MINUTES
UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
JULY 12, 1999

                                
Members Present:                        Others Present:
Richard Crosby, Chairperson             Joann Campbell
Zella Boulware                     Kathy Hughes
Stuart Chalk                       Bob Jones
Andrew Farkas                      Jerry Merckel
Dennis Gay                         Scott Piersall
Jeff Michelman                     Scott Runnion
Donna Mohr                         Lance Taylor
Martha Rader                       Julianna Zhu
Kurt Salsburg
Tom Serwatka
Susan Wallace

The University Technology Committee was convened by Chairperson Crosby at 10:35 a.m.

  1. Minutes - May 17, 1999

    The Minutes from the May 17, 1999 were emailed to the UTC members on Friday. Please contact Marsha Dukes with any changes, additions, or deletions by Wednesday. They will be posted to the web page following all input.

  2. Announcements

    1. Lance Taylor reported that the following new staff members had been added in Computing Services:
      1. Alison Cruess, Help Desk Coordinator
      2. Bob Hogan, Networking Team Member
      3. Jim Collins, Financial Systems Team Member
      4. Christy Wiedeman, Customer Services Team Member

    2. Susan Wallace introduced Dr. Jerry Merckel as the incoming Associate Dean for the College of Computing Sciences and Engineering.

    3. Scott Runnion introduced Scott Piersall and Julianna Zhu, Lab Managers and Faculty Support Personnel for the College of Computing Sciences and Engineering.

    4. Kathy Hughes reported that the University is in the process of scheduling necessary modifications to the fiber optic network that serves the campus. This network carries communication signals for computer communications and life/safety systems. These modifications will allow for future expansion of the fiber optic network, and allow better management of current facilities, including quicker problem resolution. In order to make these changes, the entire fiber optic network will have to be shut down for no less than 10 hours. Portions of it may remain down for a maximum of 60 hours. It is proposed that this be done on a weekend starting at 6:00pm on Friday evening, August 6th, and ending no later than 6:00am on Monday. There were concerns raised regarding this date and Kathy stated that it would be easy to move this to the following weekend (beginning August 13th). She will send out a final notice of the shutdown by the end of this week.

  3. Budget Issues

    1. 7%
      Chairperson Crosby reported that the President has tentatively approved $1,019,000 for technology issues (based on how we spent the money to date). Kathy Hughes asked if the OCO portion could be released early. Chairperson Crosby will ask Ricky Arjune.

    2. Currency
      Chairperson Crosby stated that the President has approved $337,000 for currency for 1999-2000 (with $125,000 recurring). The only problem is that this is for both faculty/staff desktop currency and central site work equipment currency.

      Chairperson Crosby asked Kathy Hughes to research the cost of extending the 3-year pc warranty by a year. A question was also raised about selling out-dated computer equipment. Chairperson Crosby will check with the University of Central Florida regarding their policy of selling surplussed equipment.

    3. Networking Infrastructure
      Chairperson Crosby stated that there basically will no longer be any networking infrastructure funding. He said that we could request "specific issues" separately. An example was the firewall that was purchased at the end of the year.

    4. Residence Hall Networking
      The first phase in currently in progress. The wiring of Osprey Landing should be up and running by the Fall term. Osprey Hall and Osprey Cove should be complete by Spring 2000. This leaves Osprey Village as an unknown in terms of funding. $25,000 was provided to Help Desk and an additional position was funded.

    5. Administrative Systems
      Chairperson Crosby reported that a .5 FTE position was added to the Financial Team to assist in the web-based applications for students, faculty and staff. A full position was funded from the Differential Tuition allocation for the Enrollment Services department. Lance Taylor will provide a demo of these systems at the September meeting.

    6. PC Classroom
      Chairperson Crosby stated that thanks to Academic Affairs, this classroom was funded. This will be a 24-station pc lab in Founders Hall (Building 2/Room 2082). It is being fast tracked and should be partially ready by the beginning of the Fall term (e.g., the stand-alone A/C unit will not be installed).

    7. Technology in Support of On-Line Instruction
      Chairperson Crosby stated that this item was not funded. However, he met last week with Bill Wilson, Kathy Hughes, Zella Boulware, Henry Thomas, Tom Serwatka, Jeff Michelman, Lance Taylor and Joann Campbell to determine what needs to be done to keep WebCT users supported. Donna Mohr requested a hand-out/email on what resources WebCT users can expect before classes begin in the Fall.

    8. Faculty Enhancement Center
      Interviews are being held this week for a Director of the Faculty Enhancement Center.

    9. Other
      Chairperson Crosby reported that an additional $40,000 was received in Differential Tuition for classroom projectors. He also stated that $75,000 was received to improve classrooms on campus (e.g., blinds, carpet, blackboards, HVAC, screens, etc.). A question was raised as to the type of ceramic tile that will be put down in the large lecture halls in the Mathews Building. Chairperson Crosby will get information on the specifications and report back at the next UTC meeting.

  4. The Network

    Kathy Hughes reported that they are reconstructing the timeline leading up to the network problem back in June. Computing Services is working on a formal disaster recovery plan and brought in an outside consultant to help. She will be reported more detail on this in the future. A question was raised about having locally-installed applications on the desktop machines. Kathy reported that this would be done in addition to distributing services across servers. Chairperson Crosby also said that certain applications loaded on desktop machines may have a negative impact on the network. This will also be discussed at a UTC meeting in the Fall.

  5. UTC Focus for 1999-2000

    Chairperson Crosby requested that the UTC members send him their top five technology issues (in priority order) and these will help determine the UTC's focus for 1999-2000.

  6. Charter

    Chairperson Crosby stated that it's time to look at the UTC Charter regarding the structure of the committee. He asked the UTC members to review the charter for discussion in the Fall.

  7. Pay For Print

    Bob Jones reported that there have been some problems with Xerox and the pay for print contract with UNF. He said that the system in the Library is working fine; however, the print server that Xerox installed in the labs has begun to have problems. Bob has contacted Xerox's Southeast Regional Office to try to have the problems solved, but is not having much luck. Chairperson Crosby requested that the Associate Deans check out their own discipline-specific labs to see how the pay for print is working there and send an email to both he and Lance Taylor with their findings. Chairperson

  8. New Employee Accounts

    Lance Taylor reported that he has a meeting scheduled this week to discuss having new employee network ID's ready for use on the day the employee arrives. Another suggested agenda would be removing network ID's when an employee has terminated.

  9. Demos

    Chairperson Crosby stated that the major agenda item for the July 26thmeeting will be demos.

  10. All Users

    Chairperson Crosby stated that the new All Users Policy has been implemented. Dan Dundon will now be discussing the use of All A&P, All- USPS and All Faculty distribution lists with the Association Presidents in terms of their restrictions.

  11. Other Business

    1. Dennis Gay asked if their would be a way to tie the student ID photo to the Registration system so that instructors could have access to photo ID's of students enrolled in their classes. Lance Taylor will contact FSU and see what they've done regarding this issue. This will also be one of the demo items at the next meeting.

    2. Jeff Michelman raised the issue of the prerequisite checking. Lance Taylor will check on this and discuss at the next UTC meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:55am.
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