Tyrique Wilson
Interview with Russell Diaz, Chief Information Officer
On November 6th I was given the opportunity of interviewing the Chief Information Officer for Dominican University, Mr. Russel Diaz and it was a pleasure. Mr. Diaz is very passionate about his work and everything he has put into IT for Dominican University and this was very clear to see with each response he provided. Mr. Diaz has done so much for the College already, and has much more planned for the future.
Q. How has the IT department grown in Dominican University over the past 5 years?
A. “We used to have individual network servers for each job, now all of our servers are state of the art and up to date. Recently we upgraded the bandwidth of the internet, so the college has two individual lines. One for the College and one for the Dorms. We went from 100 line to a 1000 line for the Dorms.”
Q. Where do you see IT going in the next 5-10 Years?
A. “Changing the wireless network was a big deal for us. With the older wireless network you were required to type in a username and a password, but that doesn’t work with the newer technology like your Video games, and Amazon Fire Sticks. We spent another 120,000 dollars to replace the old wireless network with the new one that connects to the faster new bandwidth”.
Q. Do you think we rely on Technology too much?
A. “The fact that you have the technology available, generally as students, you could stay cur-rent with what is going on in world. You can log on to Newspapers such as The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, anywhere in the world. When I go to other classes that I teach, and ask the most basic questions about what’s going on in the world, students have no idea. They have no idea what they’re facing. You guys have technology so easy and you’re using it the wrong way. Technology has all the capability for you guys to educate yourself but you don’t because you’re too busy playing video games and listening to music”.
Q. What is your favorite piece of technology?
A. It would have to be the internet. Because it allows you to reach out and learn anything you want. I use it all the time for that purpose.
Although Mr. Diaz didn’t see himself working with Information Technology when he was younger. He has taken this department very far over the past 5 years. Many changes have been made to the College because of this department, and they were not easy or cheap. The one major change that satisfies everyone is the change in Wi-Fi and it has cost the College thousands of dollars to implement. Mr. Diaz has developed a passion for the work he does, for the College and the information that he teaches his students and this is the main reason I enjoyed interviewing Russell Diaz, Chief Information Officer for Dominican University.