A native of Howard County and an IU Kokomo graduate as well, Swoverland is proud of his campus—and the team he’s built over the years.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in rural Howard County, just outside of Kokomo. It kept me out of trouble. 😊
Where did you go to school?
I spent time at IU Bloomington, but finished at IU Kokomo in 2003. I go back far enough to remember UCS (University Computing Services).
How did you wind up at UITS?
Nothing unusual, other than IU Kokomo has been my career. I hired into IU Kokomo IT as a student in 2002 and worked as phone/email/walkup support. By the time I graduated, they’d moved me to technician, doing desktop support for faculty and staff.
When I graduated, I filled a newly created position at IU that was primary support for their first iteration of Information Commons. In 2004, I was promoted to associate director for student computing. However, it wasn’t until March 2011 that I became a UITS employee. I can’t believe it has almost been 10 years that we’ve been a part of the UITS organization!
Music man. Swoverland plays guitar and sings in the cover band, Wunderlick.
What do you do for fun outside of UITS?
Ha! It probably has something to do with music. I grew up playing drum set and doing the whole marching band thing. But these days, I play guitar and sing in a cover band (@wunderlickmusic on Facebook) with some really good people. I have enjoyed taking part in the Diminuendos (a local choral group) and civic theater productions as well. My kids are in high school marching band now, so I’ve served as the president of their booster organization for the last three years.
What is the secret of your success?
That’s easy. The secret to my success has been hiring great people. I’ve been through two major rebuilds of Kokomo’s IT organization and I’ve been fortunate to hire in great talent at Kokomo each time.
We’ve built a culture of “how can I help?” and getting stuff done. Often, these team members have landed in other jobs around UITS or within IU and continue to make great contributions. It is great when you can see good people progress like that.
