University Council on Technology

2/05/99 Minutes

3:00 p.m. to 5:00.p.m.

316 KSC

Kent Campus

Guests: Lisa Aichlmayer, Daily Kent Stater

I. Welcome and Call to Order.

II. Approval of 12/04/98 Minutes

The 1998/99 Council Members listserv list was circulated for corrections and updating. Members were also to signify if they could receive the agenda by e-mail and read Word or if an alternate was needed so the minutes could be sent and reviewed prior to the next meeting.

The December 4, 1998 minutes were e-mailed previous to the meeting. The minutes were unanimously approved without any changes.

III. Old Business

1. SPAMing University e-mail Constituents

Rosemary DuMont stated that a new method of distributing mass mail messages has been established in cooperation with the Registrar’s Office and the Human Resource System’s office. A combination of mass email messages and a web page bul letin board will be used to handle mass mailing requests in a timely and efficient manner. One weekly email message will be distributed, listing those announcements added to the Kent State Electronic Bulletin Board web page for public viewing during that week. These weekly mass mailings will include only headlines. Each headline will take the viewer to the web page for more detailed information. In this manner, those who do not wish to read the announcements can just delete the email headlines. The Bulle tin Board website is at http://act.kent.edu/bbs . Requests can be submitted to ACT for announcements.

2. Integrated Technology Plan

A motion was made:

That UCT create a sub committee to review the status of the NISS and ACT Recommendations and report back to the council by the April 16, 1998 meeting.

This was voted on and unanimously approved. The sub committee shall consist of Cathy Bakes, Ray Craig, Alan Evans, Paul Farrell, Alice Iden, Roberta Sikula and leaving it open to add someone from the Budget Office and Regional Campuses . It was decided that Rosemary DuMont, Bruce Petryshak, Greg Seibert and Judy Hirschman will be the resource people attending as necessary. This sub committee will present an interim report at the March meeting and the group can look at what has been acc omplished, what remains to be done in the near future and long term.

3. Classroom Improvement Committee Update

IV. Standing Committee Reports

1. Academic Computing

Rosemary DuMont stated that ACT distributed a campus wide newsletter reviewing the major initiatives being worked on, the electronic bulletin board, web mail, Music and Speech lab and the lab in Bowman Hall. This newsletter (http://act.kent.edu/newsletter/jan99.html) can be accessed from ACT’s web page http://act.kent.edu

Printing for a fee at public labs will be established March 1, 1999 and will be charged to the flash card.

The second year of installing computers for CBU faculty is being finished up with Music and Speech and Sociology left for this academic year.

Kent VM users can get a free Kent Internet Connection CD from Academic Computing. This CD self loads and does everything for you making it an easy and painless way to get off Kent VM Mail. Those who are using another mail system can p urchase this CD for $8.00. A VM Migration handout was distributed with dates showing how ACT is planning to move ahead. SPSS/SAS is available for PC platforms and on the SP-2 UNIX system. The recent Academic Computing and Technology Newsletter and th e ACT home page contain more information on the migration plans.

James Boyd indicated worries in the College of Business concerning migration of large amounts of data, media/copyright issues concerning databases and porting programs from IBM Fortran. He also indicated faculty and staff do not always write their own code and asked if help would still be available. Rosemary DuMont indicated that there was no intent to provide less than is currently available.

2. Administrative Computing

Deferred

3. Learning Technology Services

Judy Hirschman reported on recent activities. These included an advertising campaign for spring distributed learning courses in the Plain Dealer, Akron Beacon Journal and the Record Courier. Information and a demonstration of a web course is available at www.web.kent.edu. This spring there were fifteen web courses with more than 200 students attending. Work is still progressing on the assessment component and graduate stud ents are being sought to do research on the effectiveness.

There are two new on-line course development products available, WebCT and Kent Webtool. TechLink was described. This is an initiative similar to OhioLink and will provide a central catalog of distance learning courses in Ohio.

Judy Hirschman indicated that she wished to set up a subcommittee on Learning Technologies and requested recommendations for membership.

4. Network Services

Bob Hart described progress with the intrabuilding wiring project. Phase I was turned over on February 15, 1999 and includes 10 buildings (Art, CDC, Henderson, McGilvrey, Nixson, Oscar/Ritchie, the Personnel section of Terrace Hall, Sm ith, Stockdale and Whitehall). Phase II is in progress and due to be turned over May 25, 1999. These buildings include, Library, Math and Computer Science, Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, Memorial Gym Annex, Taylor, VanDeusen and Williams. P hase III including the remaining buildings has been rolled into PBX project .

Network Services will provide 10 Mbps ethernet switches for all buildings.

The RFP for the PBX project went out for bid in January with bids due by February 25, 1999 with construction anticipated for May 1999. This includes upgrading the ATM backbone to 622Mbps, adding new backbone switches and wiring to each building. It also includes a VTEL to ATM converter. Some discussion ensued on whether there would be ATM service to the regionals.

Ransel Yoho reported on progress with the vBNS connection. The connection to OARNET is in place and the router is expected soon.

5. New Media Services

V. New Business

1. Distribution of Draft Minutes

It was indicated that the minutes would be distributed by e-mail shortly after the meeting. This would provide an opportunity to review the minutes before the meeting.

2. Disseminating UCT Proceedings to the University Community

Paul Farrell indicated an intention to make the proceedings of UCT available to the university community using the web. A suggestion was to place the minutes on the web page with links to attachments where appropriate. He also indicat ed that he had made a request to Don Tolliver to have a link to the UCT page from the Computing Technology page.

3. CIO/Director of ACT Searches

A national search for a new CIO will be actively pursued in the near future. The search for the director of ACT will be deferred until a new CIO is appointed.

4. Faculty Refresh Possibilities
5. Technology Fees/Laptops Requirement for Students Resources:

http://www.educause.edu/issues/stucomp.html

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/25frosh.html

6. IT Staffing Problems

VI. Future UCT Meeting Dates and Locations