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Faculty Association |
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2007-2008 |
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Minutes of Meeting
CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
Monday, February 25, 2008
11:00 AM @ FAMA
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| Present: |
Katharine Brown, Antony Paulraj, Allen Moore, Cynthia Jordan, Aaron
Sheehan-Dean, Sebastian Foti |
| Absent: |
Vanessa Cruz |
| Guests: |
Jeff Durfee, ITS, Kathy Hughes, Alison Cruess, Rick Buck, Mike Kucsak, Tony Turrin, Deborah Miller, |
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| Announcement: e-academy |
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UNF has entered into a campus license agreement with e-academy for Microsoft's Work-at-Home program, which allows faculty and staff to purchase selected MS software titles for home use. The cost to the user is the price of the media and shipping. See http://www.unf.edu/dept/its/eacademy/ for more details. |
- Offer only available to faculty & staff, not students. Does include adjunct faculty.
- Access to e-academy is through the myWings portal channel “Technical Resources”
- Since the channel has not been included in the Faculty portal page by default, instructions are available from ITS (on the above link) to add the channel individually. A request will be made to the portal committee (Scott Bennett) to make this channel a default channel, but this will not help current users, only new portal users.
- Submit as information item to next FA packet (too late for April)
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Business |
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Information Security Issue - Jeff Durfee, ITS, Security |
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Jeff Durfee recommends increasing the length of networks passwords to a minimum of 15 characters and is seeking support from the faculty on this initiative. His justification is there have been several large scale intrusions into UNF’s domain via cracked passwords. He has been running a password cracking program to test our vulnerability and easily was able to crack ~9000 passwords, due to short or non-complex passwords.
For better protection from password crackers, either a more complex set of rules for passwords must be used, or the length of the passwords must be increased. Complex passwords are difficult to remember and tend to result in passwords being written down and posted on/near the machine, whereas longer passwords can be remembered if a pass-phrase is used. Increasing the length of passwords does not significantly improve security until the length is 15 characters, due to the way MS stores passwords on the local machine. |
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His recommendation is to force passwords to be 15 characters or more. |
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Currently, network passwords are a min of 6 and max of 125 characters and they expire every 180 days. |
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When asked, Jeff was not able to tell us how many are already using longer passwords, but much of ITS have already lengthened theirs. |
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It was emphasized ITS must educate the UNF community because there will be resistance. |
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After much discussion, it was decided to support ITS’s recommendation to increase the minimum length of network passwords to 15 characters, provided an extensive educational campaign accompanies it. This will be implemented as passwords expire beginning this summer. CTC will send its opinion forward to UTC. |
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| 2. |
Friendly Aliases – Administrative Tip (Alison)
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FA Exec Committee requested ITS generate an information item to explain the friendly alias.
This item was postponed from last month due to illness, but Alison supplied the revised text in time to submit it to the April FA packet and Campus Update: |
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Get a Better UNF Email Address
A friendly email alias is a way to personalize your UNF email address. They are easier to remember and make it a snap for others to identify you. Visit http://www.unf.edu/dept/its/email/email_alias.html to learn how to create a friendly email alias. Questions may be directed to the ITS Help Desk at ext. 4357 (HELP) or helpdesk@unf.edu. |
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| 3. |
Blackboard governance statement |
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Submitted by Bb Governance Team was reviewed and approved.
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CTC will send the following wording forward to UTC : |
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Blackboard Governance
The Blackboard Academic Suite (and related enhancements) at UNF is managed by the Bb Governance team. This team consists of representatives from Information Technology Services (ITS) and the Center for Instruction & Research Technology (CIRT) who meet regularly and jointly make strategic and operational decisions regarding the Blackboard system and address requests for system and process changes and enhancements. ITS provides integration, development, and technical support for the system, and CIRT serves as the functional and operational owner of the application. This team consults with other stakeholders as needed, and regularly seeks input and makes reports to its advisory committees: the Distance Learning Committee, the Campus Technology Committee, and the University Technology Committee. |
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| 4. |
Planning for Resources for Distance Learning: procedures for managing change.
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UTC requested CTC assist the Distance Learning Committee (DLC) in their charge to develop policies, procedures and staffing recommendations concerning distance education at UNF.
Sebastian Foti, Deb Miller and Tony Turrin are on DLC and discussed the draft policies and procedures they have developed. CTC will only address technology issues and efforts to insure ITS & CIRT will have sufficient lead-time to respond to the distance learning needs of the faculty.
Other faculty committees will assist in other areas.
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Spring schedule: 4th Monday @ 11:00 in 10/1120 (FAMA)
Remaining meetings: Mar 24, Apr 28. |
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