year with the CSU (California State University system) since their system implemented a new application a few years ago. Given that 80 percent of the students in our system who want to transfer will go to the CSU, there’s an important aspect of this redesign that is really about aligning with what they have. Obviously, it also needs to align with the Governor’s Cradle-to-Career Data System as well.
Industry Insider — California: Talk a bit about the timeline this calendar year for the educational technology grants. Are there particular milestones ahead that IT companies should watch for?
Lundy-Wagner: All of our educational technology grants are set to expire at the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, 2023. They will either be awarded this fall or spring. There’s some flexibility regarding what will go up for an award or not. All of the edtech grant funding — this is Prop. 98 money — will go to a district. The districts, then, effectively compete to provide needed oversight, management and implementation support. In the next quarter, the Chancellor’s Office will make decisions about how the grants are organized in terms of products and services, which implicates when districts will compete or whether we should keep steady state. When the RFAs come out, vendors will have an opportunity to understand what technical functionality, capacity and/or expertise the system needs. For example, if we’re putting up an award for a data warehouse, who has that expertise and could potentially partner with the district that is awarded such a grant?
Industry Insider — California: Is there a website or landing page for an IT company that thinks it might be able to provide service to the organization?
Lundy-Wagner: The two biggest grant holders are what we call the California Community Colleges Technology Center, currently hosted by the Butte-Glenn Community College District. The other very meaningful grant is the California Virtual Campus (CVC) which is hosted by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. When the RFAs come out, vendors will have an opportunity to understand what technical functionality, capacity and/or expertise the system needs. For example, if we’re putting up an award for a data warehouse, who has that expertise and could potentially partner with the district that is awarded such a grant?
There is an opportunity for vendors to examine what work is housed at the Technology Center and the CVC and think about the extent to which they could provide real enhancement to the functionality, whether it’s more internally facing like reporting and analytics or external features like user experience.
Industry Insider — California: What do you see as the timeline for RFAs in calendar 2022?
Lundy-Wagner: The remainder of this year will involve rewriting what we call the Request for Applications (RFAs) from our districts. The agency team will reorganize the grants, draft requests for awards, circulate them with our internal system and stakeholders outside the Chancellor’s Office, and then put them up by the end of the calendar year. Vendors should know that I see a lot of opportunity involving technical project management. Because of the way we’re structured and because we, like many state agencies, don’t have a ton of internal capacity, we rely on contractors and/or vendors to help fill in some of those gaps. The Chancellor’s Office’s role is to act on the governor’s and Legislature’s investments and sentiment.
Industry Insider — California: How do you define “digital transformation?” How far along is your organization in that process, and how will you know when it’s finished?
Lundy-Wagner: If I focus more on the educational technology space — digital transformation for the system, for the 116 colleges and 73 districts — we’re at an inflection point. As I noted before, we had an enterprise strategy that was really about an “if you build it, they will come” or a tools-first approach. And I think that has been successful for a number of colleges and districts that have the capacity to take advantage. If we lean into what the Vision for Success goals and commitments are suggesting, if we attend to the reality of our priorities to make this work for as many students as possible, that approach that we've had in the past has to shift. That is really the transformation — being more explicit and engaging with our colleges and districts around “what role can and should the system office have in ensuring that all students, regardless of which college they go to, regardless of where they live, have access to what they need to be successful? And how do we fit technology into that?” That means in some ways, having stricter oversight for some of the grants. We want to make sure that new initiatives or programs are fully integrated. Because I am a researcher at heart, to me, pilots are an opportunity for learning. That doesn’t necessarily mean you keep moving forward in the same way. It means you might close the door on the pilot but then think about how it integrates into other work. As as I think about the systemwide application and the onboarding and what the new and improved version should be, there’s an opportunity to consider why it would be separate from our course exchange. This is a place where students can take online courses. If we’re centralizing an application, why would the enrollment function or parts of it be outside of the application? To what extent does that make sense conceptually? More importantly, to what extent does that make sense practically to the colleges and districts? I think part of this transformation is asking those sorts of questions and making decisions — the best decision one can make.
Industry Insider — California: How do you prefer to be contacted by vendors, including via social media such as LinkedIn? How might vendors best educate themselves before meeting with you?
Lundy-Wagner: The Chancellor’s Office just closed an RFI on identity proofing. That sort of venue is a great place to engage with the Chancellor’s Office team.
The governor’s Fiscal Year 2022-2023 budget allocated $100 million for security and IT infrastructure so we will eventually look to vendors, again, likely through an RFI or RFP process. Given the focus on security, there will be an opportunity to think more about what is housed in our Security Center and how to expand its capacity and capabilities. We will consider where to provide enhancement for those colleges that are running for example, (Microsoft) Windows 7, and have implementation teams provide needed support. We’ve been developing and revising our maturity models, so as we identify those products that we consider every college and district should have, the goal will be to pull from those vendors or partners to activate support teams expeditiously.
Industry Insider — California: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Lundy-Wagner: This is a really exciting time for the Chancellor’s Office in general, but (also) for the system to have this level of attention and investment around IT infrastructure and security specifically. We’re on a path of alignment, efficiency and transparency that will benefit our colleges, districts and taxpayers. We also want to make it easier for students to apply, access tools and resources, complete credentials or transfer, take courses at multiple colleges, and keep, hold and take up their financial aid. We can only go up from here given the level of attention that the Legislature and governor’s office have shown to us.
Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for style and brevity.
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