MINUTES

UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

November 6, 2000

 

Members Present:                              Others Present:

Richard Crosby, Chairperson                  Debra Abbott

Zella Boulware                              Kathy Hughes

Larry Daniel                              Bob Jones

Andrew Farkas                              John Sharp

David Jaffee                              Lance Taylor

Bruce Kavan                               Tony Turrin

Jeff Michelman                          

Donna Mohr                               

Martha Rader

Scott Runnion (rep. Jerry Merckel)

Diane Tanner

 

 

Chairperson Crosby convened the University Technology Committee (UTC) meeting at 10:05 a.m. in the COBA InTuition Conference Room.

 

1.      Minutes

The minutes of the October 2nd meeting were approved with the following corrections:

 

a.                Item number 2 under Announcements – change to read “Merckel announced that the COCSE, COAS & COBA have paid this year’s annual license fee of $5,000 for ESRI.” 

b.                Item number 4, second paragraph, change LearningSpace 4.6.5 to LearningSpace 3.01.

 

2.      Announcements

a.    Chairperson Crosby stated that in the future the UTC minutes will be delivered during the week following the meeting for changes/additions/deletions. 

b.    Donna Mohr reported that the College of Arts & Sciences had filled their second C-Tech position with Amy Graham (Computing Services employee).

c.    Chairperson Crosby stated that he would follow-up on Zella Boulware’s difficulty in obtaining classroom space for distance learning        courses. 

 

3.      Distance Learning Action Team (DLAT)

Attached to today’s agenda is a Distance Learning Action Team Proposal prepared by David Jaffee.  He reported that this proposal summarizes what the Action Team agreed to pursue at their most recent meeting.  It proposes several small sub-groups as follows:  Faculty Development, Incentives & Rewards – Connection of UNF to Other DL Bodies; Faculty Training; Technology Infrastructure/Help-Desk Support; Student Training and Support Resources; Assessment of DL Courses; Pedagogy and Best Practices; Registration/ Enrollment/Scheduling.  Each team will produce the information in a form that will allow an aggregate of materials for the production of a final report to the UTC.  This should be ready by early Spring semester. 

 

Chairperson Crosby reported that he had met with Geraldine Collins (Chairperson of the Faculty Association’s Academic Technology & Support Services Committee) regarding overlap between that committee and the DLAT. She is presently a member of the DLAT and plans on being heavily involved.  Bruce Kavan is Co-Chair of the Academic Technology & Support Services Committee and is also on the DLAT.  He has agreed to provide updates from the Academic Technology & Support Services Committee at each meeting of the UTC beginning with the December, 2000 meeting.

 

4.    Strategic Issues Action Team (SIAT)

Chairperson Crosby reported that the SIAT meets on the third Monday of each month at 10:00a.m.  The members are Richard Crosby, Diane Tanner, Jeff Michelman, Donna Mohr, Tom Serwatka and Jerry Merckel.  The first meeting was held on October 16th.  Chairperson Crosby reported that the group agreed to begin with a 5 year strategic plan and update the plan annually.  They will consider developing a list of strategic questions and possibly form additional action teams.  They will also review several strategic plans from the other SUS institutions as well as UNF’s peer and peer aspirational institutions which will be delivered to the action team members this week.  The Action Team has also requested copies of the December 1994 Technology Planning Committee Report and the Information Technology Strategic Plan submitted by the Information Technology Strategic Plan Committee in July 1992 (which Andrew Farkas will provide).  Several issues to be discussed include:  bandwidth, software acquisition, leasing of computers, Application Service Provider issue (brought up by Bruce Kavan), and review of the UTC Charter.

 

5.    Mac Action Team

Kathy Hughes stated that attached to today’s agenda is a State of the MAC Address showing highlights, recent developments in support of the Mac community, and suggestions.  Zella Boulware will chair this group and reactivate with current and/or new members.  There is a current MAC User’s distribution list in Outlook and ability to send email to this list will be restricted to the action team chair and designees.  Zella stated that there was some question as to whether this group would remain an action team or become a users group.  It was the general consensus of the UTC that it currently remain an action team. 

 

6.    Web Advisory Group

Chairperson Crosby stated this is an ad hoc Web Advisory Group has been put together with members from each division:  Richard Crosby, Tom Serwatka, Everett Malcolm, Janet Owen, Dan Dundon, Deb Kaye, Alistair Boudreaux, Lance Taylor, and Kathy Hughes.  It is his intention that this be a start-up group and each of the above have agreed to serve for up to one year.  Alistair has been charged with developing another new page and should have a prototype ready by the end of this week for review.  The new page should be up and running late fall or early spring.  Chairperson Crosby stated that he would forward the updated web policy to the UTC. 

 

Jeff Michelman brought up the issue of putting the international link on the main page.  Chairperson Crosby stated that the advisory group will be considering what links are most appropriate for the home page since space is limited.  It was requested that Jeff get with Dennis Gayle (who believes that this has already been approved) and they can discuss with Tom Serwatka. 

 

Bruce Kavan requested that the handouts in the student labs be put on the web page. 

 

In response to a question raised by Debra Abbott, Chairperson Crosby stated that the following items are possible discussion goals of the Web Advisory Group in addition to developing a new page:  advertising on the web (which Janet Owen is pursuing); looking at the currency of current pages; security of information on the web pages (at the request of Bruce Kavan); domain names; virtual web hosting; web portal; and what does belong on the main page.  He requested that if there are additional items that the UTC wants considered, please email them to him. 

 

7.    Disposition of Surveyed PC’s

Chairperson Crosby stated that he had received an idea from Andrew Farkas that the UNF Foundation become the clearinghouse for all surveyed pc’s. This has been researched and deemed not appropriate for the Foundation to do. Al Batario of UNF’s Purchasing Department is researching auctioning computers on the internet through www.tradeout.com (a subsidiary of eBay) and Kathy VonDolteren has contacted FCCJ to see how they handle auctions. 

 

David Wesse, Assistant Vice President for Auxiliary Services, has met with a leasing company to talk about leasing computers instead of purchasing them.  Chairperson Crosby will invite him to attend a future meeting of the UTC to discuss this.  Lance Taylor has surveyed the other SUS institutions to see what they do in terms of leasing, and no other SUS institution currently does this. 

 

8.    Currency

Chairperson Crosby stated that he wanted the UTC to approve the Currency attachment to today’s agenda – Currency Thresholds for 2000-2001.  Jeff Michelman stated that Fred Sudler is in the process of lining up vendors on projectors since they are not planning to look at additional Davis Projectors.  He will invite Donna Mohr and asked that John Sharp invite the C-Techs to these presentations.  It was also noted that the projectors could be included in any future discussions of leasing equipment. 

 

Scott Runnion raised the issue of the differential requirement of COCSE in terms of the higher level of machines needed by this college.  Chairperson Crosby stated that the current process for COCSE is to determine their threshold and then to pro-rate their share based on what the other colleges get and go to Academic Affairs for the difference.  There was discussion on COCSE moving their older computers to other colleges which will be discussed with the C-Techs. 

 

Another issue to be discussed is to determine what qualifies for scientific & technical currency as opposed to information technology currency items.

 

Chairperson Crosby stated that he has made Provost Kline and Vice President Fagin aware that currency for software is a topic of concern that will be further explored this year. 

 

9.    Network Response Time

Kathy Hughes reported that the Library had problems with slow network response time.  Bob Jones stated that it was greatly improved.  She stated that this may be short lived since Osprey Village was brought online this weekend with 500 connections.  He stated that both Provost Kline and Vice President Fagin are aware that a budget request for an increase in bandwith from 6Mbps to 15Mbps is likely.  Further review of bandwidth needs will be conducted.

 

10.Standard Client

Chairperson Crosby said that this could also be an issue for the Strategic Issues Action Team.  Following discussion, a motion was made: “By the end of the academic year, Microsoft Office Suite will be the official product for University use on official documents.”  This was moved by Bruce Kavan and seconded by Jeff Michelman.  A vote was taken. It was unanimously in favor of the motion, with one “no” vote from Donna Mohr. 

 

11.   1999-2000 Annual Enterprise Resource Planning and Management Report

Chairperson Crosby thanked Lance for doing a good job on this report each year.  Following discussion, there was a request that Lance provide the UTC members with a graph showing how much UNF has spent on technology since Andrew Farkas’ December 1994 Technology Planning Committee Report.  Lance stated that this will include all funds except technology items paid for with Foundation funds. 

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 11:35am.


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