 So, welcome to two leaders from Minneapolis College. We have with us today Sharon Pierce, the president, and Tiffany Dieb, who's the vice president of information technology at Minneapolis College back in my hometown of Minneapolis, St. Paul in Minnesota, where I'll just start is to ask each of you to talk a little bit about the relationship you have together and how do you work together effectively, especially in the context of a pandemic. Presidents need to understand that information technology is part of our infrastructure. It's not an add-on. It is fundamental to the functioning of the entire enterprise system. And so you need to have a relationship with your vice president of information technology or the senior administrator, whoever you're working with, so that you can trust that that person understands the needs of the institution and that they're able to be bilingual as it were. You know, they need to be able to explain information technology challenges, opportunities in a way that you're able to understand them and then communicate that out to the entire campus because essentially without information technology right now, we are not able to function. Technology is a lifeline and yet sometimes a disruptor, right? And so what does how do we do that well? How do we work with my colleagues and with our leadership team to ensure that we're delivering the business needs and then strategically planning? And so to have those conversations with Sharon, I can be honest. I can be open. I trust her judgment. I trust her guidance and sometimes it's like, well not quite yet or yes let's go because having that relationship is absolutely critical to the success of the technology and innovation at our campus. So this all works really well and part of the reason I wanted to talk to the two of you is because I've known you for a while and I know how well you work together but what's your advice for each of you for presidents and information officers who don't have that you know chemistry between the president and and the technology leader? What advice would you have for building one when you don't have that? If I was with the president that wasn't quite as technical I would spend the time understanding where the what their understanding of technology so that I could communicate well to them so that we could strategically plan and we could communicate on the same level. That is absolutely critical. So whether somebody has a lot of technical experience or not it is essential for the technology leader to understand where that is and to position themselves to be influential and communicate effectively to the president and the leadership team. From the president's perspective you know you're expected to know something about a lot of different things. You need to have at least some surface understanding of knowledge across the institution. It's very difficult to lead if you can't communicate with your senior administrators. So for president or anyone who wants to be a president it's important to learn something about technology because it is part of the infrastructure. It's like not knowing what you're building. It's like not knowing how many square feet of space you have or how many buildings you have on campus if you don't understand the current level of technology and its use in your institution. So doing your homework I think is critical and certainly understanding that you should not get into the week. That's not your job. Understanding that it's your job to work and collaborate with your senior administration and not do their job. And so staying out of the week is important and I think also understanding the synergy between your budget and information technology because that's where things can break down very quickly. You have to have enough resources to support technology but not give the impression that technology is driving the budget because that will also hurt the relationship across the campus. Working with the president that trusts the leader of the technology department or division is absolutely critical. Sharon has demonstrated many times when we've had critical outages of trust and patience and her willingness just to say it's okay. We'll get there is essential. It also positions us so that my role with my team is similar. I continue to encourage them and be their leader and not get in the weeds with them and let them do their good work in those critical times as well. I could talk for hours so I've really, really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you Tiffany D vice president of information technology and Sharon Pierce president of Minneapolis College. It's been great to talk to you.