MINUTES

UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

March 4, 2002

 

 

Members Present:                                            Others Present:

Chairperson Richard Crosby                         Terry Smith

Scott Bennett                                                 Kathy Hughes

Zella Boulware                                              John Sharp

Kathy Brown                                                  Lance Taylor

Andrew Farkas                                              Tony Turrin

Larry Daniel

David Jaffee                                                  

Jerry Merckel                                                          

Donna Mohr                                                   

Steve Moore (representing Jeff Michelman)

 

Chairperson Crosby convened the University Technology Committee meeting at 10:05AM in the College of Business Administration InTuition Conference Room.

 

1.                  Announcements

Chairperson Crosby introduced Steve Moore who would be representing Jeff Michelman today.

 

2.                  Distance Learning Action Team  Report

David Jaffee reported that the Distance Learning Action team had met on February 11th and developed a plan to inform faculty that BlackBoard courses could be requested for recycling or removal from the server.  Tony Turrin reported that as of February 22nd, there are 159 faculty members teaching 339 Blackboard courses composed from 415 total course sections with a total of 10,134 student enrollments from 6,534 unique students enrolled. 

 

David Jaffee has also met with several interested faculty regarding the delivery of teacher certification courses online (Cathy Cavanaugh and John Venn are looking into this).  Larry Daniel also stated that the Schultz Center wants to do this.  A committee chaired by Debra Abbott is reviewing new software for on-line quizzes as the existing product is not sufficient.  A committee chaired by Tony Turrin is discussing web surveys. 

 

3.                  Mac Action Team Report

Zella Boulware stated that the Minutes from the Last Mac Users Group are located on the Computing Services website at the following URL:   http://www.unf.edu/compserv/helpdesk/mug/.  There is a concern of this group that MacLab1 (15/1105) will be turned into a PC lab and that an additional Mac Lab will be needed.  The Mac Users Group includes the members of the Mac Action Team in their membership (Allison Cruess is the acting Chairperson).  The Mac Users Group meets every 6 weeks and the Mac Action Team will continue to report back to the UTC. 

 

4.                  I2 Action Team Report

Lance Taylor handed out the following announcement – High Performance Network Connections for Science and Engineering Research (HPNC) – see URL www.interact.nsf.gov/cise/descriptions.nsf/pd/hpnc?openDocument .  The purpose of this announcement is to encourage additional institutions of higher education and institutions with significant research and education missions to establish high performance Internet connections where required to facilitate cutting edge science and engineering research.   Lance has contacted representatives at Florida Community College at Jacksonville and members of the I2 Action Team asking them to review the announcement and let him know of any specific science or engineering research projects that they know of that could lead to the development of a grant proposal.

 

5.                  Network Acceptable Use Action Team Report

Katharine Brown reported that this Action Team met for the initial “charge” meeting on February 25th and are currently in the stage of accumulating knowledge and surveying aspects of needs and use.  They are looking at the best ways to publicize what they are doing and expect to have a recommendation report for the UTC in Fall 2002.

 

6.                  Information Technology Security Action Team Report

Lance Taylor reported for Bill McSherry in his absence.  This Action Team met last week and continues to look at “low hanging fruit.”  They are developing a list of areas to focus on which should be completed in the next couple of weeks.   Gerry Merckel suggested that Action Team members review the USF Report of recommendations by their Task Force on Campus Safety and Security.  This report can be viewed at http://www.usf.edu/president/c_safety.html .

 

7.                  Academic Technology & Support Services Committee Report

Katharine Brown reported that this committee met on February 5th and will meet again on March 5th.  One of the key issues of their discussion is budget (especially in terms of currency funds).  They are working on two items:  classroom computer configurations and feasibility of UNF embarking on an on-line tutoring system. 

 

8.                  New Library System

Andrew Farkas handed out a report prepared by Bob Jones on the status of the New Library Management system.  This process (through the Florida Center for Library Automation-FCLA) will replace the current NOTIS Library Management System from 1985.  An ITN was issued in October 2000.  In January 2002 the contract was awarded for the Ex Libris ALEPH system (which should be online at UNF in June 2003).   

 

9.                  Technology in Science & Engineering Building

Gerry Merckel stated that there is a partnership in this new building between the College of Computing Sciences & Engineering and the College of Arts & Sciences.  There is also an assumption that there’s been a security strategy for this building as well as common technology.  He stated that all labs associated with the Engineering program are to be reviewed by Terry Smith to make sure that everything is OK.  Donna Mohr also stated that College of Arts & Sciences faculty have been reviewing rooms associated with their College.  This building should be ready for occupancy by the Summer of 2003.

 

Following a discussion on Intellikeys for the new building, Chairperson Crosby stated that he would meet with Phil Turner of Facilities Planning and Dan Endicott of Environmental Health & Safety regarding proper security for this building. 

 

10.              Access/Lockdown

Kathy Hughes stated that the committee had been in touch with key people from the University of Central Florida on what they had done in terms of access/lockdown.  There are no recommendations as of this date and the committee will continue to work with Dan Endicott of Environmental Health & Safety on this. 

 

11.              ISP/ITN

Lance Taylor reported that two vendor proposals had been selected for further review (BellSouth and Sprint).  A first round meeting was held with the vendors to go over their proposals and additional questions were generated.  We are currently awaiting the responses to these questions.

 

12.              System Status Hotline

Chairperson Crosby stated that this item was brought up at the last UTC meeting in terms of determining a way that someone could call in for a status report during a major outage.  Kathy Hughes is working on this with Jim Edwards of Communication Services and will report back to the UTC at the next meeting.

 

13.              Junk Email

Lance Taylor reported that he had been in contact with Florida Atlantic University regarding their approach to handling junk email.  Kathy Hughes stated that UNF currently uses a “reactive” approach to junk email and that Computing Services will continue to search for appropriate “proactive” solutions.

 

14.              Policy on College-Specific Class Labs

Chairperson Crosby stated  that there needs to be some way to routinely report usage of laboratories on campus.  He stated that Hank Camp is working on lab scheduling and lab utilization.  Chairperson Crosby will work with Judy Perkins to determine what her specific request is.  Lance Taylor reported that there will probably be a budget request for a scheduling system for next year. 

 

15.              Other Business

Chairperson Crosby stated that currency will be an agenda item for the next meeting and that Kathy Hughes will be sending a currency update out to UTC members prior to the next meeting.

 

The next meeting will be held on Monday, April 1st, at 10:00am in the College of Business InTuition Conference Room.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 11:00am