IRC Program Groups

        Minutes provided by Sue Harrison, Recording Secretary May 17, 1994

        Voting Members: Ray von Dran, Library and Information Sciences (Chair); Cengiz Capan, College of Business; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Paul Dworak, College of Music; Brian Forsman, UNTHSC Information Resources Council; Chuck Fuller, Fiscal Affairs; Larry Gleeson, School of Visual Arts; Don Grose, Libraries; David Hartman, School of Community Services and School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management; Monica Holmes, Graduate Student Council; Sam Magill, UNTHSC 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; Paul Schlieve, College of Education; John Todd, Faculty Senate; Virginia Wheeless, Associate Vice President and Director, University Planning and Institutional Research; Steve Williams, Undergraduate Student Association. 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.

        Richard Harris distributed a diagram which showed how the IRC Program Groups interact with Providers and Users in the Planning Process, as well as a current list of Program Group Members, and the initial charges as they were given to the groups. Harris explained that at the last Strategic Planning Committee meeting the primary activity was to answer the question: What do the Program Groups do now? The Goals, Objectives, and Strategies have been submitted to the UPC, and all of the major University-wide strategies will be carried forward into the University plan. This does not mean that all of the strategies will be funded, however; they will fall back to the budgetary process to be funded. The program groups will continue to be very active in assisting with planning, funding, monitoring, and evaluating projects to implement information technology strategies.

        Distance Learning

        Ray von Dran reported that the Provost has asked that the issue of distance learning be addressed by the IRC. There is also a Dean's committee looking into this, but they will be concerned mostly with their own departmental long-range plans and how distance learning will fit into those plans. Von Dran plans to bring representatives from the Computing Center, the Library, Telecommunications and the Instructional Technology Committee together with the Dean's committee to work on this issue, after which von Dran will work with Jack Davis, taking into consideration the input from all of these groups. In addition, some time in the summer there will be a campus-wide forum to discuss distance learning. He stressed the importance of moving quickly on this and on working to clarify the definition of distance learning. Von Dran explained that after all input has been gathered, the IRC will need to come forward with a recommendation based on a proposal from the Deans.

        Lab Fee Increase Requested

        Cengiz Capan distributed a letter he wrote to David Kesterson regarding a request for a fee increase. Capan reported that statistics from the Check-in system reports show an overall increase in lab usage of 1 to 2% every year, even though student enrollment is declining at the rate of 3% per year. Philip Baczewski added that the statistics show that usage has spread out more evenly over all the labs. Paul Dworak commented that the labs have only been in existence a few years and to change them now would not be a good idea. Capan continued that it will discourage students from using the labs if current technology is not available in them. GAL has given money back to the colleges to update equipment as they needed to rather than wait and do a general upgrade of all the labs at one time. Capan stressed that if General Access Labs are going to be operated right, to serve students' needs and the University's needs, it is necessary to have these additional funds.

        The Chair asked the Council if it wants to support the initial request GAL made last year for a fee increase of $.75/credit hour ($.25 of which was put into effect last year). Discussion continued during which it was pointed out that whereas the Adaptive Lab used to be supported by the Provost's contingency funds, it is now a line item in the GAL budget. In addition, most of the current lab equipment was purchased from Prop II funds and it will definitely need to be upgraded in order to provide the services needed. If there is no fee increase, GAL will have to request Prop II funds for equipment upgrades.

        Capan brought to the floor the GAL Committee's recommendation to resubmit the original recommendation to increase the lab fee the remaining $.50 for the upcoming academic year, and it was approved unanimously.

        GUI Migration

        Bill Buntain made a presentation for the Standards & Cooperation Program Group on the migration to Graphical User Interfaces. The Program Group proposes the following, to occur in FY96, to address computer hardware issues:

        1. that a fixed amount of money be budgeted on a periodic basis;
        2. that allocations be based on Faculty/Qualified Staff Distribution (Staff defined as Administrative, Professional, Technical, and Clerical);
        3. that the migration apply to a choice of platforms;
        4. that suballocations be made at the Vice President/Dean level;
        5. that the migration be administered through the Microcomputer Maintenance Shop;
        6. and that progress be reported through the Standards & Cooperation Program Group to the IRC.

        Buntain explained that the issue of excluded personnel, as well as what kind of machine should be included are two issues that the Program Group has not come to agreement on. At the present time, they believe that notebook computers should not be included.

        Other Business

        Buntain continued with an action plan for campus-wide acquisition of software to begin in September of 1994. The Standards & Cooperation Program Group proposes that an allocation of $250,000 be made per year for the licensing of products from WordPerfect, Microsoft, Lotus and Borland with funds being placed in a separate account administered by the Computing Center.

        Ray von Dran suggested that he take these proposals before the Deans; that they be considered at the next Strategic Planning Committee meeting, and then be brought back to the IRC at its June meeting. It was agreed that the proposals be dealt with as two separate proposals, since one is proposed for FY95 and the other for FY96.

        Philip Baczewski distributed two documents, one dealing with a movement towards an enterprise-wide User-ID system, for information purposes. The second document dealt with issues relating to the upgrade or replacement of the Academic Mainframe. It was recommended that this subject be given to the Instruction and Research Program Groups asking that those groups provide input to Philip so that he can make a presentation to the IRC at its June meeting.

        June 14, 1994 Program Group Reports

        The Chair called for reports from each of the IRC Program Groups, specifically related to their activity and suggested changes they might wish to make in the groups at this time.

        For the Administrative Program Group, Joneel Harris reported that Philip Baczewski had spoken to the group about proposals for Academic Computing, since one of them impacts the administrative mainframe. The group also discussed the remote access policy. She announced that on July 8, 1994, from 2:00-4:00, in Union 411, IBM will present upgrade options for the existing IBM ES9000 mainframe computer, as well as various client/server options.

        For the Standards and Cooperation Program Group, Susan Pierce reported that they are continuing to meet on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of every month. The group has been dealing with security at the last two meetings.

        For the Instruction Program Group, Paul Gandel reported that the group had met with the Instructional Technology Committee to look at an Academic mainframe upgrade, at which a number of questions were raised. The ITC took the assignment to conduct a needs assessment, and the groups plan to meet again in July with an eye towards making a recommendation to the IRC in September.

        Centralized Purchasing of Software

        Susan Pierce presented the recommendation of the Standards & Cooperation Program Group for centralized purchasing of software site licenses so that individual departments can stop ordering it by the package. The proposal would require $250,000 per year in centralized funding.

        In the discussion that followed, questions were raised regarding funding, and administration of the centralized purchasing arrangement. It was pointed out that one advantage would be better tracking of software, which would reduce the problem of unlicensed software. It was explained that the funding issues will have to be dealt with by the Vice Presidents, and that the IRC is only being asked to recommend the concept. Several other advantages of such a plan were pointed out; for example: the cost of single copies of software are extremely low for departments when purchased through the proposed licensing program; also, with low cost software upgrades available to everyone, departments can keep up-to-date copies of software running, making software support much more manageable, since only the latest versions of software would need to be supported.

        The proposal, as brought to the IRC by Susan Pierce, Convener of the Standards & Cooperation Program Group, with the addition of a friendly amendment made by John Windsor, is as follows: The IRC proposes the allocation of monies for centralized purchasing and licensing of software products for University computing, for example, WordPerfect, Microsoft, Lotus and Borland software. The proposal, as amended, was unanimously approved.

        Virginia Wheeless suggested that the responsibility for coordination and implementation of the plan be given to the Computing Center. Richard Harris accepted the responsibility, and the Chair said that if the concept is approved by the Vice Presidents, he would take it to Richard to work out the details.

        User-IDs and E-Mail

        Philip Baczewski reported that he is continuing to revise the specifications document for the Enterprise-wide User I.D. system based on input from various persons. The next step will be to develop an action plan.

        Paul Schlieve, as Chair of the E-Mail Task Force, reported having met individually with several people to finalize a recommendation that he and Bill Buntain will be presenting to the E-Mail Task Force. Paul stressed that the E-Mail Task Force will not mandate what software gets run or how it gets supported. Departments will determine what happens at the departmental level and the Computing Center will determine what gets done at the back end. He hopes to bring the final recommendation to the IRC soon.

        Computer Security Issues

        Susan Pierce distributed a document concerning Computer Security Issues, which details a new Texas Administrative Code on Information Security Standards for all state agencies. Complete implementation of this code is mandatory by the end of 1997. She reported that UNT has a head start because the IRC has already prepared a security policy. Susan discussed the new law with the Standards & Cooperation Program Group and from their discussion came the following issues which must be addressed:

        1. UNT policies should be reviewed and revised to parallel the state standards. It is recommended that the IRC charge the Standards & Cooperation Program Group to draft a revision of the policy for review by the IRC;
        2. An Information Security Function must be established to administer the IRSP. It is recommended that the IRC affirm the appointment of Susan Pierce, Computing Center;
        3. Security Awareness Training must be implemented for all users. Unless the work is distributed between departments (such as Computing Center, Personnel, network managers, and others), this will require significant new staff resources. It is recommended that the IRC charge the Computing Center with the development of a curriculum and a project plan for training. Once approved by the IRC, the IRC Chair will present the plan to the Information Resources Steering Committee and seek commitment for necessary support, including staff support;
        4. Non-disclosure agreements should be signed by all users, with a special non-disclosure agreement to be signed by each system administrator. It is recommended that the IRC charge the Standards & Cooperation Group with the development of (1) non-disclosure agreements for users and for system administrators, and (2) a plan to implement this process.
        5. A login banner ' should appear at the time (ideally BEFORE) a user logs in to any UNT multiuser computer system, which reads:

          In accordance with state security standards: Unauthorized use is prohibited. Usage may be subject to security testing and monitoring. Abuse is subject to criminal prosecution.

          It is recommended that the IRC endorse a login banner as a standard for all UNT multiuser computer systems;
        6. The law states that 'Management reviews of physical security measures shall be conducted annually...' It is recommended that Internal Audit be responsible for conducting these reviews;
        7. A periodic, comprehensive risk analysis of all information processing systems is required. It is recommended that the Computing Center investigate the possibility of initially outsourcing this task.

        The Chair said that the Strategic Planning Committee will look at all of these issues and bring them before the IRC at the July meeting.

        General Access Lab Access Problems

        Paul Gandel reported that there have been a fair amount of complaints from persons who have been denied access to General Access Labs. In the discussion that followed, it was pointed out that Ph.D and Master's Degree students and students working on Incompletes are approved to use General Access Labs through the summer months. It was noted that a large part of the problem is students not enrolled in the summer but who plan to attend in the fall. Eriq Neale stated that the General Access Labs try to accommodate these students. Eriq distributed a document concerning these issues which explained the current policies of the General Access Labs. Virginia Wheeless recommended that the General Access Lab Committee be asked to follow the Recreational Sports model for summer participation by nonenrolled students, which is to require a small fee for use of programs and facilities. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.



        Previous Article <== ==> Table of Contents

        If you have problems or questions about this server, please contact us as soon as possible. You can send mail to the following address: www@unt.edu