Purdue Computing: What is ITaP, and What Happened to PUCC?

Students who attended Purdue before 2002 probably remember their university computing being controlled by the Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC). Today, you may see references to ITaP or ICS, but PUCC is nowhere to be seen. What happened?

In 2001, three existing groups - the Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC), Management Information (MI), and Telephone Services - were united under the direction of a newly created Office of the Vice President of Information Technology.

The organization, informally known as Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), is responsible for planning and coordinating the central computing and telecommunications systems on the West Lafayette campus. James R. "Jim" Bottum, executive director for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, accepted the position of vice president and chief information officer in August of 2001. During 2002, some other programs have merged with the organization so that ITaP now also includes media production and distance learning services.

Instructional Computing Services (ICS) is the division of ITaP that is now responsible for maintaining the University's computer labs, e-mail system, Purdue career accounts and most of the general computing needs of Purdue University. For most intents and purposes, ICS has replaced PUCC as the computer service provider on campus.

To learn more about Information Technology at Purdue, visit their website at http://www.purdue.edu/ITaP/.

To learn more about the ICS division of ITaP, visit the ICS website at http://ics.purdue.edu/.

Information provided by ITaP on August 13, 2002