IU teams up with AT&T to embrace BlackBerry usage

IU announced a two-year agreement with AT&T on Wednesday that will provide opportunities for business graduate students, faculty and staff to take advantage of BlackBerry smartphones.

This is the first such agreement between AT&T and a university, according to a press release. The program, negotiated through the University Information Technology Services, will be launched July 1 in partnership with IU’s Kelley School of Business.
Faculty and graduate students enrolled in Kelley School of Business programs on both the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses may participate in the AT&T BlackBerry program.

The BlackBerry smartphones in this program will use IU’s Microsoft Exchange e-mail and calendaring environment, as well as the school’s existing BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

“This particular opportunity will allow our faculty to experiment with integrating the BlackBerry smartphone experience into their pedagogy, and will allow our students to learn how to use this technology in managing their future business activities and their mobile lives,” Frank Acito, associate dean at the business school, said in a statement. “The project makes this technology accessible and integrated with the enterprise mobility plans, and allows our future business leaders to utilize tools in an educational setting that they will likely use in their careers.”

IU Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Brad Wheeler said this agreement is a big step in the University’s collaborations.

“This agreement is an important step in realizing the vision of ‘Empowering People,’ IU’s strategic plan for information technology,” Wheeler, who also is a professor of information systems in the business school, said in a statement.

“The plan strongly encourages the continuation and expansion of IU’s highly successful collaborations with hardware, software and service vendors to enhance and augment the University’s mission of teaching and learning for the 21st century,” Wheeler added in the statement.