27-SEP-2005 Meeting Summmary
Attendance: Art Acton, Yasser Ayad, Bob Balough, Joe Bodziock, Payl Bylaska, Debbie Ciesielka, Marilyn Harhai, Dave Hartley, Mike Phillips, Sam Puleio, Steve Selker, Debbie Sobina, Terry Latour
Approval of Prior Minutes
The 26-APR-2005 Meeting Summary was approved. In reviewing the April 2005 actions of the committee, a question was raised about the duration of the subcommittee appointments (UTAC Subcommittees). UTAC agreed to review the subcommittee membership list annually as part of the Tech Fee cycle.
Technology Fee Update
The PASSHE Board of Governors increased the Technology Fee from $100 to $125 per year. In addition, policy revisions were made to permit the use of the fee for (a) Scientific Equipment with a significant digital technology component and (b) Personnel expenditures (subject to a 15% cap) to support the installation, maintenance, training, and technical support of Tech Fee projects.
With the process reviewed with the committee last Spring, 53 Tech Fee proposals were submitted with a total dollar amount of just over one million dollars. $248,000 is taken off the top of the Tech Fee allocation for the escrow account that will be used to replace previous Tech Fee projects. The university submitted a proposal to SSHE to use Tech Fee funds for an escrow account for the new science building, personnel, and 21 specific projects.
In late September, the university was notified that a portion of the 05-06 Tech Fee proposal was approved and a portion was not. Projects under further review from PASSHE are the Science Building, Personnel, Student Voice Research Technology, and ILLIAD InterLibrary Loan proposals. In addition, PASSHE only approved partial funding for the Wireless Still Hall (approved 90% of the requested funding) and Rhoades Center (approved 95% of the requested funding) proposals.
PASSHE is expected to contact the university to clarify and discuss the proposals that were not approved. When that clarification is completed, notifications will be sent to everyone that submitted an 05-06 proposal and the normal procedures for approved projects will be initiated to setup the budgets, review procurement logistics, and develop specific project plans and timelines.
Microsoft Campus Agreement
One of the proposals approved with the Tech Fee process was a license program called Microsoft Campus Agreement. The committee reviewed the details of the license. This program, which is being funded with a combination of Tech Fee and university funds, will provide the university with the right to run current the version (or any previous version) of a set of Microsoft software on all Clarion-owned PC's in exchange for annual fee. The software set includes Microsoft Office Professional (Windows and Mac), Microsoft Windows Desktop upgrades (not servers), and the Core Client Access License (CAL) which includes CALs for Windows Server and System Management Server that have historically been included with Clarion PC purchases. The set also includes the "Student CAL" which provides current Clarion students to access a Clarion or PASSHE Microsoft server fro a personally owned machine. B. Balough suggested that we explore additional options for students in the next renewal of Campus Agreement.
Campus Agreement will be administered by Computing Services. Initial deployment of the agreement has begun and resulted in a savings on new PC purchases of at least $65/unit. The Campus Agreement includes limited home use provisions for current faculty and staff. MS Office is available for faculty/staff home installs; MS Windows is not available for home use. Even with MS-Office, however, there are a number of requirements and provisions for home use. The committee reviewed a draft sample of the required user acceptance form from Microsoft. Final administrative details (distribution, tracking, & notification requirements, etc.) are still pending; when these details are finalized the home use provisions will be included in an announcement to all employees.
Standard Downtime Proposal
Much of the technical infrastructure (network, e-mail, web server) of the university operates on a 24 x 7 basis. There are, however, on-going needs for hardware and software maintenance that require system outages. Typically, an e-mail is sent to the user community for all maintenance activities. To provide a window for standard maintenance, S. Puleio requested a weekly downtime window of a few hours per week in which Computing Services could perform system maintenance without requiring extended notices to the user community. Notices would continue to be sent for extended maintenance activities that require downtime outside of the standard window. Note: The maintenance window does not apply to the Student Information System (SIS) which includes web-based services for students and faculty. The SIS system operates on a unique schedule due to requirements of the on-line and batch systems; the SIS schedule is 7 days a week 8:30AM - 11:00PM.
Action:
- UTAC approved Friday 4:30AM - 7:30 a standard window for system maintenance for those systems that normally operate on a 24 x 7 basis. An Hours of Service and System Maintenance section will be added to the Computing Services web site. Maintenance activities outside of this window will continue to be communicated to the university community via e-mail.
Web Authoring Tool Discussion
With the resignation of university webmaster, a variety of web maintenance responsibilities are being split between University Relations and Computing Services. One of the issues under discussion is support for various web authoring tools. Several packages have been used in the past and the former webmaster was in a position to provide some individual support for the packages. With the webmaster position vacant, there is a gap in support for web authoring packages. S. Puleio requested that UTAC consider the designation of one preferred web authoring tool that could be the focus of software support resources that could be developed by Computing Services. A. Acton and B. Balough raised concerns about web maintenance issues beyond just those of web authoring packages such as sight design standards and content maintenance.
Action:
- A new Web Authoring Tool Subcommittee will be formed and charged with identifying a preferred web authoring tool for UTAC review. Interested UTAC members can volunteer for the committee by contacting S. Puleio. After the web authoring tool decision, UTAC will discuss the broader web maintenance issues for the Clarion web site.
Information Technology (IT) Planning Discussion
In conjunction with the broader planning effort in progress at the University, a new technology plan needs to be developed. Two aspects of IT planning are expected. The first involves general IT planning for technology products and services that are used across the university. The second involves alignment of technology plans with the specific academic and administrative plans being formed within each of the colleges and divisions.
UTAC will play a key role in the development of the general IT plan. The committee discussed approaches for the general IT plan and discussed ways to leverage the existing subcommittees. In the UTAC Tech Fee subcommittee discussions from the spring, it was noted that two frequent topics of discussion for tech fee planning were smart classrooms and wireless networks. UTAC agreed that it would be useful to complete a broad assessment of smart classroom and wireless network uses and needs to support future planning efforts for both Tech Fee proposals and the general IT plan.
Action:
- Consistent with the original charge noted in the 5-APR-2005 UTAC Meeting Notes, the UTAC University-level Tech Planning subcommittee will coordinate the development of the general IT plan.
- To support the broader IT planning efforts, UTAC expanded the charge of the Tech Fee Renewal Project Subcommittee to add the following item: The subcommittee is also charged with completing a general assessment of smart classrooms and wireless network coverage at the university to evaluate the adequacy of current offerings and identify university-level targets for service coverage that can be incorporated into the long term IT plans.
Informational Items
- A. Acton provided an update on the Media Site streaming video service. See the intro video on the media site web for additional details.
- S. Selker and M. Phillips provided an overview of projects completed over the summer including the full CNet upgrade project which upgraded all routers and switches on the university network. Numerous Tech Fee projects were also completed including software updates for labs and smart classrooms, several new smart classrooms, and the CIS Lab in Becker Hall.
- Turnitin is an anti-plagiarism software package that is being purchased in partnership with PASSHE to provide a service within Blackboard whereby faculty can obtain originality reports on student papers based on comparisons with their internal database and internet searches. PEC formed a committee to coordinate the implementation of the service which is expected for the spring semester.
