Appointment of Interim Chief Information Officer

Betty Capaldi, Provost

Earl Robbins will become the University of Florida’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) within the Office of the Provost on an interim basis, beginning April 29. Mr. Robbins will have responsibility for the policy direction and strategic planning for the university in all areas related to information resources and management. He has served as the Director of Systems in the Office of the University Registrar for 14 years. While there he wrote GATA (the basic student records system at UF), implemented Telegator and developed ISIS, the Integrated Student Information System, the on line system for advising that underlies the Universal Tracking System at the University of Florida. He managed a staff of 20 computer programmers and analysts in his position. Recently, he was central in the development of FACTS (Florida Academic Counseling Tool), the state wide on line advising system, and invented EAGLE, which has been used as the web engine for the new ISIS and state-wide communications. His technical and managerial backgrounds are ideal preparation for the task of coordinating the computing and information systems at the University of Florida. Mr. Robbins will work closely with the many offices and individuals throughout the university to develop the standards and chart the directions in information technology that we will need to support our students, faculty, and staff into the next decade. The initial term of Mr. Robbins appointment as Interim CIO will be one year and after that initial period, the university will evaluate the institution’s needs and determine whether it is time to establish a permanent structure and conduct a search for a permanent CIO.