This has been a known issue for the last 2-3 decades and a common complaint everyone I know who is in academia as faculty or in higher ed related magazines like Chronicle or Inside Higher Ed.
This very issue is one reason why the concept of the “corporatization” of the academy came about.
While I can sympathize somewhat with the OP on some points, it seems like he does have a serious chip on his shoulder regarding IT/computing staff despite protestations about “not being a luddite”.
One reason why universities have computing/IT staff is precisely because most academics/non-technical admins* are so lacking in knowledge in those areas or don’t feel the need to even be informed laypeople that they delegate too much decisionmaking power on admins they feel are qualified to doing so without realizing unforeseen consequences…whether they overspend or underspend(penny wise pound foolish).
He’s also failed to account for the rapid pace of technological change in computing technology within the last decade and to some extent, reminded me of an admin at my LAC during my undergrad years who had the notion that the major computing purchases they made in the mid-late '90s would be good for 25 years**.
A notion even some of my most technically ignorant college classmates back then found laughable. Especially considering the pace of improvements in computing technology was actually far greater back in the '90s than it has been in the last 10+ years.
- I've observed similar attitudes among many biglaw attorneys and their non-technical staff as well...especially before the 2008 recession.
** Is anyone still using Windows 9x/NT 3.x/4.0 or computers like Pentium 166MMX-233MMXs or pre-G3 era Powermacs running MacOS System 7-9(PRE-OSX)…much less thinking they’d still be usable well into the mid-2020s?!!
That’s not the reality for most HES students as Harvard draws a clear line between HES and Harvard College students along with restrictions they place on HES students registering for Harvard College classes.
This is in total contrast to Columbia’s GS as GS students with very few exceptions are allowed to take courses from any of the constituent undergrad or even graduate level courses provided they meet prereqs.