The University Technology Committee meeting was convened at 10:00am in classroom 10/1319 by Chairperson Richard Crosby.

Announcements

Lance Taylor reported that he is submitting the 2003-2004 Annual Enterprise Resource Planning and Management Report for the University of North Florida today to the Florida Board of Education. He will email a copy of this report to UTC members today. The total Information Technology & Communications Expenditures for 2003/2004 is $12,762,714 and planned expenditures for 2004/2005 will be $13,775,000. The following initiatives are outlined in the Executive Summary: (a) ERP - UNF Wings Project; (b) development of the IT Security Program; (c) Networking Services - implementation of Active Directory and completion of the networking equipment upgrade for on-campus student housing; (e) TISOLI - implementation of the newest version and highest level of the Blackboard course management system; (f) Organizational Change - the central ITS Help Desk and Campus Audio Visual units physically merged to form the ITS Support Center.

Approval of Minutes - October 4, 2004

The minutes were approved as submitted.

Distance Learning Action Team Report

Jace Hargis reported that he had received a few comments on the Distance

Learning Handbook that had been distributed at the last UTC meeting. The handbook was discussed and Lance Taylor made a motion to recommend adoption of the report. Dale Clifford seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Mac Users Group Report

Cathy Cavanaugh reported that this group had not met; therefore, there was no report.

Network Acceptable use Action Team Report

Katharine Brown stated that the guidelines group and community education group have not finalized their issues yet. Jeff Durfee is taking the lead in the security group. A draft report will be ready by the next UTC meeting.

Campus Technology Committee Report

Katharine Brown stated that this group will meet on November 9th. Tony Turrin will present a demo of the MyWings portal. This group has been working with John Sharp and the C-Techs on a classroom technology information document for users of these classrooms.

Information Technology Security Action Team Report

Jeff Durfee stated that the transition from the insecure Telnet protocol to the s3ecure SSH protocol as the preferred method of making a terminal connection to the campus network from off campus was accomplished in August. The inclusion of Windows XP SP2 in the standard client image for University computers is awaiting a final recommendation from the Campus Client committee. Windows XP SP2 includes many significant changes to the operating system, most of them security enhancements. New computer protection software (DeepFreeze) is now in use in the general purpose and COAS labs, University Center training classrooms and the Library. Engineering and Building Construction are also testing the software for use in their labs as well. This software allows lab users to have greater freedom of interaction with protected computers since a single reboot will always return the computer to a known configuration erasing any changes made since the last reboot.

ERP Update

Scott Bennett reported that the financial system went live on July 1st with a few user issues to be resolved. The pilot group for the web portal went well and this will go live for all employees on January 1, 2005. At that time all employees will go through the web portal for web-time entry. The direct deposit issue seems to be resolved and all have been loaded into the system. Pre-noting will be done and to test this all employees with direct deposit will receive $.01 to make sure that it works. Several notices will be put in Campus Update before this is done. Training is being done every Friday for web-time entry and seems to be going well. The Finance Aid portion of the system will go live in early spring. Scott also stated that SCT is working with the Florida Banner schools to develop a consortium. One of the perks of this consortium might be to bring the costs down.

Florida Lambda Rail

Lance Taylor reported that he had attended a FLR Board meeting in Orlando and met with consultants to the FLR Board in Tallahassee. The consultants reviewed the structure of the Florida Lambda Rail LLC, pronounced it sound, and extolled the benefits of this partnership. Lance stated that he was convinced that becoming a FLR member would be a strategic move for the University. The up-front initial cost will be $352,000 and the LLC would like for UNF to join by December 31st (when they plan to go live).

Lance also met with the Provost's Deans' Council to discuss this. The Deans want more time to review this and will meet again next week. Bill Wilson stated that the Provost is waiting for the Deans' decision; however, he intends to discuss this at the next Vice Presidents' meeting.

Steve Lyon stated that the National Lambda Rail provides high speed connectivity to Asia, South America and Europe.

Jerry Merckel stated that IBM is pushing for a super computer in the Boca Raton area (along with the Governor's Office) and Florida Lambda Rail would give us access.

Wireless Initiative

Steve Lyon has spoken with vendors regarding this initiative and they don't meet UNF's security standards. The Campus Wireless Action Team met about this and identified constituencies to look at various vendor offerings. He will provide an update at the next UTC meeting on hardware and other costs associated with this.

Dial-Up

Steve Lyon reported that the changes discussed at the last UTC meeting (if there is no activity for four hours or a session exceeds 12 hours, the session will be disconnected) have been implemented. There have been no complaints yet. Kathy Hughes will bring statistics to the next UTC meeting.

Gaming

Steve Lyon reported that it will cost around $1,900 per month to put a separate internet connection in a single location in Building 14 for gaming purposes. He has spoken with the consultants for Florida Lambda Rail and this could provide a resolution to the gaming issue since the potential for discrete Internet connections exists. Tom Vanschoor stated that the students are on board with having a central location for gaming in Building 14 in order to develop a community of "gamers" on campus.

Downtime for UPS

Lance Taylor reminded the UTC members that all computing and network services will be unavailable on Saturday & Sunday, December 18th and 19th. This downtime is needed to install a larger UPS to accommodate growth and is not expected to exceed 48 hours. Telephone services will not be affected.

Currency Update

Kathy Hughes reported that she has put in an order for faculty/staff computers to replace those at 733 and below (along with flat panel monitors). She also stated that several servers have been ordered and a Mac faculty/staff order will be placed this week.

Classroom Enhancement

Kathy Hughes reported that four additional technology classrooms will be added in time to begin the Spring 2005 term.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:35am