Sams could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

Joe Brennan, the university's chief spokesman, said today that Sams will not directly be a part of the IT organization. "He will be in the provost's staff," Brennan said. "We want to use his skills on IT projects but not on central IT."

One reason Sams will remain is that he has a three-year contract with the school that must be honored, Brennan said. "This gives us an opportunity to get Bill into a position where he can contribute and also allows us to bring in a new leader and get the IT process moving forward. Even though he admits, and we agree, that he's not the right person to lead the IT department, Bill does have talents" and more than 25 years of experience that can benefit the school.

The changes in the CIO's office come less than three weeks after the university's provost upheld the August firings of two IT workers blamed for many of the school's IT security problems. Thomas Reid, director of communication network services, and Todd Acheson, Unix systems manager at the CNS unit, were fired by Sams on the grounds of "nonfeasance."

Provost Kathy Krendl, who is out of the office this week and could not be reached for comment, upheld the firings last month after the two workers appealed their dismissals to a grievance committee. That committee's three-page recommendation called for the workers to be rehired and given public apologies, but Krendl concluded the firings were justified. She has the final authority in such matters at OU.