24-OCT-2006 Meeting Summary
Attendance: Art Acton, Yasser Ayad, Bob Balough, Paul Bylaska, Debbie Ciesielka, Marilyn Harhai, Dave Hartley, Terry Latour, Bob Nulph, Mike Phillips, Sam Puleio, Steve Selker, Debbie Sobina, Harry Tripp
Approval of Prior Minutes
The 25-APR-2006 Meeting Summary was approved.
Membership and Co-Chair Review
M. Harhai was unanimously selected as the 06-07 UTAC Co-chair. For committee membership, it was noted that D. Hartley is the new representative for the Academic Deans and B. Nulph is the new representative for the liaison for the Faculty Senate Technology Subcommittee. Discussions are in progress with Student and University Affairs for a student representative.
Tech Fee Refresh Discussions
S. Selker provided a report on the status of the 05/06 tech fee equipment renewals (Laptops and PCs were refreshed for Davis Hall, the library, and the Nair and Givan labs; ITV maintenance was extended for the Carter and Davis locations; the Theatre Design Lap laptop replacement is in progress; 9 smart classroom PC replacements will be completed at the end of the semester). The 06/07 project renewal is in progress following the model previously established by UTAC. E-mail notices for eligible projects were distributed to the project contacts at the start of the semester. The renewal forms are due 12/14. The renewal projects will be reviewed by UTAC and submitted to the Provost in January and February. Approved renewal projects will be completed May - July.
The committee also reviewed draft procedures to redistribute the old tech fee equipment that is being replaced with the renewal projects. Per previous UTAC discussions, the process will include a request form processed through PEC/Deans, a review by a UTAC subcommittee, and the submission of a final UTAC recommendation to the Provost. Several editorial changes were requested to the request form. It will be distributed to PEC/Deans on 11/1 and reviewed by UTAC in December. Equipment redeployment will be scheduled starting in January/February.
2006-07 Tech Fee Update
The committee reviewed the final list of 06-07 Tech Fee proposals that was approved by PEC and submitted to PASSHE (see the 06-07 Tech Fee Report). PASSHE approval was recently received and internal notifications for funded and unfunded projects will be distributed before the end of October. Consistent with UTAC reviews, two major components of the approved 06-07 Tech Fee funding include phase one of proposed three year plans to support the deployment of wireless network services across campus and the deployment and support of smart classrooms. (see also the related planning discussions below).
Technology Planning Notes
- Strategic IT Plan: The Strategic IT Plan developed with UTAC last spring is available by clicking here.
- Wireless Planning: In support of the strategic technology plan direction to become a wireless university, a Tech Fee project was submitted and approved to deploy wireless network services across campus. Under the Tech Fee project, funding will be provided over a three year period. Per the UTAC recommendation in the spring, Becker Hall and Montgomery Hall will be the next wireless network areas. UTAC now needs to develop a recommendation for the Provost for the remaining areas that should receive wireless coverage as part of this project. UTAC agreed to form a subcommittee to propose a prioritized list of buildings and common areas that should be covered with wireless network services. UTAC will finalize the list and submit it as a recommendation to PEC; the final list approved by PEC will guide Tech Fee wireless network projects over the next three years.
- Smart Classroom Planning: In support of the strategic technology plan direction to provide and maintain technology-enhanced classrooms, a Tech Fee project was submitted and approved to deploy smart classrooms on campus over a three year period. For the project planning for this initiative, the Council of Deans is currently in the process of defining prioritized lists of classrooms by college. These lists will be reviewed and finalized by the Provost and PEC to establish a university classroom list that will serve as the guide for future smart classroom projects. In considering future smart classroom projects, concerns were expressed by the committee about the linkage of the technical equipment considerations with the facility considerations for lighting, sound, etc. It was noted that facility lighting concerns also need to be considered in light of pending energy savings studies. UTAC agreed to form a subcommittee to provide feedback and guidelines for facility and equipment considerations (light fixtures, etc.) that should included with the project plans.
- E-mail Planning: Another planning consideration is the need to offer an improved e-mail environment. To follow-up on UTAC discussions in the spring, forms were submitted for the University to complete a pilot of the WindowsLive student e-mail offering. In initiating the pilots, UTAC also wanted to evaluate any similar offerings in the market. Google recently announced a Google Apps for Edu initiative and UTAC agreed to add a second pilot. Pilots will be targeted during the spring semester and volunteers for the pilot will be sought from a variety of areas including the residence halls, distance education students, and graduate students. The pilots will move forward pending the review of the agreement forms required by each vendor. Some preliminary concerns were expressed with the forms with respect to student privacy and advertisements. These issues will be examined in more depth as part of the pilot.
A more immediate term e-mail matter is the spam issue. While current anti-spam measures block a substantial number of messages every week, too many spam messages are still getting through. Computing Services has been evaluating additional anti-spam tools. The first alternate solution evaluation resulted in a conclusion that the tool did not offer any real improvements over what is already in place. However, a second tool is now under evaluation and the results look more promising. Initial testing is showing a substantial reduction in spam messages. An expanded test is now in progress. Pending the final results of that test, Computing Services will move forward to implement additional anti-spam measures before the spring semester.
- Web Notes: A need to provide tools to improve and advance the university's web presence was identified as part of the 05-06 planning efforts. Following are two updates related to that need:
- Based on UTAC's identification of FrontPage as the preferred web authoring tool, Computing Services developed and piloted a FrontPage training course over the summer and advertised several training sessions for employees during the fall semester. All classes have been filled and additional sessions will be scheduled for the spring.
- Research was completed in the spring to identify and review web content management systems. Under the coordination of University Relations, a RFP is moving forward this semester to obtain proposals for a web content management system in conjunction with proposals to update the university's brand marketing and web design.
Misc. Updates
- PC Notes: With the RFP completed over the summer, a new PC contract was established that designates Dell as the new PC choice for university PC purchases. Price improvement were obtained of approx. $200/unit for desktops and at least $400/unit for laptops compared to the previous contract. Provisions were also established for personal employee or student purchases through the University Book Store.
- Facility Planning Notes: The Science and Technology Center is currently at the pre-bid stage. Architect proposals for the new Dining Facility are due in late October. UTAC planning efforts will need to take these new buildings into consideration. An effort is also moving forward for an Energy Savings initiative; the lighting component of this initiative may be able to be leveraged as part of the smart classroom facility plans.
- PASSHE IT Notes:
- The Shared Administrative Systems projects are progressing at PASSHE. The final group of schools (Edinboro, IUP, Millersville, West Chester) to implement the SAP Finance system will go-live in late November. The first group of Campus Management schools (Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Shippensburg) will start to go-live in phases starting with Financial Aid this year followed by Admissions in 6/2007, Student Administration (registration, billing, etc.) in 9/2007, and grades in 11/2007. The timelines for the remaining Campus Management schools (including Clarion) have not been determined yet, although a general data of 2010 has been mentioned.
- A new SAP Human Resources feature is expected to be released by PASSHE later this year. Employee Self-Service (ESS) will provide a web interface for employees to review leave and related information. In order to utilize the ESS web interface (or any future web interfaces for SAP such as the pending equivalents of Web for Faculty and Web for Students), we will need to implement new computer accounts known as PASSHE Active Directory accounts. While the username will be identical to our local CNet/iClarion usernames, the university must revise some local password policies to match the PASSHE requirements. The Clarion password change system will be revised to meet the requirements for the length, complexity, and expiration period of all passwords. Computing Services and Human Resources are currently working with PASSHE to review the ESS implementation requirements. The project will be announced to employees later this calendar year as details are finalized.
