MINUTES
UNIVERSITY
TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
December
4,2000
Members
Present: Others
Present:
Richard
Crosby, Chairperson Debra
Abbott
Tom
Serwatka, Vice Chairperson Amy Graham
Zella
Boulware Kathy
Hughes
Larry
Daniel Clay
Maddox
David
Jaffee Scott
Runnion
Bob
Jones (rep. Andrew Farkas) Fred Sudler
Bruce
Kavan Tony
Turrin
Jerry
Merckel
Jeff
Michelman
Donna
Mohr
Martha
Rader
Diane
Tanner
Chairperson
Crosby convened the University Technology Committee (UTC) meeting at 10:00 a.m.
in the COBA InTuition Conference Room.
1. Announcements
a. Kathy
Hughes introduced the following new staff members: Clay Maddox who is the new University Center C-Tech and Amy
Graham who is the new second C-Tech for the College of Arts & Sciences.
b.
Chairperson Crosby stated that he had
reviewed the calendar for 2001 and found that there would be no meeting in
either January or September.
c.
Kathy Hughes handed out copies of the
“Call for Papers” on the 12th International Conference on College
Teaching and Learning sponsored by FCCJ on April 17-21, 2001 at the Radisson
Riverwalk Hotel.
2. Distance
Learning Action Team
Tom
Serwatka stated that David Jaffee had divided the Action Team into subgroups
and that these subgroups presented preliminary reports at the most recent
meeting. An update will be given at the
February UTC meeting.
3. Strategic
Issues Action Team
Chairperson
Crosby reported that this group had met on November 20th and
discussed ownership of the strategic planning process. It was determined by the group that it
should be the University Technology Committee.
Bruce Kavan stated that he thought that it would be more appropriate for
the administration to first articulate their vision regarding technology.
Chairperson
Crosby stated that the Action Team had decided to take the six areas identified
in the July 1992 Information Technology Strategic Plan and discuss each
one. They are: (a) organization and planning; (b)
instructional delivery; (c) education and training; (d) academic administrative
support; (e) networking/access to information and (f) support services and
maintenance.
4. Mac
Action Team
Zella
Boulware stated that the Mac Action Team will meet on December 12th
and would be discussing the following: (a) Mac representation in Computing
Services; (b) Mac support in CIRT; and (c) Help Desk issues.
5. Academic
Technology & Support Services Committee
Bruce
Kavan reported that at the last meeting of the Academic Technology &
Support Services Committee (ATSSC), the following were discussed: (a) resolution sponsored by the College of
Education representative requesting that support for Distance Leaning not be
limited to Blackboard; (b) the Distance Learning Policy was sent to the
Executive Committee and returned to the ATSSC for a change in some of the
language; (c) UNF High Level Support Requirements for Distance Learning
Program.
6. Science
& Engineering Building Technology Presentation
Jerry
Merckel stated that the new Science & Engineering Building will house all Engineering programs as well as
Physics and Chemistry. Don Farshing’s
FEEDS program will have a production studio for delivery of its courses. He also stated that there needs to be a
process where all proposed building occupants will be able to specify what
their requirements are. Jerry will
provide updates at future UTC meetings.
7. Scanning
Fred
Sudler stated that he and John Sharp have been working on a scanning solution
for the University. Currently scanning
is provided in the College of Health and in the General Purpose Lab. He stated that there are only two scanning
companies – NCS Pearson and Scantron.
Both of these companies still only use DOS. A survey indicated the following scanning needs: error marking on the form, item analysis,
windows operating system and reasonable amount of time to use. He stated that
NCS Pearson’s technology is too confusing and takes at least 20 minutes to set
up. Scantron will have a new product
next year, but it will still use the old DOS technology. Chairperson Crosby asked that Fred Sudler
& John Sharp continue pursuing this and give another presentation at the
February UTC meeting.
8. Web
Advisory Group
Chairperson
Crosby stated that the Web Advisory Group (WAG) had met several times and is
acting as the first review of the new web page prior to sending it to
President’s Staff. He requested that if
the UTC members had anything they wanted on the home page, to send the items to
their WAG representative and it would be brought before the group. He also stated that a web publishing policy
is almost ready to go (still waiting on additional information regarding ADA
and the Digital Millennium Act.
Chairperson
Crosby also stated that a resource group has been formed as a subset of the Web
Advisory Group to include: Joann
Campbell (academic freedom); Wendy Morris (legal issues); Debra Abbott (faculty
issues/CIRT); Lina Monell (ADA issues); Joe Brenton (additional domain name
server/technical issues); and Keith Hufford (web student systems).
Chairperson
Crosby will be providing the new URL to the UTC as soon as Alistair has
completed his work. He requested that
the UTC members share this with their students to obtain feedback and send all
comments back to him. Martha Rader
stated that it would be good to get high school students’ input also. Jeff Michelman will provide input from
international students.
9. Network
Traffic Shaping
Kathy
Hughes handed out graphs showing use of the internet bandwidth using the Media
One Router. The green is what we push
out; the blue is what’s coming in to UNF and these are “averages.” The bandwidth was temporarily increased to
10mbps in October. It appears from the
graphs that the bandwidth needs to around 15mbps by Fall 2001 to reasonably
meet campus needs.
Kathy
stated that one-third to one-half of the usage is coming from the dorms (and
the highest number of computers on the web in the dorms is only 677) and 500
additional beds are being added in Fall 2001.
Donna Mohr questioned whether Housing was contributing any funds to
bandwidth. Chairperson Crosby responded that they currently were not, but
discussions regarding this will be taking place in the future.
Bruce
Kavan asked where UNF is in terms of wireless technology. Kathy Hughes says that this is being
discussed and that a possible location to start is the Library. This is also something that might be
considered for the new Science & Engineering Building and Library addition.
10.New
Email for All Students
Kathy
Hughes stated that a kick-off meeting was held on October 25th to
discuss this (UNIX Platform Action Team).
The UNIX platform is due for replacement this year and email currently
resides on one of these platforms. We
are on target for a new email platform for Fall 2001 which coincides with the
requirement that all students have access to a personal computer with Internet
service. Student Focus Groups are also
being held for student input to these issues.
11.Disposition
of Surveyed PC’s
Chairperson
Crosby stated that he would be putting together a group to look at this issue
and also have the President’s Staff provide input. Jeff Michelman suggested that only parts of the computers should
be surveyed off the network (instead of the whole system). Zella Boulware will research information on
a non-profit organization that will take old computers (i.e., Lions Club).
12.Future
Issues
Chairperson
Crosby asked the members if they had any issues for discussion at the next UTC
meeting (February 2001). Bruce Kavan
brought up that several of his on-line magazines have withdrawn free electronic
access (Harvard Business Review & MIS Quarterly). He would like to see what we could do to maintain access.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30am.