Terms of reference

Authority

The IT Governance and Collaboration Council is the senior executive group accountable for university IT policies, strategies and overall governance. The Executive leadership team through the IT Governance and Collaboration Council is the authority for the IT Investment and Governance policy and is responsible for ensuring Memorial’s IT Governance and Collaboration Framework is effective.

Mandate

The Council is responsible to:

• Ensure IT investment decisions and priorities are aligned with institutional strategy and priorities.
• Ensure IT investments are fully leveraged for maximum impact.
• Receive and address key issues, decisions, and recommendations from the IT governance and collaboration committees, and other relevant committees and councils.
• Refer issues, questions and plans to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) who can leverage the IT governance and collaboration committees for further study, review and/or recommendation as required.

Membership

• Vice-President Administration and Finance
• Provost and Vice-President (Academic)
• Vice-President (Research)
• Chief Information Officer

Non-voting members:

• Director, Resource Allocation and Planning, Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic)
• Director, Operations (Administration and Finance), Office of the Vice-President
• Manager, Strategy, Planning and Liaison, Office of the CIO

Operations

Agenda setting: The CIO shall develop meeting agendas and Council members can identify topics for discussion in advance of meetings. Other Vice-Presidents and senior leaders will be invited to attend meetings for specific agenda items, as needed.

Records: The Office of the CIO shall be the official custodian of the records relating to Council and shall manage those in accordance with the University’s Information Management policy. The Manager, Strategy, Planning and Liaison will take meeting notes and record decisions.

Meeting frequency: Once per semester.

Decision making: Formal decisions are determined by consensus. For critical decisions on which consensus cannot be reached, decisions will be made by a majority vote. A majority of the committee is required for a quorum.

Reporting: The Council shall report to the Executive leadership team as needed, and at a minimum, on an annual basis.