The idea for the IT Awards was first conceived in the spring of 1992
Back then, staff in OIT (now ITS) saw a need to publicly encourage and acknowledge support efforts of their peers on campus to upper level management. With the support of Anne Parker, OIT Director of Planning, the IT Awards came to be. The awards were designed from the beginning to be self supporting and self perpetuating, not drawing on university resources for their continuation, but rather on vendor support and registration fees for the banquet.
In 1992 there were fewer than 100 support people on campus and less than 70 of these people actually had IT classifications. Today there are well over 700 support positions on campus!
The first IT Awards were given out on April 7, 1993
There were 50 nominations and approximately 70 people attended the banquet, which was held in the Old Well Room of the Carolina Inn. The nominations all had a similar theme: versatility and the willingness to go beyond the call of duty. This is a theme which carries forward even today.
The first IT Awards were given out by then Associate Provost for Information Technology, Bill Graves. The members of the first committee were Sherry Graham, Bruce Egan, Margaret Moore, Ken Hardy, Anne Parker, and Linwood Futrelle.
The winners of the first IT Awards were
- Scott Barker, School of Information & Library Science
- Ruth Marinshaw, Carolina Population Center
- Paul Jones, OIT (now ITS)
- Joel Dunn, Administrative Data Processing
- Danny Dawson, Electronic Office Service Center
- Oscar Byrne Tinney, Romance Languages
- Cindy Rhine, Health Sciences Library
- Jim Gogan, OIT (now ITS)
- George Winborne, Department of Physics & Astronomy
- Tim Cline, Health Sciences Library
Each of the winners received a plaque, a congratulatory letter from then Chancellor Paul Hardin, and a WUNC-FM umbrella
Bill Graves was quoted in the Chapel Hill Herald as saying of the first IT Awards, "The staff involved in information technology are tireless in their efforts to provide a state-of-the-art technical environment for this campus. Such dedication deserves public recognition since much of their work is behind the scenes and not always obvious to those who benefit from their efforts."