IRC News Minutes provided by Sue Ellen Richey, Recording Secretary

IRC Regular and Ex-officio Voting Members: Judith Adkison, College of Education; Donna Asher, Administrative Affairs; Craig Berry, School of Visual Arts; Lou Ann Bradley, Communications Planning Group; Cengiz Capan, College of Business and GALC; Bobby Carter, UNT Health Science Center; Matt Creel, Student Government Association; Christy Crutsinger, Faculty Senate; Jim Curry, Academic Administration; Don Grose, Libraries and University Planning Council; Joneel Harris, EIS Planning Group; Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Student Computing Planning Group; Tom Jacob, College of Arts and Sciences; Abraham John, Student Development; Jenny Jopling, Instruction Planning Group; Armin Mikler, Research Planning Group; Kenn Moffitt, Standards and Cooperation Program Group; Ramu Muthiah, School of Community Services; Jon Nelson, College of Music; Robert Nimocks, Director, Information Technology, UNTHSC; John Price, UNT System Center; Philip Turner, School of Library and Information Science and University Planning Council (Chair, IRC); VACANT, Graduate Student Council; VACANT, Staff Council; VACANT, University Planning Council; Virginia Wheeless, Chancellor, for Planning; Carolyn Whitlock, Finance and Business Affairs;  IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance and Classroom Support Services; Richard Harris, Computing Center and University Planning Council; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center/Administrative; Judy Hunter, GALMAC; Maurice Leatherbury, Computing Center/Academic; Doug Mains, UNT Health Science Center; Patrick Pluscht, Center for Distributed Learning; Sue Ellen Richey, Computing Center (Recording Secretary); Ken Sedgley, Telecommunications.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:  PHILIP TURNER, Chair, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, JONEEL HARRIS, PAM HIGHT (for DON GROSE), JON NELSON, ROBERT NIMOCKS, MICHELLE AMORUSO (for DONNA ASHER), LOU ANN BRADLEY, JIM CURRY, CRAIG BERRY, JENNY JOPLING, KENN MOFFITT, CENGIZ CAPAN, RAMU MUTHIAH NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:  RICHARD HARRIS, JOE ADAMO, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, JUDY HUNTER, MARK WITHERS (for PATRICK PLUSCHT), SUE ELLEN RICHEY  (Recording Secretary) MEMBERS ABSENT:  CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, JOHN PRICE, COY HOGGARD, JUDITH ADKISON, VIRGINIA WHEELESS, CAROLYN WHITLOCK, DUNCAN ENGLER,  DOUG MAINS, TOM JACOB, ARMIN MIKLER, BOBBY CARTER, ABRAHAM JOHN

Lou Ann Bradley moved for approval of the minutes of the May 20, 2003 meeting; the motion was seconded and the minutes were approved as distributed.

The Chair reported that there has not been an IR Steering Committee meeting since the last IRC meeting.

Distributed Computing Support Management Team

Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that they are still looking at desktop back-up solutions, and have received a revised quote from Connected.com, and although it is lower than the first quote, they are not ready to make a decision at this time.  The Computing & Information Technology Center plans to conduct a study of departmental back-up needs prior to making a decision.  Maurice also reported that the Students in the Tree project is complete and students can now log in anywhere on campus to a home directory that they have stored space on; they can actually get to their files from off campus by logging into a web site so they can transfer files back and forth from the on-campus server to their home computers.

In response to a question about the discontinuation of the free and premium dial-up lines, Maurice stated that the Computing & IT Center is expecting responses from a Request for Proposal that would provide an internet access service to which UNT dial-up users could migrate.   When there is an alternative to the current dial-up service, it will be publicized to the campus.

Instruction Planning Group

Jenny Jopling reported that the Instruction Planning Group has no current charge, so they have not been meeting.  She reported that Classroom Support Services is working very well, so there are no problems or issues to deal with there.  Committee members have expressed some interest in the use of PDAs in the classroom, and Robert Nimocks suggested that they look at the new tablet PCs as a classroom tool. 

Communications Planning Group

Lou Ann Bradley reported for the Communications Planning Group that they have revised the Network Connections Policy, and distributed copies to the group.  Lou Ann explained that this is a revision of a policy that was passed by the IRC in March of 2002.  Since a considerable number of revisions have been made to the policy, she asked that it be considered at this meeting and presented for a vote at the July 15^th meeting.  Lou Ann stated that there have been some objections to the current policy; however, it is important for this policy to be followed since a device added to the network without anyone’s knowledge has the potential of bringing down the entire network.  Lou Ann stressed that the focus of the policy is simply to protect the network.  Cengiz Capan stated that he believes College of Business faculty are beginning to understand the benefit of such a policy.

Maurice Leatherbury stated that wireless devices have been included in this policy, and the policy now allows people to bring their personal computers to campus and attach them to the wired campus network.   End users just have to get permission from their Distributed Network Manager.  Joe Adamo added that with the new wireless system being set up on campus, there will be a way to track wireless access points, which will be of great value when troubleshooting a problem with the network, and for locating security breaches.

EIS Planning Group

Joneel Harris reported for the EIS Planning Group that a series of campus presentations on the EIS project have been conducted, with 300 or more in attendance.  They are looking at other ways of distributing information about the project to campus staff, faculty, and administrators, possibly creating some CDs for distribution.  Joneel reported that a luncheon was held last week at which Sun Microsystems officially awarded UNT Center of Excellence status, entitling UNT to around $700,000 in discounts which have already been applied to the purchase of new equipment for the EIS project.

Joneel also reported that the EIS project continues to be within budget and on time.  They are only one month away from the first piece of the purchasing module going into production, even though it will be “back office” only, at first.  The first kind of activity that the campus will see will be in September when the Contributor Relations, and the Admissions modules will go into production.  The Project team continues to be pleased with the Ciber consultants, and stated that without them the project would not be so far along.

Joneel stated that the portal implementation is being worked on, but a definite completion date for that has not yet been set; however, it will have to be completed sometime between September 30^th and April 1^st of 2004.

In response to a question from Cengiz Capan regarding when the mainframe would no longer be used, Joneel stated that the tentative date is September, 2004.  Because there are some uses of the mainframe which will not be provided by PeopleSoft, they may not be able to find suitable alternatives by that date. 

A software product called Resource 25 was purchased for facilities management because the PeopleSoft product does not address this need.  Joneel remarked that it is doubtful that the Oracle bid for the takeover of PeopleSoft will be successful.  She added that they are eager to see what the interface between WebCT and PeopleSoft will look like and noted that UNT is one of the first sites to test this interface.

Student Computing Planning Group

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that they have not met but that she has learned how to put the student computing survey on-line.  The committee will communicate electronically for final review of the survey questions, which she plans to bring to the IRC for review in July.

Distance Learning Team

Mark Withers reported for the Distance Learning Team that they will meet Thursday, June 19^th for a demonstration of the Created Realities Group distance education solutions.  John Young of College of Education is using this client server application to provide IP audio conferencing for one of his courses.  The software creates a 3-D virtual environment where the students and instructor can interact, and provides a number of interaction and collaboration tools. You can see this software at http://created-realities.com. 

Jenny Jopling reported that her group will be in Vista training next week with the Academic Computing Services, along with representatives from the Health Science Center.  They may choose a couple of courses in the Fall as pilot classes to use the new version.   Maurice added that WebCT’s Mark Wilcox was on campus last week to implement the new version 2.0 of Vista, which is now up and running.