Information
Resources Council News
Minutes provided by Sue Ellen Richey, Recording Secretary
IRC Regular Voting Members: David Shrader, College
of Music (Chair); Douglas Allen, Student Association; Walter Bowen, Academic
Administration; Bill Buntain, Communications Program Group; Cengiz Capan, College
of Business; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Paul Dworak, College of Music;
Brian Forsman, UNT Health Science Center; Chuck Fuller, Fiscal Affairs; Don Grose,
Libraries; Joneel Harris, Administrative Program Group; David Hartman, School of
Community Services; Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Sam Magill, UNTHSC
Director of Information Technology Services; Sharon Marek, Graduate Student Council;
Steve Miller, Human Resources; Dennis Mueller, Research Program Group; Russ Pensyl,
School of Visual Arts; Paul Schlieve, College of Education; Kathleen Swigger, College
of Arts and Sciences; John Todd, Faculty Senate; Virginia Wheeless, Chancellor; IRC
Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Richard
Harris, Computing Center; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center; Maurice Leatherbury,
Computing Center.
May 21, 1996
Research Program Group
The Chair asked Dennis Mueller to present the Research Program
Group's comments on the draft memo written to the Vice Presidents. Dennis stated that
the committee wants to make clear their position that if a new Vice President is appointed
for information technology, there should be no administrative costs incurred. The
committee agrees with the intent of the memo, and feels strongly about the need for
increased feedback from the administration on IRC recommendations.
The consensus of the IRC was that no additional administrative cost
should be incurred as a result of the NCHEMS report. In addition, the IRC members
agreed that there should be direct feedback from the administration on all IRC
recommendations, and the memo to vice presidents should reflect these opinions. The
recording secretary was instructed to revise the memo to the Vice Presidents to
incorporate these comments and redistribute it to members for their approval.
Distance Learning Task Force
Dean Nora Bell was asked to give a report on the Distance Learning
Task Force. As background, she stated that the President, in recognizing that distance
learning is vital to maintaining UNT's competitive advantage, appointed a task force last
fall and asked them to look at this issue and make some initial programmatic and
technological recommendations with a goal of having a report to him by December 1,
1995.
The committee met with the TAGER representative to discuss issues
UNT had with them. When the committee finished its work they made an initial
recommendation for a tentative budget in the first year of $541,000-$600,000 with a
projected budget of annual, on-going expenditures of $425,000-$450,000. The committee
recommended that there be a director of distance learning with an operating budget,
which would include funds for several support staff at various levels.
Included in the budget recommendation was the cost of software and
marketing expenses. The committee also recommended an increase in instructional
development grants to encourage faculty to develop courseware for use in distance
learning. Dr.. Bell explained that the committee believes that the best chance of getting
into distance learning is to enhance existing course offerings. They believe that UNT
should take advantage of what TAGER is now doing and should use pre-packaged
courseware and encourage their use in core curriculum. In addition, the committee
suggested the possibility of establishing another VTEL link with PDI or the downtown
Dallas educational center.
The committee's initial recommendation was for the director to pull
together all types of existing resources, with the immediate first step being the
appointment of a director of distance education who would report to the Provost;
accelerate UNT's linkage to the Texas A & M network; that a small group of selected
faculty should be identified to begin course development.
Requirements that the committee set up were to have the director
identify the distance learning educational facilities as UNT facilities not department
resources which could be scheduled centrally; attempt to establish connections with
North Texas Education Network and other networks in the area; begin to develop
guidelines for UNT's contractual relationships with private and public-sector partners, as
well as policies and guidelines for faculty evaluations, promotions and tenure
incorporating instructional technology; establish rules on handling profit from
development of courseware; and faculty remuneration if they teach for other institutions.
The committee was concerned that there be a policy regarding intellectual property rights
of any courseware developed, and that anything produced for students be of high quality.
The task force is now waiting to hear from the Provost about its next
charge. Dr. Bell invited IRC members to send her any comments or suggestions and she
would present them to the committee when they reconvene.
GroupWise Implementations
Bill Buntain reported that during the last month GroupWise has been
implemented in several more units: Student Affairs, and Human Resources. School of
Community Service is tentatively scheduled for mid-June. Pre-implementation meetings
are scheduled for June 3-7 for bringing several administrative units in, such as the Police
Department, Purchasing, and Business Services. Bill said that Arts & Sciences may lag
over into the Fall, and the Library will be changed over between second summer session
and fall semester.
Distributed Computing
Bill Buntain presented the Ad Hoc Committee on Distributed
Computing Support's final report and explained that it doesn't replace the interim report
but addresses additional issues such as campus-wide standards to facilitate network
management and user support (which involves deployment and configuration of servers
and desktop platforms), and coordination between centralized and distributed support
areas.
The report suggests that the ad hoc committee report
recommendations be turned over to a new distributed computing support management
group and it recommends that the task be subdivided into work teams with the IRC
reviewing the groups' work in a year. Paul Dworak said that there still needs to be a
management model developed by the committee with the reporting structure clearly
articulated by the current committee or by the new management group.
Bill explained that the committee's general thought was that the
existing support staff could be moved into the new structure and that the management
model would not change now but could perhaps be altered after a year when the whole
project could be evaluated.
Discussion followed during which Paul Schlieve asked that the tables
presented with the report either be revised to show correct numbers for the College of
Education or be stricken from the final report prior to approval of the report by the IRC.
Paul Dworak asked for the Committee to be re-convened in order to consider the changes
in the table and suggested that Bill present the report for approval at the June IRC
meeting. There being no objections to that suggestion, the Chair asked Bill to follow
through on that suggestion.
There was some discussion about the possibility of making the
management group an IRC program group. Bill stated that no matter what status the
management group is given, it should report to the IRC regularly. Bill expressed concern
about evaluating the project in less than a year because many of the tasks the committee
will be doing are quite extensive in scope. A motion was passed to name the group the
"Distributed Computing Support Management Team."
Communications Program Group
Bill Buntain distributed the Communications Program Group's
Technology Effectiveness Report. He reported that there has not been as big a response
to purchasing the Premium Dial up service as had been anticipated; therefore, it is not
paying for itself, and a new plan must be considered.
Bill explained that he thinks the reason the Premium Service has not
been purchased is because PPP is available on both services so naturally people will opt
for getting the free service and PPP creates a need for a lot more help from support staff
without financial support to cover the increased man hours. Bill brought a
recommendation from the Program Group that the free service be dropped and then use
the operating expense savings to subsidize the premium service, thus reducing the price
of the premium service. Bill suggested that action be taken this summer, as a test, to
determine the financial impact for planning in the Fall. He explained that at the present
time the rate for premium service is $10.00/month local and $15.00/month for Dallas &
Ft. Worth. If the recommendation is agreed upon, it could reduce those charges to
$12.00/month for Dallas & Ft. Worth. He explained that the biggest expense is in the
hidden cost of support staff.
There was discussion about another recommendation by the Program
Group which would drop PPP support from the free service and reduce the number of
lines to the historic level of 48 local lines and 16 Metro lines. Bill said this
recommendation would free up about $20,000 which could be put into the premium
service to offset its costs. A vote was taken on the first recommendation, which was to drop the
free service and use the operating expense savings to subsidize the premium service, thus
reducing the price of the premium service. This recommendation was not accepted. Don Grose then moved to accept the second recommendation, which
was to drop PPP support from the free service and reduce the number of lines to the
historic level of 48 local lines and 16 Metro lines. John Todd seconded the motion.
Joneel Harris suggested that PPP be kept on the free service but just reduce the number of
lines as suggested in the motion. The suggestion was accepted as a friendly amendment
to the motion, and the motion passed unanimously. It was agreed that this would be
monitored throughout the summer to determine its impact. Jenny Jopling reported that the Instruction Program Group, after
doing further work on its proposal, decided not to present it to the IRC at this time. She
and Bill McCarter met with the Provost to discuss the proposal and were told the
committee could take a vacation for the rest of the summer. The Provost appointed David
Kesterson to head a work group to assess the current situation in classrooms. Dennis Mueller reported that the Research Program Group met to
discuss the Technology Effectiveness Report and the NCHEMS report. The committee
recommended that if the name of the Computing Center is changed that it be changed to
"Computing and Information Technology." Dennis Mueller suggested a clarification of the September 19, 1995
IRC meeting regarding the allocation of funds for faculty desktop workstation computers
to achieve a minimum standard platform across campus for communication purposes.
The original recommendation was to allocate $500,000 for the current year with the
express intent of allocating an additional $500,000 for each of the next two years as well.
The clarification was so noted. If you have problems or questions about this server, please
contactme as soon as possible. You can send mail to the following
address:www@unt.eduResearch Program Group
Clarification
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