The "Kirk Moore rule", Technology Man and Little Known Facts

What do you like most about working at UCCS?

I have always enjoyed the work. Being in the Information Technology (IT) field has been great but working in Higher Education IT has been excellent. We have been involved with so many changes and help to make UCCS what it is today.

I really enjoy working with faculty and students. Most IT professionals end up working on the same thing every day, but working here at UCCS there has always been new and exciting challenges. From helping Faculty to teach, students to learn and making the business operations more efficient, almost every day there is something new.

I will always remember the relationships I have made here at UCCS. I meet my wife Tamara here at UCCS, but all of the other characters over many years have been enjoyable to call colleagues but also friends.

I have always been involved with lots here at UCCS. I always say, the two best events to work are Orientation and Graduation. I am starting to wonder if I may be the longest person that has worked at graduation. I go back to the original World Arena, then worked graduation when it was held on campus in old Lot 1 in front of Engineering (where Osborne sits now), then to the Pike’s Peak Center and finally to the new World Arena. I will also always remember the “after graduation get-togethers”.

What do you like most about working in OIT?

OIT has always been exciting. I have always enjoyed the people I have worked with, and many are close friends. But I will say learning has been most exciting. There is always something new to learn. When I started in this field, computers were just starting to come into the work environment. We created or implemented a lot of the technology over the years for UCCS. There was not a cookbook or processes to follow, we OIT/IT/Computing Services created a lot of what the University used and uses now.

The core team over all the years has been, Rob Garvie, Scott Carter, Mike Belding, Jerry Wilson and myself. I still think about all the updates and changes we had to do to make Y2K successful. Also, all the many nights and weekends spent here working on solving email, networking and/or server problems.

I remember when I first got married, my step-son Jordan was eight years old. We were having problems with some technology for a couple of days and Rob, Scott and I had to work for many days and nights in a row. On one of those days, Jordan said, “what kind of job is it you do that you come home from work to eat breakfast and then go back to work?”

I remember writing programs a lot of nights and weekends. It was the only time you could dedicate uninterrupted time to stay focused on getting the project done. It was just what you did to get things working and working correctly.

If you could be any superhero, who would you be?

Technology Man. The superhero that uses technology in innovative ways to get things done.

What has been your greatest accomplishment at UCCS?

It is funny to think back on all of the things I have accomplished here at UCCS.

I started in Public Safety, wrote their first Computerized Parking and Ticketing program. I made it so it took minutes to purchase a parking permit instead of hours. I sped things up so well that the University Management System (UMS), which is now University Information Service (UIS), had to implement the “Kirk Moore Rule”. My programs were able to bill Parking charges to students accounts so fast that Public Safety was receiving their funds before tuition was paid. Of course, this created a major problem and UMS had to set up certain payment schedules, so tuition was paid first before anything else.

I had a great time in Public Safety but was laid off in 1992. Thankfully there was an open position in Computing Services and I was moved into the position. I reported to Jerry Wilson and my first project was to write a program for Student Employment, allowing students to search online for student jobs. I worked with at the time Director of Student Employment, Barbara Brown. Barbara had a requirement that only work-study students could see work-study positions. We created the system Student Employment Access Network or SEAN’s Place. The program worked so well that CU Boulder and CU Denver asked me to go to their campuses and implement the same system for their students. Once Boulder and Denver investigated how it could work, we quickly realized that our environments were so different that is was not possible to make UCCS SEAN’s Place work without major changes. This was disappointing, but I was able to form outstanding relationships with both campuses that I have utilized throughout my whole career.

Before we had Linda Kogan and the Sustainability Office, I worked on alternatives for business units to reduced printing. Back then, each morning most of the departments would come to Dwire Hall (where Computing Services was located) and pick up reams of printouts. The departments would look at a few pages and throughout the whole printout. I programmed a whole system to automate printouts. I worked with UMS to move the printouts from their servers to local data file storage here at UCCS. This program made major changes for the University; departments no longer needed to pick up printouts as they could read the information on a computer screen and were able to copy and paste the data into spreadsheets instead of writing out the information. In Computer Services we were able to reposition 2-3 jobs because there was no need to staff Printing Operations any longer.

In 1997, the first Housing Village came to UCCS and lots of things changed including several departments who were opposed to the idea as it created more work. One of those departments was the Bursar’s Office as they had to hand enter all the Housing charges into the Billing Receiving System (BRS) and it took a lot of time. I created a mini housing program that would upload all the Housing charges to BRS automatically saving the Bursar’s Office time and made better data quality.

Tamara first started at UCCS with the third-party company that was hired to run Housing. I did not get to know Tamara during that time, I finally meet her when she became the Director of Marketing and Recruitment. Tamara always tells the story that her computer was really bad. The person that hired Tamara told her that I was the only person that could get the computer back up and working when it would break. So, either that computer was really bad or I was not very good but I spent a lot of time keeping the machine up and I am excited to say it all worked out for us.

In 2002 I left the University to start my own Business, Moore InterActive, which was an interactive web development company that specialized in connecting websites to back-end databases. Something that is commonplace now but in 2002 it was very new and exciting. Soon my biggest client was UCCS. I was contracting with Facilities, Student Life, Housing, Public Safety, Bursar’s Office, Admission and Records, Student Employment and the Information Technology department. During that time, I rewrote Public Safety’s Parking and Ticking programs and SEAN’s Place. I did not charge enough for either of the programs, I was paid $5,000 for the new Parking and Ticketing program and $3,000 for new SEAN’s Place. Those departments received an excellent ROI and Public Safety used my version of Parking and Ticking until 2012 paying about $185 a year for use and Student Employment used my version of SEAN’s Place until 2014 paying about $136 per year of use.

In 2005 Jerry Wilson asked me to come back and take over a new area he was creating which was Web Services. I agreed and have been back until now 2019.

Craig Decker was running the website at the time, but he really did not have a home department. I think at the time Craig was reporting to two or three different bosses in different departments. I helped created a lot on the web side, first searchable online phone directory, Faculty staff online email list submission and searching for content in the UCCS website to name a few. It was only Craig and myself for a long time and we created an excellent web presence for UCCS.

Since I had written the first Photo ID Program for Public Safety many years ago, it was only natural the photo ID system would end up in my area. At the time Public Safety was having trouble keeping the system functioning. Jeff Davis from the University Center was managing the front end, but the back end was needing help. The whole photo ID system was placed under me sometime in the mid-2000s. We were not allowed to call it a One Card system because there were several people on campus that did not want a one card system, but there were so many components already in included that it really was a one card system and needed to be addressed that way. Once I started getting the system stable, the University went into a partnership with Ent Credit Union. One of the components of the agreement was to allow students to use the Ent Lion One Card on campus the same as the campus photo ID card was used. I worked a lot with Ent Credit Union and we were able to come up with a very ingenious solution for both institutions. Another requirement for both UCCS and Ent was that we could only share very minimal information between our organizations. We found a way where we only had to share a five-digit number that meant nothing to either side. This solution was so original and clever that Ent and I presented the solution at many conferences including the National One Card Conference. I still remember Susan Szpyrka, former CFO, said to me that I must make sure Ent is happy with the Ent Lion One Card, and I have always made sure Ent is happy.

I decided IT Leadership was the future path for my career and I went back to school to receive my Master of Public Administration in 2009. Shortly after completing my degree I moved into the Director of Computing Services and have been focused on IT Leadership since.

What is one little-known fact about your career here?

I am so thankful that I was able to work with UMS/UIS and the other campuses so early in my career. I think all of the relationships I have been able to form on campus and off campus have been one of the keys to my success. Being able to work with the other business units and help them find positive solutions have been so rewarding. Relationships and networking is what made my career here at UCCS successful.

While working in Computing Services in the 90’s I was in the recording and touring band, The AutoNo. We recorded and distributed nationally three Compact Discs, toured a lot and was able to go to Volgograd, Russia three different times to perform with the Volgograd Orchestra. I even made a movie of our first trip to Volgograd and you can watch it on http://tinyurl.com/behindthethrone95. At the time Computing Services was under the Library and Director Leslie Manning was running the department. Leslie wanted the department to function like the Library and had us working nights and weekends. I took full advantage of the situation, I would work as many days, weekends and nights as I could which allowed me to build up time off allowing me to tour with the band.

This also reminds me of when I started in Public Safety. I was a Community Service Office (CSO). Our main duty was to write parking tickets and patrol the campus back in the 1980s. The professional police officers only worked 8 to midnight Monday – Friday. The “after hour” shifts were left to the CSOs. I can remember working by myself all night and then go to class in the morning, or finding people drunk and passed out in classrooms. I would, by myself, remove the drunks from campus with only a can of Mace and a radio that would contact the El Paso County Sheriff’s office. Such a different time back then.

The way I received my job in Public Safety is interesting also. I was working at the Dog Track on Nevada selling the Green Sheet, it was betting tips to help pick winning dogs for each race that night. The Chief of Police at UCCS, Arnold Trujillo was moonlighting by providing security at the back gate. It is hard to think now that the Chief of Police at UCCS would be moonlighting. Arnold said to stop by Public Safety on the first floor of Main Hall in the Spring semester and he would give me a student job. The Dog Track was seasonal and would end each December. So in January of 1983, I took Arnold up on his offer. Arnold hired me but did not follow any of the Public Safety hiring practices. Because I was viewed as the boss’ friend, most of the people working in the office did not like me for a long time. I was able to eventually win everyone over and I think worked out well.

Another story that comes to mind, not a fun story, but an important one. When Officer Garrett Swasey was killed in the line of duty, Susan Szpyrka called and asked if I could turn the El Pomar Clock Tower blue to honor Officer Swasey. I have a lot of lighting equipment and I gathered all the bright blue lights I had and arrived on campus. I also called Ben Sloan from Media Services because I knew he had a lot of lighting equipment also and he brought his lights too. We lit the Clock Tower blue for the month. A very sad time.

I was thinking, if I was to do all of this again, I would have gotten the Bachelor of Innovation degree which, of course, did not exist when I was receiving my Computer Science degree. I would have used the knowledge to create businesses out of all the programs I wrote and hopefully made a lot of money.

Snippets about Kirk

Kirk enjoys talking to others across campus and regularly asks for feedback on how IT is doing to make sure they feel like they are included.
Last year when we were playing volleyball, Kirk hit the ball and made a basket instead, on accident. It was pretty awesome, wish it was recorded on video.
One year I remember being down at the local Colorado Springs Beer Fest, stumbling around in the middle of the day on Tejon street with some friends, when we took a turn on Pikes Peak, towards the music stage. Lo and Behold but there before my eyes was Kirk Moore up on the stage banging away on the drums with his band to a crowd full of merry revelers. They really rocked it and we stayed for a couple songs before searching for more beer (and that’s all I remember from that day).
Kirk always goes out of his way by visiting departments on the first day of the semester to make sure everything is working well.
Kirk enjoys talking to others across campus and regularly asks for feedback on how IT is doing to make sure they feel like they are included.
Kirk always participates in commencement, which goes to show his commitment to students.
Remember the "because I said I would" cards? I still use those
Kirk has always been supportive of my career here, thank you!
Met his future wife on a website committee set up by Craig, so Kirk will be forever grateful to him!