Dylan, a Central Michigan University grad, went to college with the intention of becoming a journalist, planning to minor in technology. While he retains a love of writing and journalism, studying what made for a newsworthy story, and seeing how negative that focus could be, led him to decide to reverse the order of his studies to major in IT and minor in journalism. From a young age, Dylan was exposed to technology through his father, an IT professional. "I played with the tech my dad brought home, so I was very comfortable with it," he said.
After college, Dylan worked for some heavy hitters in the tech and consulting world, but private sector success didn't translate into complete career happiness. One day, while working a challenging assignment that had him flying back and forth across the country, Dylan had had enough. He came back ready to make a change.
That change turned out to be joining U-M. In one of his pre-UM roles, he worked with data recovery, which led him to have an interest in IT security. Enter his job at OUD. "I started as a Business Systems Analyst and worked my way up," he said proudly.
It's no surprise that when asked what his favorite things about working at U-M are, he immediately said, "Being treated well – like a person." He also cites a work atmosphere that doesn't require being cutthroat and overly competitive with colleagues. "It's just a much better work-life balance!"
What are some good things about being an SUL specifically? First, he said he loves working with the folks in OUD. In particular, the Performance Support Program. "It's learning by doing. It's fun to pull the curtain back on technology, and to see that moment where people 'get it'."
I asked Dylan if he's used the AI tools ITS has helped provide to U-M, and if he has a favorite thing about them. "Playing around and trying to break them?" he joked, "Maybe I shouldn't say that?" Returning to being serious, he cited how U-M's AI tools can take unmanageable amounts of legacy data and summarize it in ways that allow him and his colleagues to make use of it. "We could never do that by hand," Dylan said.
I was curious about Dylan’s biggest challenge as an SUL. "Getting people to pay attention to communications!" he smiled.
When I admit I see this is my role as a communicator, too, Dylan said, "Read rates are low," then added, "I know from studying journalism and writing, you have one sentence to get attention, and then people move on."
Dylan also mentioned the familiar challenge of how decentralized some IT is at U-M. I asked about a specific challenge he and OUD face: moving out of Wolverine Tower. While he admitted that it adds another wrinkle, especially ensuring connectivity and continuity, he sounded undaunted. "We hope to be up and running in the new place by mid-February."
So how does Dylan relax outside of work? "I love TTRPGs," he said. For the uninitiated, that's Table Top Role Playing Games; games similar to Dungeons & Dragons, though he prefers things with simpler and more manageable rule sets. Pathfinder is one of his favorites. "I run three TTRPG games, which is like a second job, but you're not staring at a computer!" he says happily.
Like everything else about his journey, Dylan is generous in sharing what he knows, whether it's OUD operations, TTRPGs, or experiments with AI. As we wrapped up our interview, I left with the distinct sense that Dylan Marino could be a professional at a lot of things. We're lucky his career led him to be the SUL for OUD, and one of our many partners in protecting U-M!