IRC News Minutes provided by Sue Ellen Richey, Recording Secretary

IRC Regular and Ex-officio Voting Members: Judith Adkison, College of Education; Ginny Anderson, Fiscal Affairs; Donna Asher, Administrative Affairs; Craig Berry, School of Visual Arts; Cengiz Capan, College of Business, GALC; Bobby Carter, UNT Health Science Center; Christy Crutsinger, Faculty Senate; Jim Curry, Academic Administration; VACANT, Student Association; Duncan Engler, University Planning Council; Don Grose, Libraries; Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Joneel Harris, EIS Project Group; Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Standards and Cooperation Program Group; Abraham John, Student Affairs; Christine Mitchamore,Graduate Student Council; Ramu Muthiah, School of Community Services; Jon Nelson, College of Music; Robert Nimocks, Director, Information Technology,UNTHSC; Patrick Pluscht, Distributed Learning Team; Mark Rorvig, Research Program Group (Acting Chair); Paul Schlieve, Communications Program Group; Kathleen Swigger, College of Arts and Sciences; Philip Turner, School of Library and Information Science and University Planning Council (Chair, IRC); Virginia Wheeless, Chancellor for Planning. IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: VACANT, Telecommunications; Charles Andrews, GALMAC; Bill Buntain, Computing Center Networking; Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Richard Harris, Computing Center and University Planning Council; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center/Administrative; VACANT, UNT Health Science Center; Maurice Leatherbury, Computing Center/Academic; Sue Ellen Richey, Computing Center (Recording Secretary). [As of 9/2001]

December 11, 2001

VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, Chair, RICHARD HARRIS, DON GROSE, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, DUNCAN ENGLER, WIL CLARK (for JOHN PRICE), CRISTINE MITCHAMORE, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, JIM CURRY, CRAIG BERRY, JENNY JOPLING, PAUL SCHLIEVE, RAMU MUTHIAH, ROBERT NIMOCKS, JON NELSON, BOBBY CARTER, RICK ANZALDUA (for VIRGINIA WHEELESS), ARMIN MIKLER (for MARK RORVIG) NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PATRICK PLUSCHT, DOUG MAINS, RICHARD HARRIS, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, COY HOGGARD, CHARLES ANDREWS, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary) MEMBERS ABSENT: JUDITH ADKISON, JONEEL HARRIS, MARK RORVIG, CENGIZ CAPAN, KATHLEEN SWIGGER, DONNA ASHER, ABRAHAM JOHN, GINNY ANDERSON, BILL BUNTAIN, BECKY MORGAN GUESTS: CHARLOTTE RUSSELL, LOU ANN BRADLEY, PAUL HONS

The minutes of the November 20, 2001 meeting were approved as distributed.

IRC Charge

Richard Harris reported that at the last IR Steering Committee meeting they reviewed the IRC Charge and approved it with one change, which was that Ken Moffitt, Director of University Online Communications be added to the membership of the IRC as a non-voting ex-officio member. The consensus of the IRC was to accept the suggested additional member.

DCSMT

Maurice Leatherbury reported for the DCSMT that the working committee is still evaluating Office XP. To date, there don’t appear to be any file incompatibility issues, but some departments have special applications that must work well with XP before it can be considered. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner commented that the ACS General Access Lab is using the XP operating system as part of that evaluation and to date they are having no difficulty with it.

Instruction Planning Group

Jenny Jopling reported for the Instruction Planning Group that they are continuing to meet electronically concerning the distance learning testing site in the Gateway Center. She announced that the Center for Distributed Learning has offered to provide refurbished carrels and workstation tables for the 12 workstations there.

Communications Planning Group

Lou Ann Bradley reported for the Communications Planning Group that they have not met because of everyone’s involvement in the EIS Planning Group’s vendor presentations and activities.

EIS Planning Group

Coy Hoggard reported for the EIS Planning Group that they have been having vendor presentations and will continue those through mid-January. The presentations are being held in the Gateway Center and are open to anyone who is interested. The calendar is on the EIS web page at the following address: http://www.unt.edu/eis/EIS_Homepage.htm. From the EIS Homepage, click on the “Vendor demo schedule” link to view the calendar showing scheduled demonstrations and presentations. Coy reported that the presentations are going well.

Research Planning Group

Armin Mikler reported for the Research Planning Group that the group met in November with only three members, so no chair was elected. Mikler asked for assistance from IRC members to help them find others to serve on this Planning Group. At their November meeting, members discussed computer security and network security in particular and came to the realization that there is no good solution. The group agreed that basically everyone is responsible for regulation of network security within their own area. The group’s next meeting will be in January. The Chair asked for a formal request from the Planning Group stating their need for members, and stating what type of persons they are looking for.

Standards & Policy Planning Group

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Standards & Policy Planning Group that their next meeting will be in January. A revised Security Policy was distributed and Maurice explained that in the first draft of the policy reference had been made to the administrative code of ethics, and in today’s draft the entire code is included as paragraph 4. The Chair asked for a motion to accept the revised Security Policy and the Guidebook. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner moved for acceptance; Christine Mitchamore seconded, and discussion followed. The Chair asked how the new policy and guidebook would be distributed or called to the attention of staff and faculty. Elizabeth suggested that each member of the IRC share the information with their constituencies, and it will be posted on the web. Richard Harris pointed out that new employees will receive the information as part of their UNT orientation. Richard also asked that the policy be amended to change the reference to his title in Item 5 to “Information Resources Security Coordinator.” This amendment was accepted by those who made and seconded the motion. It was also suggested that additional words be added to the first bullet under Item 4 making the first sentence read as follows: “Not to “browse” through the computer information or information carried on a network of system users while using the powers of privileged access unless such browsing. . .” This amendment was accepted by those who made and seconded the motion. Following the discussion, the Security Policy and Guidebook were approved with the accepted amendments. The new policy and Guidebook will be taken to the next IR Steering Committee meeting for approval.

Distance Learning Team

Patrick Pluscht reported that the Distance Learning Team did not meet in November but at their next meeting they will deal with the issue of a Faculty Care Center for WebCT faculty to provide services to help them get up to speed on using WebCT and improve the quality of their courses. Jenny Jopling reported that the Computing Center Help Desk has agreed to be the first point of contact for students using WebCT, effective January 2, 2002. Patrick also reported that at last Thursday’s Brown Bag lunch, 20-25 people attended and the Faculty Care Center was discussed. In addition, he announced that there will be three new videoconference rooms going into operation in the spring. Patrick also reported that several of the videoconferencing activities conducted lately have used Internet2 very successfully. He requested that people let him know if there are opportunities to collaborate so that this service could be utilized further.

Dr. Turner remarked that there has been a report of slow response time in accessing WebCT in the dorms. Maurice Leatherbury has asked Datacom to look into the problem.

Other business

Maurice Leatherbury also announced that the Computing Center is planning an upgrade to one of its SUN 450 Servers, replacing both cpu’s and putting in larger hard drives, and migration to the new machines is scheduled to take place before spring classes begin.

Paul Schlieve stated that there is a real need for rapid notification of system outages with prompt status updates at some central point on campus. This need was assigned to the Instruction Planning Group for discussion and resolution.