Powell (left) told jokes and tried to push the ice cream at the snowy May Day Celebration. Photo by Julie Strasheim

If you attended last week’s snowy May Day Celebration on Ninth Street Park, you might have wondered: Who was that funny guy who kept trying to give away ice cream when it was only 40 degrees outside?

That was our new vice president of information technology, Carl Powell.

Powell is not the least bit shy and has quite the sense of humor ¯ which, incredibly, is still intact after his trial-by-fire introduction to computing at Metro State when , just a few weeks after he started, the Banner system went down for four days.

“Unfortunately I’ve been through major, show-stopping problems like college-wide Banner outages before,” Powell says. “It takes days to figure out what is wrong, what the exact problem is, and fix the problem without breaking anything else.”

Powell says that one of the best outcomes of the system outage was that he learned a lot about his staff and they learned a lot about him. “We have a lot of dedicated and highly talented people on campus,” he says. “I had to tell people to go home and get some sleep.”

He also learned that IT didn’t have a conference calling system – “I didn’t have the phone numbers for the Banner managers” –, but IT does now. “We had a blame-free review to go over what happened, figure out some of the problems and how we can prevent this kind of situation in the future.”

After the outage fire was doused, Powell could get back to the task at hand of reviewing customer service (“Building our services.”), change management (“What is changed and when.”), and portfolio management (“What projects are on our plate? Where are they? Which ones should grow and which ones should die?)

Carl Powell and his staff got to know each other quite well during last month’s Banner system outage. Photo by Johanna Snow

Powell is working on strategic partnerships, and service management to answer questions such as, how can we save costs and improve service? He says that fixing a user problem quickly might not be the best decision. “If we’re not looking at the root cause, like replacing an ancient PC, then we might not be working to our best advantage,” he explains, adding that he wants to make sure that his area is not so rigid on processes and forms that “IT becomes a four-letter word.”

With the Democratic National Convention coming to the Pepsi Center in August, Powell is focusing on planning, so as to avert any disasters. “Even though there will be no classes, College business will be conducted, so we must keep the basic operations working. People will be relying on the College’s tools to provide remote services,” he says.

For Powell, being able to provide a quick, positive response to emergencies goes beyond his IT expertise. He has been an emergency medical technician (EMT) for years, volunteering 20 hours a week on nights and weekends. It’s something that he hopes to continue in Colorado. “I just like running red lights,” he jokes, before adding, “I like helping people, not just saving lives.”

Powell also likes working in higher education – he earned a Ph.D. in education from Cleveland State University in 2004. “I had enough knowledge about computers, what with my master’s in computer science and having spent my entire career in the field. Earning a doctorate in urban education meant I could blend both worlds.”

It’s a blend of career goals that he plans to continue into the future. “I love Colorado. I’d like to be here a long time.”