The University Technology Committee meeting was called to order at 10:02 a.m. in Bldg. 15 Room 1105 by Vice Chair George Perkins.  

Announcements

Perkins advised the group that Lance Taylor was out of town and would not be attending today's meeting.

Deb Miller announced that CIRT has hired a full-time position instructional designer, Erin Soles, who will be focusing on faculty Blackboard support and resource development. CIRT has also installed new equipment including a wide-format printer and disk duplicator. Information on these items will be provided in the Fall newsletter to faculty.

Approval of Minutes - March 6, 2006

Perkins asked if the UTC members had any changes, additions or corrections to the Minutes from June 5, 2006. No changes were noted and the Minutes were approved as submitted.

Campus Technology Committee Report

Diane Tanner announced that there will be no Campus Technology Committee meeting for the month of August.

She updated the group on the following CTC pending issues:

• Orphan web page issues are listed as a discussion topic for the September meeting.
• Student Equipment Checkout issues are still being addressed. One area of concern is that the Library cannot do technical support when equipment is returned to make sure it is in working order, etc. and that the ownership for the equipment would now fall under the Library. The CTC believes that although the Library is willing to handle these checkouts, there would be a large burden placed on the Library's current resources.
• The plagiarism website has been placed on hold while the content continues to be reviewed and updated.

Tanner reminded the group that Dale Clifford and Barbara Tuck are co-chairs of the Campus Technology Committee for 2006-2007.

The CTC will meet in September (date forthcoming).

Report: GOT

Miller updated the group on GOT pending issues:

• Student Response Systems are still being investigated with focus on two (2) vendors (eInstruction and TurningPoint Technologies. The team is currently comparing capabilities and costs and hopes to make a recommendation in time for Spring 2007 implementation.
• FIG iPod project has commenced with iPods purchased. The team is currently looking into student maintenance support being provided by The Apple Store. CIRT will provide support to the faculty and the Library will check out iPods for the term to the students.
• The iTunes U software agreement has been signed. The team is now serving as a steering committee and content and technical sub-groups have been formed. The plans are to have a public store for content of general interest to the community and a private store to make materials available on a class basis. More technical work is needed to set up than expected so it will probably become available for pilot use in early Fall term with a larger rollout scheduled for Spring 2007.
• A request has come in from a communications professor for the ability to videotape class sessions and publish to the web instantly. The GOT is investigating and has requested Tony Turrin of TISOLI to assist in the investigation of possible solutions.

Report:  Network Acceptable Use Action Team

No new items to discuss.

Report:  IT Security Action Team

No new items to discuss

Report:  Online Testing Facility Action Team

Hughes stated that this team has not met yet, but have a meeting scheduled for August 22, 2006. She asked for a representative from the College of Arts & Sciences and Dale Clifford said she would check with Peter Braza for a representative from their college for the action team.

Student Email Forwarding

Jim Owen discussed the Student Records Committee recommendations with the group. The SRC unanimously recommended that student email forwarding should no longer be allowed to off-campus email addresses. Their recommendation was based on the following reasons:

• There are significant security issues. An area of major concern is that there is no way to verify information is being supplied directly by the student.
• This is considered a FERPA issue. FERPA rules state that an email must be from an authentic source, for example a UNF email address, in order for it to constitute an official notice or response.
• There are several students that state they never receive notices, reminders, etc. from the University. Owen informed the group that his department receives at least twelve (12) notices of undeliverable messages per day. In several cases, it has resulted in students not receiving notice of wait-list moves, etc. Many email providers block these notices as spam and unless a student changes their email options with that provider, they continually miss important information.
• If a student does have their email forwarded to an off-campus email address, there is no shadow email in their UNF email. The email never reaches their UNF email inbox because it is re-routed directly to the outside address supplied by the student.
• There are a number of instances where students' off-campus email accounts are full and cannot be delivered (UNF is able to better manage email inbox sizes).
• The University is too dependent on a student's responsibility to provide and maintain correct email address and update their information as it changes.
• Due to many of the petitions and issues that students file, large amounts of UNF resources are being used to review and oversee these concerns and appeals.

It was recommended that the UNF MyWings portal, a valuable resource provided for students, needs to be better utilized. If email/information was posted in the portal it would drive students to one (1) source that is managed by UNF.

Hughes stated that right now approximately 9,800 email accounts out of 31,000 are forwarded to outside provider addresses. She informed the group that Florida Gulf Coast University is no longer forwarding student email to off-campus addresses. Jeff Durfee said the University of Florida is not forwarding emails as well.

Clifford responded that she believes the University makes too many exceptions which is the main cause for university resources being stretched. Jay Coleman stated that he believed it would be poor customer service to discontinue student email forwarding thereby forcing students to go to a source they normally do not check. This reduces the opportunity to get information to the student.

Kathy Cohen informed the group that the Library has had several instances of email not being allowed to go through an outside provider and is labeled as spam.

Jeff Bowen thought it best to force students to verify correct information annually.

Jim Owen asked for a UTC decision on the SRC recommendation, but it was determined that quorum criteria could not be met. Perkins asked for an action team to be put in place and come back to the committee in September with further information and recommendations. He noted the issue should also be discussed with Kim Luther in Enrollment Services for her feedback. The members of this action team are: Jeff Bowen - Chair, Steve Lyon, Jay Coleman, Diane Tanner, Barbara Tuck and Jim Owen - Resource. Perkins asked Bowen to respond back to Owen with the team's findings.

Perkins will ask Lance Taylor to add this issue to the September UTC Meeting Agenda.

Project Updates

Hughes updated the group on the following ongoing project updates:

• Student File and Email Services - The Web Access/Exchange environment will begin for students on August 27, 2006. The plan is to have all students off of the Horde environment by the end of the Fall term. Announcements will be in Student Updates and campus newsletters.
• Classroom Technology - The technology classrooms in the new Social Science building are now ninety percent (90%) complete. The ten (10) technology classrooms funded in fiscal year 2005/2006 are expected to updated and completed by the beginning of the Fall term.
• The iPod pilot is underway and the Library has agreed to check these out to the students in the program. The student equipment check-out form will enable the student to have the equipment for one (1) semester. There are still pending issues that need to be addressed. One issue is how stolen equipment would be handled (these are tracked by serial number).

Next Meeting

Perkins requested that with the Labor Day holiday on the first (1st) Monday of the month in September, that all future September UTC meetings be scheduled for the second (2nd) Monday of the month. The committee was in agreement and the UTC's next monthly meeting will be held on Monday, September 11, 2006 with the location to be determined.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:34 a.m.