Our Purpose — Mission, Vision and guidance
Mission
Share technical knowledge and experience, encourage innovation and promote participation among all Bruin technologists.
Vision
Establish community relationships and foster professional development throughout the UCLA technical community while promoting digital citizenship through our work with students, faculty, researchers, and staff.
Guidance
UCLA BruinTech is officially recognized by IT Services as an independent advisory body to the University Administration on technology issues.
We want to...
Help our community members feel like they belong and know what’s happening.
Provide opportunities for professional development.
Read more about BruinTech's Mission and Values and Professional Development
Events and Initiatives — Ongoing
Community Events
Events hosted each month varying from technology-related speakers to data center tours to networking meetups.
Community Communication Channels
An email listserv and Slack channel are maintained by BruinTech and are available for any messages to and from the BruinTech community.
"Friday Five"
A weekly newsletter of top technology stories and events in and outside of UCLA.
Committees
Committees may be delegated the task of discussing and making recommendations for a wide-range of issues related to IT staff professional development, strategic and project planning, IT Best Practices, and University IT standards.
Events and initiatives — Special Projects
Conferences
BruinTech organizes one to two large tech educational conferences a year and may partner with other organizations, such as Staff Assembly, to jointly provide educational sessions to the IT and broader community about technology. Conferences have been organized in various formats (tech-a-thon, unconference, traditional conferences, vendor/partnership fairs).
Scholarships
BruinTech sponsors annual scholarships to staff. 3 UCLA extension classes (up to $1,000 each) and one Technical Project Manager scholarship ($4,000) have been offered annually in the past.
Elections
The BruinTech board is selected by the BruinTech community through a nomination and voting process that takes place annually.
Roles — BruinTech Executive Board
President
Leads programming, helps set the vision and goals in consultation with the BruinTech Program Sponsor.
President-Elect
Serves as the BruinTech IT Strategic Partner to UCLA’s IT leadership.
Vice President for Special Projects
Leads, plans, and coordinates BruinTech special projects throughout the year.
Vice President for Technology Support
Ensures BruinTech’s community events, activities, listserv, and website run smoothly.
Vice President for Community Events
Leads, plans, and coordinates BruinTech events that build community and strengthen skills among members.
Vice President for Marketing Communications
Promotes BruinTech activities and builds community between BruinTech members.
Vice President for Content Strategy
Plans and creates content in support of BruinTech’s mission. Maintains continuity and institutional knowledge.
Immediate Past President
Serves in an ex officio capacity, mentoring new Board members and assisting with special projects.
Read more about BruinTech's Executive Board and their roles here
History — From the decision to decentralize
Decentralization (1985)
In 1985, a decision was made to decentralize computing resources. In the following years, nearly all of the schools and academic divisions created Local Support Centers, providing support for academic and administrative computing infrastructure within their domain.
Computing Support Coordinator Program (1988 - 2008)
The Computing Support Coordinator (CSC) program was developed to address the growing need for technical support within UCLA departments and a consistent interface between central support organizations and departmental computing support staff.
Help Desk Consortium (HDC) 2008 - 2012
The HDC was formed to promote collaboration among the numerous help desks at UCLA. Since its conception, the HDC was mostly made up of help desk staff and focused on help desk related issues. With the forming of the Help Desk Consortium, many of the discussions from the CSC group were integrated with the HDC.
BruinTech 2012 - present
The HDC Executive Board launched a rebranding effort to expand the group to include all Bruin “technologists,” meaning anyone who works in technology, is interested in technology, or considers themselves to be a “techie.”
Read more about BruinTech’s history
