IRC News Minutes provided by Sue Ellen Richey, Recording Secretary

IRC Regular Voting Members: Ginny Anderson, Fiscal Affairs; Donna Asher, Administrative Affairs; Walter Bowen, Academic Administration; Bill Buntain, Communications Program Group; Sue Byron, Faculty Senate; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Paul Dworak, College of Music and Standards & Cooperation Program Group; Don Grose, Libraries; Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Joneel Harris, Administrative Program Group; Allen Livingston,Graduate Student Council; Dennis Mueller, Research Program Group (on Sabbatical); Ramu Muthiah, School of Community Services; Robert Nimocks, Director, Information Technology,UNTHSC; Steve Oeffner, UNT Health Science Center Russ Pensyl , School of Visual Arts; Patrick Pluscht, Distributed Learning Team; Jim Poirot College of Education; Mark Rorvig, Research Program Group (acting for Dennis Mueller who is on Sabbatical); Kathleen Swigger, College of Arts and Sciences; Neal Tate, University Planning Council; Philip Turner, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs for Distance Education and Dean of the School of Library and Information Resources (Chair, IRC);; Virginia Wheeless, Chancellor; John Windsor, College of Business. IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Leslie Bowden, Telecommunications; Wil Clark, GALMAC; Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Michael Forster, UNT Health Science Center; Richard Harris, Computing Center; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center; Maurice Leatherbury, Computing Center; Sue Ellen Richey, Computing Center (Recording Secretary). [As of 11/98]

September 15, 1998

Voting Members Present: Philip Turner, Chair, Carolyn Cunningham, Ramu Muthiah, Paul Dworak, Don Grose, Jenny Jopling, Robert Nimocks, Virginia Wheeless, Donna Asher, Ginny Anderson, Joneel Harris, John Windsor, Sue Byron, Russ Pensyl, Allen Livingston, Neal Tate, Bill Buntain, Kathleen Swigger.

Non-Voting Members Present: Coy Hoggard, Maurice Leatherbury, Richard Harris, Leslie Bowden, Sue Ellen Richey (Recording Secretary)

Members Absent: Dennis Mueller, Jim Poirot, Patrick Pluscht, Mike Forster, Jim Curry.

Guests: Wil Clark, Philip Baczewski

The Chair asked that everyone introduce themselves, since there were new members present.

The minutes of the July, 1998 IRC meeting were approved as distributed. [There wasn't an August meeting -- Ed.]

The Chair explained that after each IRC meeting, the IR Steering Committee meets to review any issues brought forward from the IRC. At the IR Steering Committee’s last meeting, the issue of computerized forms, and electronic information transmission was discussed and placed on hold until after Year 2000 conversion projects have been completed. Dr. Turner noted that there was, however, favorable response among the members of the Steering Committee for this project.

Paul Dworak suggested that it wouldn’t take any resources to set up a faculty committee to discuss this project. Dr. Turner responded that the vice presidents considered faculty time a resource. The Chair suggested that the project be brought up again next year.

Distributed Computing Support Management Team

Maurice Leatherbury reported that the Distributed Computing Support Management Team has been meeting regularly. The MacAfee virus scan software has been purchased and installed on all machines on campus. Jim Curry in Microcomputer Maintenance is selling Dell laptops now through the program that was initiated in February or March. Dell has upgraded the baseline configuration of those machines for about the same price as was charged for the original model. The Remedy call tracking system is up and running, with approximately 180 people having been trained on that system. At the present time, there are approximately 3400 trouble tickets on the system which were entered over the last 3 months.

Maurice reported that the Distributed Computing Support Management Team has had lengthy discussions about rolling out Windows 98 across campus. The majority of that committee doesn’t want to do a wide-spread roll-out. Instead, Jim Curry will provide Windows 98 on all new computers he builds, in order to keep them compatible with new hardware he is getting with features that only run under Windows 98. There do not seem to be many differences between Windows 98 and Windows 95, as far as the general user is concerned, and it is believed that there would not be a need for staff training. Maurice stated that Windows 98 appears to be more reliable than Windows 95 and doesn’t seem to have any major problems.

Year 2000 Remediation

Coy Hoggard reported that there are some critical things happening over the next few months. An operating system upgrade to the mainframe will take place the weekend of September 19th, which will provide a Year 2000 compliant operating system. Plans are to shut down the on-line production system at 5:30 p.m. Friday, September 18, with the overnight batch processing and backups to be run before 8:00 a.m. Monday. The new operating system will come up under production on Monday morning. Coy stated that his staff will remain focused on Year 2000 remediation throughout the Fall semester, because there is a lot of work to be done before the Christmas break, at which time the move of several remediated systems (including SIMS) to Production is planned.

Coy continued that, on the network side of things, Bill Buntain will soon become actively involved in the Year 2000 remediation. Maurice Leatherbury has requested all departments on campus to state their plans for old machines, and non-Microcomputer Maintenance machines. Cyndie Harris is making a building by building inventory of embedded chips found in such things as fire alarms, etc.

Enrollment

Joneel Harris reported that the enrollment for this Fall semester is 25,536.

Everyone E-mail

Paul Dworak brought the Everyone E-mail resolution for a second reading. He noted that he added Item 3.f which states that Public Affairs will forward a weekly summary of items of interest to everyone that is detailed elsewhere online. On behalf of the Standards & Cooperation Program Group, the proposal was presented for a vote. Paul briefly explained the policy and the reason for its formulation. He also outlined the implementation procedures. A lengthy discussion followed, during which it was agreed that in each place in the policy where the word mail is used, that it be changed to E-mail. In addition, the listing of offices where everyone e-mail is owned or created was changed as follows:

1. The office of the Chancellor or any Vice President, or their designated representative;
2. The Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communication;
3. The Director of Human Resources;
4. The Chief of Police

It was also agreed that the applicability of the policy should be changed to all faculty, staff and students.

A vote was taken, with 9 voting against and 5 for the proposal.

Carolyn Cunningham moved that the item under the Procedures, renumbered 1, be given to a sub-committee under Maurice Leatherbury, for implementation. Jenny Jopling seconded that motion, and it passed. Maurice Leatherbury and committee are thereby charged with implementation of the following:

The University will provide alternative means by which members of the campus community can send messages to others who share common interests. These may include but are not limited to:

1. Calendar of events
2. Listservs to which individuals can voluntarily subscribe; e.g., a listserv for surplus equipment
3. Newsgroups
4. A Campus News page linked from the top level of www.unt.edu that is accessible only to UNT personnel. This page might require a campus editor who accepted items from members of the campus community and compiled them weekly
5. Publishing links to groups and web sites in all faculty/staff publications on an ongoing basis
6. Public Affairs will forward a weekly summary of items of interest to everyone that is detailed elsewhere online.

Distributed Learning Center

Dr. Turner reported for Patrick Pluscht that a steering committee has been formed for the Distributed Learning Center, with appointments being made by Deans and the Provost. A retreat is planned for October.

GALC and GALMAC

Philip Baczewski asked the Council to consider the proposal brought by Cengiz Capan at the June meeting regarding restructuring of the GALC and GALMAC. He explained that GALC would like to be given the position of a Program Group on the IRC, with a member being designated as a representative to the IRC; and that a member of the GALMAC be designated as a member of the Distributed Computing Support Management Team, and also attend the IRC meetings. It was requested that the Recording Secretary send out the IRC Charge, showing how IRC membership is formed, prior to the October meeting, at which time this issue will be re-visited, since this request will result in a change in the IRC Charge document.

Instruction Program Group

Jenny Jopling reported for the Instruction Program Group that the Classroom Support Services has met 99% of its goals for the Fall semester. In addition she reported that the Big 6 classrooms have been repaired, and they are working on placing a classroom inventory on the web, that will have query capabilities so that it can be used with the Registrar’s office for classroom scheduling. Jenny also reported that she has been teaching faculty to use Web CT software for course development. There are distributed learning classes scheduled each semester. Jenny plans to start a brown-bag lunch once each month beginning October 1, in ISB 203 at Noon, for any faculty interested in using distributed learning. A demonstration will be given at each luncheon meeting.

March Meeting

A schedule of IRC meetings was distributed by the Recording Secretary, noting that the 3^rd Tuesday of March falls during Spring Break, so the meeting that month will be held on March 9.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

October 20, 1998

The Chair asked that everyone introduce themselves, since there were new members present.

IR Steering Committee

Richard Harris reported that the IR Steering Committee met following the last IRC meeting; however, there were no action items taken to the meeting. Coy Hoggard reported to the V.P.s on the progress of the Year 2000 remediation; and the Everyone Mail issue was discussed.

Strategic Planning Committee

The Strategic Planning Committee will begin meeting on the action plans that the university is preparing. There is a new process for developing an action plan and a new strategic plan that is more abbreviated, in terms of goals and objectives, but with more detailed action plans. The IRC Strategic Planning Committee will meet to review the action plans that are related, not to put together an Information Resources action plan, but just to provide some coordination so that there won’t be any duplication of plans. A distinction will be drawn between proposed action plans and approved action plans.

GALC reorganization proposal

Philip Baczewski brought the GALC reorganization proposal before the IRC for a vote. Basically, the proposal recommends that the General Access Lab Committee be given the status of an IRC Program Group, reporting directly to the IRC; and that a member of the General Access Lab Managers Committee be appointed to serve as Ex-officio, Non-voting member of the IRC. There was some discussion and it was agreed that the proposal be changed to make clear that GALC acts as an advisory committee to the IRC, and an oversight board for the GALMAC. The current chair of GALMAC is Wil Clark, and the current chair of GALC is Cengiz Capan. An official motion was made by Paul Dworak to approve the proposal, with amendments made to explain that the GALMAC member would serve as non-voting Ex-officio member on the IRC, and that GALC is an advisory committee to the IRC, and as oversight board to the GALMAC. John Windsor seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Year 2000 Remediation

Joneel Harris reported for Coy Hoggard that the Year 2000 remediation testing plan was completed on October 2. Copies of the plan are available upon request. On Oct. 7, a meeting was held to discuss the plan for user testing of screens and processes that will take place prior to the Christmas holidays, and users were asked to identify people who would be involved in testing. More meetings will be held to map out the specifics of the conversion of the Administrative Mainframe, which is to take place during the Christmas holidays. Joneel explained that the mainframe would be unavailable for use during the conversion. Discussion followed.

Administrative Program Group

Joneel also reported for the Administrative Program Group that the main focus of their group has been Y2K; however, she stated that their program group needs a new member from the Health Science Center, and stated that a the chair of GALMAC will serve on the APG as GALC representative. They will be seeking a student representative, as well. Joneel added that a number of administrators have begun meeting with the Distributed Learning group to address the various issues that deal with distributed learning, in anticipation of the Coordinating Board relaxing the regulations pertaining to courses delivered via the web.

Communications Program Group

Bill Buntain was absent so there was no Communications Program Group report; however, Bill asked Richard to announce that several program group members have left UNT so they are looking for new members. Richard also reported that for some time Datacom has been concerned with increasing the capacity of UNT’s internet pipe from Denton to Dallas. There is currently a request for funding being taken to the Chancellor for approximately $50,000 for the rest of FY99, to allow for an upgrade of our connection from 3MB to 9MB. After receiving the funding, it is expected that the increased capacity will be in place within 6 weeks.

Richard also reported that Bill Buntain and the whole Datacommunications team has been working to get their Year 2000 compliance issues resolved and they have made good progress. Most routers have been brought up to proper levels and they are now looking at the software applications.

Standards & Cooperation Program Group

Paul Dworak reported for the Standards & Cooperation Program Group. The Group has discussed the Supported Computing Items List and the possibility of moving to a Supported Processes List. They would like to document, for any process that the university is involved in, what is involved in the process and what the compatibility issues are. They foresee this being largely a project whereby the university community becomes educated about the processes that are in operation and supported on this campus, as well as documenting the various software site licenses that are available on campus. There was some discussion, and Paul explained that the Distributed Computing Support Management Team is in a better position to make specific recommendations as to what equipment or software will be supported. Since the DCSMT reports to the IRC, those recommendations will come through the IRC. Paul Dworak stated that the Standards & Cooperation is happy to take any charge given to it by this Council. Paul asked IRC members to advise him directly of any initiatives they believe should be included in the scope of this project, or any other.

Jim Poirot asked if there had been any results from his previous inquiry about the internal tracking of low-cost computer equipment. Richard Harris reported that he followed up on that inquiry and met with Scott Dumas, Jim Curry and Phil Diebel. Jim Curry and Scott Dumas both concurred that the law doesn’t require that UNT track low-cost items, but that Jim Curry needs to have those items on Scott’s inventory so he can keep up with the equipment his shop maintains. Neither would agree to change anything. Richard agreed to re-visit the issue if Jim Poirot would like for him to.

Jim Poirot moved that Scott Dumas and/or Jim Curry be requested to report to the IRC on these and related issues. Sue Byron seconded and the motion passed.n