#228: Ithaca College & Omnissa on Nebula, ICare Team & 150 Students Who Almost Slipped Through

Episode Summary

In this episode, Dave Weil from Ithaca College and Mark Richards from Omnissa explore how a small liberal arts IT team built an AI tool that freed up 150 at-risk student meetings - and why human-to-human connection has to stay at the center of any real AI strategy.

Featuring

Dave Weil is Senior Vice President of Strategic Services and Initiatives at Ithaca College - overseeing HR, IT, Analytics, and AI, and a longtime contributor to EDUCAUSE leadership development including the Senior Director Institute and the EDUCAUSE Leaders Academy.

Mark Richards is Senior Manager at Omnissa - formerly the end user computing division of VMware, now an independent company with over 30 years of experience designing and implementing endpoint and virtual desktop solutions across higher education and public sector.

Episode Highlights

- AI cut ICare research from an hour to a minute - and freed 150 student meetings

- “We don’t lead technology, we lead people that lead the technology” - Dave Weil

- Virtual labs turning physical computer rooms into classrooms at community colleges

- The Four Rights: right person, right seat, right things, right time

- Patch management is still your biggest security gap in higher ed

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