IRC News Minutes provided by Sue Ellen Richey, Recording Secretary

IRC Regular Voting Members: Judith Adkison, College of Education; Ginny Anderson, Fiscal Affairs; Donna Asher, Administrative Affairs; Sue Byron, Faculty Senate; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Jim Curry, Academic Administration; David Griffiths, Student Association, Don Grose, Libraries; Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Joneel Harris, Administrative Program Group; Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Standards and Cooperation Program Group; Allen Livingston,Graduate Student Council; Dan Mauldin, University Planning Council; Ramu Muthiah, School of Community Services, GALMAC; Jon Nelson, College of Music; Robert Nimocks, Director, Information Technology,UNTHSC; Steve Oeffner, UNT Health Science Center; Russ Pensyl , School of Visual Arts; Patrick Pluscht, Distributed Learning Team; Mark Rorvig, Research Program Group; Paul Schlieve, Communications Program Group; Kathleen Swigger, College of Arts and Sciences; 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; 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 9/99]

June 20, 2000

VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, CHAIR, SUE BYRON, PAM HIGHT (for DON GROSE), ROBERT NIMOCKS, DONNA ASHER, JON NELSON, JUDITH ADKISON, LOU ANN BRADLEY (for PAUL SCHLIEVE), ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, JENNY JOPLING, ED TURNEY (for CAROLYN CUNNINGHAM), JONEEL HARRIS, RAMU MUTHIAH, GINNY ANDERSON

NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: RICHARD HARRIS, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, COY HOGGARD, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)

MEMBERS ABSENT: MARK RORVIG, JOHN WINDSOR, ALLEN LIVINGSTON, STEVE OEFFNER, VIRGINIA WHEELESS, MIKE FORSTER, RUSS PENSYL, KATHLEEN SWIGGER, JIM CURRY, BILL BUNTAIN

Web Publishing Policy and Guidelines

Maurice Leatherbury distributed the new draft of the University of North Texas Web Publishing Policy and Guidelines, and presented it for approval by the Council. This policy and guidelines document was discussed at the last IRC meeting. Some of the changes that were made to the previous policy were related to accessibility, to insure that people with visual disabilities can access the Web; and security regarding the use of information collected via the Web. One of the most controversial issues surrounding the Web policy concerns commercial sale solicitations. It was brought to Maurice’s attention that the College of Music sells it’s own CDs from its Web site, which immediately presents a problem with the way the draft policy is written. Maurice suggested an amendment to the policy, adding the following introductory phrase to the second sentence under Commercial Sales, Solicitations and Advertisements Via University Department or Organization Web Pages. "Unless the sale is of products produced by academic or administrative departments within the university, such as College of Music Compact Disks, …" Discussion followed. Ginny Anderson moved approval of the Web Publishing Policy as amended; Jon Nelson seconded the motion. In further discussion, Joneel Harris suggested that a phrase be added to the last sentence of the first paragraph of this same section, as follows: "unless specifically approved by the Provost and Executive Vice President." A vote was taken on the amended policy and it passed unanimously.

Maurice then presented the Guidelines document for approval. He explained that the guidelines just spell out, in more detail, what the policy says and follow the state guidelines for Web pages, as well. Sue Byron moved approval of the Guidelines; Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner seconded. Dr. Turner asked how the Web Publishing Policy will be enforced. Maurice explained that this question has been dealt with by Team Web, and noted that there is no enforcement policy in the document. Generally, he said enforcement occurs as a result of job owning. If there is a complaint about a Web page, the complaint is referred to the Web page owner. From time to time, the ACS Web support staff visits home pages looking for infractions. A vote was taken on the motion to approve the guidelines and the motion passed unanimously.

Distributed Computing Support Management Team

Maurice reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that they are still looking at personal digital assistant devices and a report to the IRC is planned in the Fall on that evaluation. DCSMT is also still working on changes to the job descriptions for computer support positions.

Instruction Program Group

Jenny Jopling reported that the Instruction Program Group is still meeting electronically. Jenny stated that she and Maurice have met with the Physical Plant regarding a space for computer-based testing, and confirmed that there is space designated for this at the new Gateway Center.

Administrative Program Group

Joneel Harris reported for the Administrative Program Group that SCT has recently made a presentation on campus and has given a follow-up of an overview of their product direction. The presenters were here for two and a half days, during which time they visited with administrative areas so that they could direct their presentation to address specific issues in those areas. Although the committee was pleased with the SCT presentation, there are still some unresolved issues and so a technical meeting has been scheduled with a representative of SCT. One major issue is that SCT is still selling their Banner 2000 product line; although they will be developing a new JAVA-based client product called RLS, so if UNT bought the Banner 2000 product now, there would most likely be a significant migration within five years.

Joneel stated that the committee has seen a brief overview and demonstration of Datatel’s product and they have contacted Datatel again to schedule a more detailed presentation including their finance and human resources products. One drawback with Datatel is that they don’t have experience with an institution the size of UNT. Discussion in the committee is now focusing on an integrated enterprise-wide solution as opposed to the initial discussion which focused on the student records part of the administrative applications.

Ginny Anderson reported that she attended a demonstration of the State Comptroller’s new Web-site for state-wide procurement. This project is still in the testing stage but she anticipates that state agencies will be required to use the new system eventually.

Joneel stated that at a meeting in Austin, she was led to believe that there will be legislative action in this next session that will require a technology plan for the providers of education. There was some discussion about whether it should be incorporated into each institution’s IT plan or as an addendum to the institution’s state strategic plan.

Microsoft Campus Agreement

Maurice Leatherbury reported that the Microsoft Campus Agreement expires at the end of August. UNT will now be required to go through DIR for this agreement. UNT requested an exemption, but it was denied. The problem is that DIR does not yet have a contract in place with Microsoft so at the present time we can’t actually get a campus agreement with or without them.

Standards & Cooperation Program Group

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Standards & Cooperation Program Group that they are continuing to work on an Access to University Resources Policy, looking at model policies from other universities.

Distance Learning Team

Patrick Pluscht reported for the Distance Learning Team that the committee has met, at which time they discussed a WebCT upgrade and implementation of that upgrade. They also discussed how to provide guest student accounts, and designer accounts.

Departmental Web Masters?

Jon Nelson stated that some UNT departments had requested funding for Web Master positions, but funding was denied and he asked if new positions had been funded for that purpose to the central Computing Center. Maurice replied that the Computing Center was given only one new Web support positions so there is no additional college level support in the Computing Center.