By Brian Shlonsky

Two groups of UK’s Information Technology departments will be restructured, resulting in layoffs and new positions in the next four months.

UK’s Chief Technology Officer Doyle Friskney said 13 employees will be laid off as the Web group site lab and the distributing computing group will no longer be a part of UK’s IT department.

“We studied our strategic direction, and determined the kinds of departments we needed to move forward in technology,” Friskney said. “Once we did that, we evaluated all the departments we had and looked at each one to see if they complemented that strategic direction.”

Friskney said different aspects of each group will be used to form a new group focusing on applications for new portals, mobile devices and workflow.

“We determined not to have those two groups, but instead use a series of skills from them to come up with 12 or 13 new jobs to invest in for the future,” Friskney said. ”We laid off everyone in those two departments and allowed them to resubmit their applications.”

The IT department will start hiring in about a month and a half, aiming to have the new jobs filled in the next three or four months, Friskney said.

None of the 13 IT layoffs were students.

Friskney listed the growing importance of mobility in the internet as a primary reason for the new group.

“We are trying to make sure that the information everyone needs will be available on mobile devices such as laptops, cellphones and iPads,”  Friskney said. “We are making sure the new jobs created will meet the needs of the difference in mobility coming to give students and staff what they need for the future.”