Dressed in black slacks, a white button-down and a tie, Cole Camplese settled back in a chair in his outer office, a large space at the far end of a hallway on the second floor of the Educational Communications Center.
It was his second day in the dual role of both Stony Brook’s Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, and he already had a great deal of work to do.
He let out an easy laugh, though, as he talked about his work, a notably heavier load here than at Pennsylvania State University.
There, he served as the Senior Director for Teaching and Learning with Technology, where his job was to enhance technology use in education and learning practices.
Here, Camplese’s two titles mean he is in charge of everything from Blackboard to payroll technology, SINC sites to SOLAR. But he is not worried.
“We have great people in place here,” he said, “to make sure everything runs smoothly.”
Camplese was recruited to work at Stony Brook, and sees his job as simply ensuring that the student body has a high level of learning services that it not only needs, but wants—something he feels he can do with ease by relying on his staff.
“I would love to see Stony Brook recognized as a center for students to be connected and for researchers to be able to develop new ideas,” he said. “A world class university and a world class hospital do a lot of teaching and learning.”
While his attentions are currently focused on his role as an administrator who reports directly to University President Samuel L. Stanley, Camplese is a proud instructor of technology teaching techniques as well.
That is a role he cannot begin at Stony Brook for another year or two, he estimates, because he first needs to get a comfortable handle on his duties.
And until then, Camplese has a few goals, one of which is to help market the already-available podcast and blog services.
He added that his chief ambition is to extend Stony Brook’s recognized status as a “leader.”
Rebecca Anzel
Rebecca is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in Middle Eastern studies. She joined The Statesman as a copy editor in her sophomore year after traveling to Turkana, Kenya with members of that year's editorial board, and has enjoyed her time here ever since. She hopes to become either a business reporter or a foreign correspondent when she graduates. (@rebeccaanzel)
