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Telecommunications Head to Oversee
Storrs, Health Center Operations
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Chuck Fink, assistant vice president of telecommunications, has assumed University-wide responsibilities. |
Charles “Chuck” Fink, formerly assistant vice president of telecommunications for the Health Center, has assumed university-wide responsibility for telecommunications. His new position was effective Oct. 1.
His position title will continue to be assistant vice president for telecommunications, but in this expanded role, Fink will supervise staff members at all campus locations. He reports to Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith, vice president and chief operating officer.
“Chuck Fink’s long experience in telecommunications and his accomplishments as head of this operation at the Health Center over the past 15 years make him the ideal person to assume this added responsibility,” says Flaherty-Goldsmith. “We look forward to the efficiencies to be gained and the improved services to be offered as a result of this change in management structure.”
A University-wide study completed for the president and the Board of Trustees by Pappas Consulting in 2003 recommended that some operational functions could best be conducted by centralizing their administration. Telecommunications, a component of the information technology department, “lends itself particularly well to this model,” Flaherty-Goldsmith says.
Fink says centralizing telecommunications helps reduce expenses. An example is the savings gained by using the same contractor for long distance telephone calls at the Health Center and other University campuses, which takes effect in November.
Fink is responsible for the day-to-day telecommunications operations – including telephones and voice mail – at all university campuses and the Health Center. He is also responsible for all networking, including wiring, fiber, and electronics for connections to PCs and printers University-wide, except at the Health Center.
He says he “welcomes the new opportunities. It is exciting to be part of the Storrs campus as well as the Health Center.” Fink will be at Storrs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and at the Health Center on Tuesday and Thursday.
He says he plans to “look at everything from day-to-day operations to long-term project planning for the whole organization.”
Fink comes to the job with 35 years of experience in the field, the last 15 at the Health Center. He was in the U.S. Air Force for 31/2 years, starting his career with SNET in sales and marketing in 1969. He then worked at Emery Air Freight, where he managed voice communications. After that, he was at Phoenix Mutual in Hartford, responsible for voice and data communications. He started at the Health Center in 1989.
