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Information Resources Council News

Minutes provided by Sue Harrison, Recording Secretary

IRC Regular Voting Members:Ray von Dran, Library and Information Sciences (Chair); Cengiz Capan, College of Business; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Paul Dworak, Faculty Senate; Brian Forsman, TCOM Information Resources Council; Chuck Fuller, Fiscal Affairs; Larry Gleeson, School of Visual Arts; Don Grose, Libraries; David Hartman, School of Community Services; Royce Lumpkin, College of Music; Sam Magill, TCOM Director of Information Technology Services; Steve Miller, Administrative Affairs; Tom Newell, Telecommunications (Ex-officio); Don Palermo, Academic Administration; Jean Schaake, College of Arts and Sciences; Juliet Getty, School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management; Paul Schlieve, College of Education; Virginia Wheeless, Associate Vice President and Director, University Planning and Institutional Research. IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Bill Buntain, Computing Center; Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Paul Gandel, Computing Center; Richard Harris, Computing Center; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center.

November 16, 1993 Meeting

Attendance

Voting members present: Cengiz Capan, Cathy Cobb (for Steve Miller), Carolyn Cunningham, Paul Dworak (for David Shrader), Chuck Fuller, Kandace Gandel (for Virginia Wheeless), Larry Gleeson, Don Grose, Barbara Hall (for David Hartman), Monica Holmes, Tom Newell (ex-officio), Jean Schaake, Paul Schlieve, Kathy Swigger, Ray von Dran (chair).

Non-voting members present: Bill Buntain (ex-officio), Jim Curry (ex-officio), Paul Gandel (ex-officio), Richard Harris (ex-officio), Coy Hoggard (ex-officio), Sue Harrison (recording Secretary).

IRC Steering Committee

Chairman von Dran reported that he reported three items to the IRC Steering Committee:


  1. The addition of two representatives to the IRC, one undergraduate student and one graduate student.
  2. The Instructional Technology Subcommittee's recommendation to redirect funds that are intended for renovation of the Auditorium Building.
  3. The recommendation of the IRC that there be no restrictions placed on the use of the Internet.

Items 1 and 2 were accepted by the Steering Committee; however, the issue of renovating the Auditorium Building was returned to the Instructional Technology Committee for reconsideration. Paul Gandel added that Celia Williamson is working with a subcommittee to develop a more detailed justification for the committee's recommendation, as well as more concrete suggestions for alternative uses of the funding.

Discussion followed concerning use of the Internet which included a case of legal action being brought against UTD regarding inappropriate use of the Internet, and a question of whether or not to provide warnings to students about the appropriate use of the service. It was reported that Richard Rafes has taken this issue under advisement and it was agreed that since there are already University policies and procedures in place for handling any situations that may arise, nothing further needs to be done to regulate the use of the Internet at this time. It was suggested that this issue be addressed by the Instructional Technology committee, and that it is insured that basic guidelines are provided so that there is an avenue of recourse provided in the event there is a situation that has to be dealt with. In addition, it was recommended that instructors and lab supervisors be educated as to any guidelines, policies and procedures in existence for handling incidents.

Vision Statement

Kathy Swigger presented the finalized vision statement and reported that the committee had not received any comments or requests for changes to the statement; therefore, the committee decided to keep the title of the statement Vision for the Role of Information Technology rather than change it to Information Resources as had been suggested at the last IRC meeting. A motion to accept the Vision Statement was passed.

General Access Labs

Cengiz Capan reported that the General Access Labs are working very well and experiencing no problems. The committee continues to discuss the changing nature of computing and is trying to keep the labs up-to-date in order to meet the needs of faculty and students. Two GAL policies are under revision at this time; one concerns definition of a continuing student with regard to who should have access to the labs; and the other concerns placing restrictions and limitations on laser printer output. Several methods of monitoring printer output, some of which are already in use in the labs, were discussed. It was reported that there are presently no color printers in the General Access Labs, but students do have access to one in C.I.S.

Strategic Plan

Richard Harris presented a tentative calendar for finalizing the University Strategic Plan which aims at bringing the whole University planning process in sync with the DIR reporting process. He also distributed a proposed timeline which Susan Pierce, Virginia Wheeless, and Cengiz Capan developed. Susan Pierce said it is hoped that the timeline is set forth in a way that spreads the tasks out over the whole year. She asked for feedback from the IRC members and said that the Strategic Planning Committee will meet to iron out the details at its next meeting and she will present the final timeline to the IRC at its December meeting. It was announced that the SPC meetings are open to anyone interested in attending.

E-Mail Task Force

Paul Schlieve reported that the E-Mail Task force would like the IRC to select another committee to deal specifically with the issue of electronic forms because electronic mail alone is such a complicated issue that his task force doesn't have time to deal with electronic forms. It was agreed that the Administrative Program Group would be the appropriate forum for addressing the issue of electronic forms because forms are key to administrative functions. The Chair proceeded by removing electronic forms from the E-Mail Task force's charge and asked that it be taken up by the Administrative Program Group. Regarding E-Mail, Schlieve reported that in spite of the fact that this is an evolving issue, the task force is hopeful that they will decide on a system whereby everyone can communicate with each other. They will not be recommending that there be a single mail package used as a standard for the campus.

Computerized Classrooms

The need for computerized classrooms was discussed and assigned to the Instructional Technology Subcommittee, for further study.

Program Groups

Paul Gandel reported that the Instructional Program Group met and talked about their charge and briefly set goals and objectives. Tom Newell reported that the Communications Program Group met and wished to make several recommendations to the Council as set forth in the committee's report. The Council agreed that Don Grose and Ray von Dran, who serve on the University Planning Council, would see that the Program Group's recommendations were carried to the next UPC meeting. Susan Pierce reported that the Standards and Cooperation Program Group has met and set their regular meeting time as the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month, 2:00-4:00 pm, Personnel Conference Room, in Marquis Hall. The group has met and reviewed the Information Resources Strategic Plan, Standards and Cooperation goals, objectives, and strategies. They also reviewed several proposals presented by Bill Buntain last May, and believe those proposals will provide a good foundation for addressing some of the issues of their area. One immediate recommendation the group wishes to make is that Property & Inventory Control strongly emphasize assigning individual custodianship to capital inventory, rather than all capital inventory in a department assigned to the department head. A second recommendation is that the purchase order on-line system be expanded to list line items purchased and not just vendor name. Susan also reported that the group is in the process of updating the Supported Computing Items List (SCIL).

Minutes of Program Groups will be distributed to IRC members via E-Mail.

December 14, 1993 Meeting

Policy Requested

The Chair reported that Richard Rafes has asked the IRC to draft a policy, consistent with its recommendation to the IRC Steering Committee, regarding the use of Internet News Service. Rafes will then add the legal terminology to make it a legal policy. Paul Gandel suggested that a simple policy statement could be made, such as This resource should be used in accordance with policies and procedures already in existence at UNT. Ray von Dran reminded the group of questions raised at the last meeting regarding procedure to follow in the case of reports of sexual harrassment in the use of this resource in General Access Labs. Gandel reiterated that the policies and procedures for complaints of this nature are already in place and that lab monitors just need to be educated about them. The Chair appointed Paul Gandel, Paul Schlieve and Arne Almquist as a subcommittee to draft a statement for Mr. Rafes. It was agreed that training of lab monitors would be left to the General Access Lab Committee to address.

Steering Committee

Ray von Dran reported that he had presented the IRC Vision Statement to the IRC Steering Committee and it was accepted; the statement was also presented to the University Planning Council. The Steering Committee was also advised of the need for $200,000 for the campus communication infrastructure, for which there is no immediate visible source of funds available. The $40,000 needed for enhancement of existing wiring was not denied; however, the Steering Committee would like to have a little more information about what buildings are included. The Committee suggested that a department needing additional wiring and having no funds should alert its vice president about that need.

The Chair asked that the Communications Program Group 1) prepare a detailed report to justify the expenditure of $40,000, for presentation at the next IRC meeting; and 2) address the issues associated with long-range planning for the wiring needs of the campus.

IRC Planning Timeline

Richard Harris distributed a draft of a timeline for IRC planning for Spring of 1994, explaining that if this timeline is followed, it will afford the IRC Program Groups an opportunity to include their input into the University planning process. There were no objections to following the suggested timeline.

Program Groups

Each of the Program Group Conveners made reports, which indicated they were organizing and beginning to set goals. The Standards & Cooperation Program Group has updated the Supported Computing Items List (SCIL). This list is available either on Gopher or in the Computing Center.

Customer Advantage Program

It was indicated that current plans for implementation of the WordPerfect Customer Advantage Program call for each college to have an assigned software manager who would be responsible for consolidating licensing information for quarterly reports to be submitted to the Support Services Coordinator in the Computing Center. Multiple people within a college could be authorized to download and install the software in the program, but the college would submit a single report. Any requests for modifications to this approach are to be presented to Bill Buntain or to the Standards and Cooperation Program Group.

Instructional Technology Committee

Celia Williamson distributed a report from the Instructional Technology Committee, as well as a recommendation for the use of the Main Auditorium, prepared by Mark Withers, of CIS. Williamson stated that after further review of the issues relating to the renovation of the Main Auditorium, the ITC wishes to stand by its original recommendation to the IRC and submitted these documents in support of that recommendation. A motion was passed to accept the ITC's report and the recommendation of the Chair.

Gopher Demonstration

Mark Thacker, the Campus Wide Information Coordinator, presented a demonstration of Gopher, showing the group how to use it and what information is available on the service. He explained that Gopher is available to anyone with an Ethernet card in their PC, and that an ID is not needed.

Conclusion

Cengiz Capan stated that a proposal from the Computing Center or the IRC needs to be approved so that Bill Buntain can move forward with obtaining PC software site licenses for the whole campus. He urged that something be done quickly. The Chair charged the Standards & Cooperation Program Group to prepare such a proposal and bring it to the next IRC meeting.


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