Information Resources Council News

IRC Regular Voting Members: Philip Turner, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs for Distance Education and Dean of the School of Library and Information Resources (Chair); Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Dennis Mueller, Research Program Group; Don Grose, Libraries; Walter Bowen, Academic Administration; John Todd, Faculty Senate; Kathleen Swigger, College of Arts and Sciences; Bill Buntain, Communications Program Group; Cengiz Capan, College of Business; Joneel Harris, Administrative Program Group; Paul Dworak, College of Music; David Hartman, School of Community Services; Paul Schlieve, College of Education; Chuck Fuller, Fiscal Affairs; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Steve Oeffner, UNTHSC Information Technology Services; Steve Miller, Human Resources; Clare Popejoy, Graduate Student Council; Steve Grant, UNT Health Science Center; Brian Patridge, Student Association; Russ Pensyl, School of Visual Arts; Virginia Wheeless, Chancellor. IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Richard Harris, Computing Center; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center; Maurice Leatherbury, Computing Center; Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Rondel Stevens, Telecommunications; Sue Ellen Richey, Computing Center (Recording Secretary)

June 18, 1996

E-mail Task Force

Bill Buntain reported for the E-mail Task Force that SCS had been brought up on GroupWise on June 17th. The next scheduled conversion is administrative services network, which is the General Services building and the Police Department. They are trying to fit the Library into the period between summer and fall terms, which will leave Arts & Sciences, nearly all of which is currently using Pegasus Mail. The real issue with Arts & Sciences is the need for additional support staff before conversion of that college; therefore, A&S is targeted for sometime in the Fall when there will be more staff available to help.

Ad Hoc Committee on Distributed Support

Bill also reported for the Ad Hoc Committee on Distributed Support that this committee has reached a phase where it can do no more and the larger working committee needs to be formed. He distributed a document dealing with the questions raised at the May IRC meeting. On the issue of accuracy in the numbers used to calculate distributed support needs, the committee felt "that its charge was to identify staffing shortages and recommend corrections for these shortages and that funding and resource allocation are more budgetary and administrative issues." The Committee did, however, "recognize that this is a serious issue and recommended that consideration be given to it by the Information Resources Steering Committee." Bill said that the College of Education's numbers were revised, according to new figures given to him by that college. This adjustment does indicate a need for additional staff in the College of Education.

Bill explained that the committee had made its best effort to count accurately and felt that it was a good enough first attempt to address the shortages. In an attempt to refine the numbers, Bill discovered that in a comparison of Microcomputer Maintenance's numbers and Human Resources numbers, there was perhaps a difference of 1/4 FTE here or there. The amendment document states the Committee's recommendation "that the support model and the data collection methods used in developing its recommendations be reviewed by the Distributed Computing Support Management Team and that this new group be tasked with developing a model to plan for support needs in future years." There was further discussion of the issues, and a motion was passed stating that the report be accepted with the acknowledgment that there are varying circumstances within different schools that need to be addressed by the Provost, and that within budget limitations, there needs to be a full-time support staff person in each of the units. It was explained that in FY97 25% of the funding for the new positions will come from the school or college, and 75% from the Provost; in FY98 and succeeding years, 50% will be from school or college and 50% from the Provost.

Strategic Planning Committee

Richard Harris reported for the Strategic Planning Committee that work is in progress to consolidate all of the old computing policies into a new one. Susan Pierce has placed the draft of the new policies on the World Wide Web for people to review.

Software License Compliance Committee

Richard Harris reported that the Software License Compliance Committee had met, explaining that the charge of this committee was to investigate the issue of UNT's compliance with software licensing laws. A major effort to bring UNT into compliance was the purchase of campus-wide software site licenses. In a meeting of this committee on June 14th, the committee agreed to recommend to the IRC that responsibility and accountability for documenting software license compliance for each desktop machine (or server) be with the individual who has inventory responsibility for the machine and encourage this to be the faculty or staff member who uses the machine." Richard commented that Tim Edwards, who is a member of the committee, and an Internal Auditor, will be revising the Software Licensing Compliance Guidelines and will bring them to the IRC for approval at a later date. Following more discussion, it was agreed that there would not be a vote on this recommendation at the present time and that the issue will be presented to the IRC again as part of the Appropriate Use Policy.

Virginia Wheeless suggested that a form be developed by the Strategic Planning Committee which can be submitted to the IRC Steering Committee each time a recommendation is sent to them from the IRC. They can use the form to provide feedback to the IRC on issues presented to them.

July 16, 1996

New IRC Chair Announced

Dr. Brownell announced that the new Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs for Distance Education, and Dean of the School of Library and Information Resources, will be Dr. Phil Turner, who is currently in charge of distance education at the University of Alabama. Dr. Turner will begin at UNT on September 1, 1996 and will assume Chairmanship of the IRC at that time.

Appropriate Use Policy Draft

Susan Pierce presented the Appropriate Use Policy and the System Administrator Code of Ethics she had drafted. Members were encouraged to send Susan their comments and suggestions which she will incorporate into the documents, new drafts of which will be presented to the IRC at its August meeting. Susan asked the IRC to consider the possibility of establishing a Board to review specific instances of breaches of the new policy. Susan explained that this policy would not appear in the official UNT Policy Manuals, but would be referenced there and would appear on the World Wide Web.

Research Program Group

Dennis Mueller reported that the Research Program Group had not met, but he proposed approval of a form Virginia Wheeless had brought forward at the last Strategic Planning Committee, which would aid the IR Steering Committee in giving the IRC feedback on issues it approves or actions it recommends. Since this was the first introduction of the suggested form, it was necessary to waive the IRC rules before a vote could be taken. With approval of the members present, the rules were waived that would have required a vote to be taken in the next meeting after the introduction of a new subject. A motion was introduced approving the suggested form for providing feedback from the Steering Committee to the IRC. In the discussion that followed, it was suggested that forms be prepared on any outstanding issues dating back to the beginning of the current academic year. Susan Pierce noted that she had already prepared forms for the 3 outstanding issues she was aware of:

1. Innovative Projects Proposal;
2. the recommendation to extend the fiber optic backbone; and
3. the adoption of the world wide web publishing policy.

A friendly amendment to the original motion to approve the form was accepted which specified that outstanding issues dating back to December of 1995 be written up on the new form and presented to the IR Steering Committee for feedback. The amended motion passed.

Mainframe Computer Upgrade Proposal

In Joneel Harris' absence, Coy Hoggard presented a proposal to upgrade UNT's IBM Mainframe Computer, with a vote to be taken at the August meeting. Coy then explained the proposal giving the history of the most recent mainframe acquisition. The current machine has been reliable, has resulted in the projected cost savings being realized, and has supported the academic mainframe-based workload well, including allowing an upgrade to the current version of the operating systems used for academic support. It also provides acceptable response times most of the time, but problems have been experienced during really heavy workload times such as registration. Coy explained that an upgrade after 18 months (mid January, 97) was anticipated even at the time of the most recent machine acquisition. However, IBM has presented UNT with an offer that makes it desirable to upgrade in December, 1996, and accept a "loaner" machine (fast, but older technology) from IBM during August to get through the Fall 1996 registration.

Ginny Anderson spoke to the group about the problems experienced during registration that led to consideration of this proposed upgrade. She stated that it appears that continually increasing work load on the mainframe is responsible for the response time difficulties. Discussion followed.

In response to a question, Coy stated that, as requested by the IRC, he and his Administrative teams have been pursuing distributed computing alternatives with one project for automation of the purchasing function already under way. He assured the Council that he and his staff are looking into alternatives for administrative computing, but that any projects that are converted to client-server applications will take quite a while to change over.

Strategic Planning Committee

Richard reported that the Strategic Planning Committee had met and approved a charge and composition of a task force to direct the development of the University Campus wide Information System. He explained that Computing Center employee Doug Bateman is a resource person and acts as technical Web Master, but he could not serve as UNT's official Web Master. Richard explained that this team of people would not be doing all of the work; the job of developing web pages university-wide will require hundreds of people. This task force would consist of key people who could meet on short notice and provide leadership. Walter Bowen moved to waive IRC rules of order; Paul Schlieve seconded, and the SPC proposal was presented for approval at this meeting, rather than wait until August to take a vote. A vote was taken and the charge and composition of the new task force was approved.

Distributed Computing Committee Established

Maurice Leatherbury announced that the IR Steering Committee took action on the establishment of a Distributed Computing Committee, of which he is Chair. It was also announced that new positions for distributed computing support were approved and the new positions for Arts & Sciences are set to begin in August.

August 20, 1996

David Shrader Expresses Gratitude

Since this was David Shrader's last meeting as Chair of the IRC, he thanked the group for their work during the time he has served, and expressed his pleasure in serving in that position over the past year. Dr. Phillip Turner will assume the position as Chair of the IRC in September.

Mainframe Computer Upgrade

Joneel Harris made a presentation to propose the upgrade of the mainframe computer, a supporting document for which was distributed via E-mail prior to the meeting. Joneel briefly reviewed the history of the purchase of the current mainframe (9672 R51) which was purchased in support of administrative as well as academic computing needs, at a cost of $2 million over 36 months, and included a trade-in allowance of $85,000 for the old mainframe. She reported that the 9672 R51, although a reliable machine with adequate processing capacity, had experienced response-time problems.

On behalf of the Administrative Program Group, Joneel recommended that the IRC approve an upgrade to a third generation CMOS Mainframe with individual processors rated at 39-42 MIPS. This alternative will result in an 18-month extension of the existing 36-month ESO agreement, to a full 54-month term (July 10, 1995 to January 10, 2000. Part of IBM's offer is to provide UNT with a 9121-621 machine to use for 30 days to get through the August processing crunch resulting from Fall registration as well as end-of fiscal year processing.

Under this scenario, the academic workload running on the R51 will continue running on that machine through Fall 1996 registration. After this crunch period the R51 will then resume processing for both administrative and academic activities until the new machine is delivered and installed in December 1996.

The total cost of the 54-month ESO under this option is $2,787,150 million, $786,435 more than the cost of the existing 36-month ESO. This results in a net increase of only $316,754 in the 5-year costs as compared to the projected costs in the event of retaining the HDS 8083 and IBM 440 for five years and not installing the R51 (that is, doing nothing), and $346,882 more than the estimated cost of retaining the existing R51 and letting the current ESO expire at the end of the current term. It was noted that the internal audit office has reviewed and approved the cost analysis.

As a result of a request by the IRC, much research has been done in a review of administrative applications and possible client-server software to replace some of the mainframe applications, in an effort to reduce the mainframe processing load. None of the vendors interviewed hav production-ready systems. There are some in various stages of testing, but at this point it is not practical to consider replacing all mainframe-based student systems with client-server products.

Joneel explained that the loaner equipment is already in place, which was strongly endorsed by the Administrative Program Group, Enrollment Management Committee, and Associate dean's Council, as well as approved by Phil Diebel. If the IRC does not approve the recommendation being presented, UNT will be charged $52,000 for the use of the loaner mainframe. She further explained that if the recommendation is approved, no additional funding will have to be approved, because the amount needed can be covered by the Computing Center's HEAF and M&O budgets.

In further discussion, Joneel Harris stated that this upgrade does not guarantee that future upgrade will not be necessary as technology and needs change. There was a call for the question, and the motion was passed by a majority vote of the members present.

World Wide Web Policy

Richard distributed a draft of the World Wide Web policy, reporting that the policy was approved by the IR Steering Committee after a few changes had been made, and was forwarded to Maurice Leatherbury, as head of the new Team Web committee. After a brief review of the changes that had been made to the document since it was last reviewed by the IRC, the IRC approved the policy.

GroupWise News

Richard Harris announced that the Library would be converted to Netware 4.1 and GroupWise in December. Harris reported having attended a meeting with Novell in which he learned that GroupWise (GW) 5.0 will be released soon and looks good. Novell has Web browser access now available which enables receiving, but not sending attachments from the Internet. A future version of GW 5 Web access will support the sending of attachments. The regular GW 5 remote client, which fully supports attachments, will allow UNT Internet connection in addition to direct GW dial-up.

Strategic Planning Committee

Richard Harris reported that the Strategic Planning Committee had met and primarily dealt with the issue of a risk analysis that is being required by the D.I.R. The initial plan was to outsource the analysis, but the committee concluded that it was more economical and logical to do the analysis in-house. He announced that Jonita Morrow of Risk Management and Environmental Services, as well as the Internal Auditors have agreed to help with the analysis, and they are in the process of naming other members of a group, which they will then ask the Chancellor to establish as a study team. The study team, after conducting the risk analysis, will prepare an analysis report and make recommendations as to how to deal with any problems they find.

Standards & Cooperation Program Group

Paul Dworak distributed a chart showing the memory requirements for running various computing platforms, as well as a list of discussion points brought to the IRC from the Standards & Cooperation Program Group. Paul pointed out that in the group's discussion of memory requirements to run basic applications, it was determined that although an improvement was made by upgrading many computers across campus this year, one-half of all desktops on campus that are still not up to standard. Paul pointed out that funding for continual upgrading of machines across campus needs to be appropriated every year for this purpose. He said that he and the S&C Program Group will come back to the IRC with a proposal that will recommend a cost-effective way to keep up with this need for continual upgrading of machines. General discussion followed regarding funding resources and the formula for distribution of those funds was explained by Dr. Brownell. He asked that if funds need to be set aside each year for desktop computer upgrades, he would entertain a motion to that effect, and asked the IRC to give him a sense of the relative priority for the projects it recommends.

The Chair recommended that the subject of perpetual desktop computer upgrade funding be an agenda item at the September IRC meeting, with the Standards & Cooperation Program Group bringing an appropriate recommendation for achieving this.

IR Steering Committee

Blaine Brownell reported on two items that were forwarded to the IR Steering Committee:

1. the recommendation to combine the Computing Center, Telecommunications and Microcomputer Maintenance Shop under one department was approved by the Steering Committee and forwarded to the Chancellor, plans being already underway to combine Microcomputer Maintenance Shop and Computing Center. No recommendation was made to the Chancellor to have the CIO of these three areas report directly to him, however it was recommended that the Chancellor talk with other institutions about their reporting structure for these areas.
2. The Steering Committee considered the proposal for funds to be set aside annually from the University's HEAF allocation for the development of innovative projects, and referred the matter to the Provost with the recommendation that he consider allocating, on an annual basis, whatever resources he deems possible and appropriate from the HEAF allocation for research and instructional equipment. The Committee also recommended that the area for possible innovations be specified, given the inadequacy of available funds to cover all current needs. One use of funds given to innovative projects could be classroom improvements in the area of technology.

Another item considered by the Steering Committee was the Appropriate Use Policy, which is under consideration by the University Attorney. The Attorney is concerned about first amendment issues in regard to this policy.

The issue of whether or not building wiring should be considered a utility was also addressed by the Steering Committee, with agreement by all, except Fred Pole, who was not in attendance, that wiring should be considered an essential part of the building, much the same as plumbing and electricity.

Dial-up Lines Issues

Richard Harris reported that there have been complaints expressed since the number of free dial-up lines has been cut back to the original levels (prior to authorization of the premium lines) as recommended by the IRC at its last meeting. Richard suggested that the IRC reconsider all of the different alternatives. Discussion followed, during which several suggestions were made. Bill Buntain explained that even if UNT gets out of the business of being an Internet provider, it will still have the cost of support to students using the Internet. In addition, Internet access from any source adds traffic to the T1 link between UNT and Dallas. Maurice Leatherbury pointed out that if UNT is no longer the Internet provider for UNT students, it also gives up its ability to restrict access. In addition, users cannot download the latest copy of Netscape (free to .EDU sites) from a commercial service, whereas they can through their connection with UNT.

It was suggested that the Communications Program Group and Academic Computing develop some alternatives for the IRC to review. In the meantime, the Chair told Richard Harris, Maurice Leatherbury and Bill Buntain that until a long-term plan is developed, they are empowered to deal with the situation as best they can.

September 17, 1996

New IRC Chair Introduced

Dr. Brownell introduced the new Chair of the IRC, Dr. Phillip Turner, who is Dean of the School of Library & Information Science, and Assoc. V.P. for Academic Affairs for Distance Education.

Strategic Planning Committee

Richard Harris reported for the Strategic Planning Committee that all members of the Risk Analysis Study Team have been named and have a target of completing their report in December unless that is not possible, in which case they will report on critical issues in December, and non-critical items later. The SPC met twice to work on the goals, objectives and strategies for the Strategic Plan and Susan Pierce electronically distributed a draft document prior to the meeting.

Discussion followed concerning ownership of classrooms for the purpose of upkeep of facilities, equipment and scheduling. Richard stated that this issue needs to be resolved before the plan is submitted to the state.

Blaine Brownell reported on a meeting he had with Phil Turner, Maurice Leatherbury, David Kesterson, and Mary Rubright specifically to deal with this issue. That group came up with some preliminary plans on how to address classroom equipment support and maintenance and who should take the leadership in this. The committee will be consulting with a variety of people and will attempt to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

Joneel Harris explained that there is no centralized administrative source of funding or management to support 110 classrooms for equipment maintenance or replacement. A number of related problems related to this issue were discussed including the support of specific software for a variety of classes across campus, as well as more basic classroom needs like overhead projectors and chalk for blackboards. Brownell said his committee will strive to take the current environment into consideration rather than developing a new model for taking care of the situation, and they recognize the design problems that exist in newly renovated classrooms.

In the continuing discussion, it was mentioned that furniture in classrooms needs to be updated to something more contemporary. It was also noted that distance education classrooms need to be included right along with the plan for all classrooms with regard to maintenance and management.

The Chair asked Richard to have the SPC, together with the Instruction Program Group, work on the development of a strategic plan for educational technology in response to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board guideline, but in conjunction with the Information Resources Strategic Plan.

Distributed Computing Support Management Team

Maurice Leatherbury reported that the Distributed Computing Support Management team has met since the last IRC meeting and discussed, in general, the relationship between distributed and centralized support areas on campus. The group agreed that a centrally staffed help desk is needed to handle front-line calls and answer simple questions, recognizing that in the academic areas the first line of support is the distributed support area. Problems that can't be resolved at the distributed level can be upgraded to people in the Computing Center who have higher levels of expertise.

The sub-committees working on network operating system management software packages, and desktop management software packages will bring recommendations back to the committee in November; and by the end of the fall semester the sub-committees working on call-tracking software system and desktop standardization will have recommendations to bring back to the group. Maurice announced that there is a Web site containing minutes and agendas for this committee's meetings, the URL of which is http://www-lan.unt.edu/dcsmt/.

Team Web

Maurice also reported that Team Web has met and looked at the structure of the top and second level web pages and made suggestions about the restructuring of the top level, discussing changes in design and wording. Maurice reported that PAIS is close to having the latest catalog on the web, and that the committee will be looking at the issues involved in the establishment of an "official" catalog on the web. Cengiz asked about registering various departmental sites with different search engines. Maurice reported that the Computing Center is putting up a new web server and with that there will be a new search engine. Once the machine is installed, procedures will be set up to exclude what is not wanted.

Standards & Cooperation Program Group

Susan Pierce reported that the Standards & Cooperation Program Group met to discuss a process by which UNT might address the need to keep desktop hardware up to date. They are discussing the funding issues involved with making large purchases from pooled resources. They are trying to define classes of computers, establish cost ranges, and determine how those can be re-visited annually to make sure they don't get out of date. The committee will continue working on this.

Research Program Group

Dennis Mueller announced that there are schools not represented on the Research Program Group and welcomed recommendations for new members. The Chair asked Dennis to send a memo to Deans of schools who are not represented and ask for new members to be assigned to the committee.

Administrative Program Group

Joneel Harris reported for the Administrative Program Group that they are preparing for a presentation by another vendor relative to client server technology in software/hardware for higher education. They continue to investigate new offerings to see what might be applicable to administrative applications at UNT.

Dial-up & Student Fee Issues

Kathy Swigger reported having been bombarded with complaints from students who do not access the General Access labs because they live out of town. These students are not happy because they are being charged a fee for dial-up remote services in addition to the other fees they pay, for services they don't use. They think that the dial-up service should be covered under the computer use fee they already have to pay.

Richard responded by saying that there is concern about this situation and assured Kathy and the group that basic assumptions upon which the fee structure is based are being revisited. Bill Buntain added that he had talked with the statewide director of Telecommunications at D.I.R., and based on that conversation, he believes UNT can reduce its cost for remote access service. He requested a month's time to re-evaluate the situation.

The Chair said that the IRC is going to have to deal with the whole issue of student fees, since for every type of fee, there are some students who pay it but don't get the benefits from it, for one reason or another. Everyone agreed that this is a philosophical issue that the IRC needs to address. Capan suggested that the issue be approached as two separate topics:

1. faculty using the dial-up service to do their jobs; and
2. students using the dial-up service for classwork.

Maurice commented that he has reviewed the services offered by 5 other Texas universities in comparison to UNT. He noted that UNT charges less for its services than any other university. Those universities that don't charge for dial-up services don't have computer labs on campus for their students. Kathy suggested that additional research be done to compare UNT with area community colleges, since that is a major source of competition for UNT. Discussion continued. Brownell commented that the Dallas Educational Center will need to be developed if UNT is serious about distance learning. There will need to be open connectivity through that center, although video-conferencing is the direction currently being taken.

One idea behind the premium service fee was that the Computing Center didn't want to recover any more than the incremental cost; the equipment expense already being covered in the Computing Center budget. It was suggested that it may make sense to look at reducing services in the general access labs in order to offset the cost of providing dial-up services. Capan stated that it would be good to set priorities to take care of the students already here before branching out further. Brownell pointed out that the Distance Education Task Force will soon be reactivated to look at the marketing issue and develop a distance education strategic plan.

The Chair suggested that a small group be charged to look at this whole general issue of fees, including dial-up; Brownell said the IR Steering Committee would appreciate advice on the subject of the fee structure. Joneel Harris suggested that the Administrative and Instruction Program Groups would be appropriate committees to look at the issue, possibly including Nora Bell's task force as well. The Chair stressed that the group will need to deal with both the philosophical issue of fees as well as administrative issues of charging fees, dealing with course numbers and legislative issues, and asked those two combined program groups to come back to the IRC with a report at the October meeting.

Paul Schlieve pointed out that Bill Buntain and his group in the Computing Center have put together the best Internet dial-up service available. He asked that the committees keep that in mind.

Brownell stated that, working on the assumption that it is going to cost UNT something, the committees need to deal with how UNT will recover whatever expenses are entailed by providing the off-campus services.

Adaptive Lab Facilities

Kathy Swigger reported that another issue that should be dealt with is the Adaptive Lab and the deficiency in the facilities available at UNT for disabled students. Capan reported that the General Access Lab is responsible for the Adaptive Lab and they have made some improvements in the facilities in the last year or so. Barbara Hall commented that even though GALC has done a lot, her view is that UNT has taken a reactive approach to disability accommodation whereas it needs to take a more proactive approach.

Innovative Projects program

In response to a question from Dennis Mueller, Blaine Brownell reported that funding has not been allocated specifically for the Innovative Projects program, and that they are still in the process of making budgetary allocations. Brownell also reported that the Appropriate Use Policy that had been submitted to the IR Steering Committee, is still under review by the University Attorney. He also reported that the Steering Committee agreed to fund the fiber project.

State Internet Connection

Bill Buntain reported that the Computing Center is working with the D.I.R. to re-architect the state Internet connection to improve reliability in UNT connection to the Internet.

School of Community Services

Barbara Hall introduced Michael Lynn and Richard Anderson who, together will represent the School of Community Services in her absence.

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