Philip Baczewski reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that the committee met on November 4.  Paul Dworak delivered a presentation entitled, "Email and Electronic Records Retention:  IT Requirements". He reported on changes that have occurred in state law over the past couple of years in regard to requirements for Information Technology in the area of email and electronic records retention.  While details still have to be worked out, this will affect the way IT support staff handle backups, archives, and paper records.  DCSMT will next meet on November 18, during which a representative from Intel will present an overview of Intel's dual core processor technology.

EIS Planning Group 

Joneel Harris reported that a contract with COGNOS has been completed.  This contract provides a business intelligence tool set that allows UNT to write and distribute reports from the web and allow drill down activity.  The installation of this software is scheduled to begin tomorrow.  In addition, Joneel noted that a number of projects have been accomplished in the last year.  Cathy Gonzalez is working on an article that will chronicle the projects that have been completed regarding the EIS project.  One of the projects being worked on in the Student System is the Course Applicability System (CAS).  UNT, along with four participating community colleges, is considered by the Coordinating Board as the pilot project for a CAS transfer model that could eventually be adopted by the State. 

John Hooper added that in the infrastructure area a product has been purchased to improve the back-up and recovery capability of the system.  Also, a new firewall has been put in place as well as new load management software.

Cengiz Capan stated that there is a great need by Colleges and Departments for faculty information database required for accreditation.  He asked about a new module in EIS that might be put into production, and Joneel responded that the Faculty Events Module is on the list of projects for Donna Asher to bring up, and although she is quite eager to get it on line, her plate is quite full at the present time.  Cengiz  stated that COBA will use another system for AACSB accreditation during the next year.

Learning Enhancement Planning Group 

Patrick Pluscht reported for the Learning Enhancement Planning Group that the committee met yesterday.  He distributed a list of Learning Enhancement grant proposals that have been received.  A committee has been selected which will review the 20 proposals, score them and decide which ones should be funded, and at what level.  The deadline for the committee’s recommendations to the Provost is December 15.  In other business, the Planning Group considered a couple of quick and easy on-line course developer tools and if there is interest in these, they will pursue a way to fund one of them.

Communications Planning Group 

Lou Ann Bradley reported for the Communications Planning Group that the committee is questioning the need for their committee, as they seem to have no new projects to pursue.  She distributed a proposal for additional new members chosen from the faculty.   Maurice mentioned that the committee can consider the installation of a new firewall.  Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner mentioned that there seem to be some overlapping issues that could be pursued with a collaborative effort by several planning groups; for example, the clicker technology concerns both the Student Computing Planning Group as well as the Learning Enhancement Planning Group.

Standards & Policy Planning Group

Tim Christian presented the revised Information Resources Security Policy, #3.6 and distributed copies.  There were a few minor corrections to the draft that was presented at the October IRC meeting, but no substantive changes.  Maurice explained that the major changes being made in this revision of the original policy are things that will bring it into line with the State regulations for web-based security.  The impact of this revised policy will be to have security training for network managers annually; lock down the job responsibilities of the Security Officer; and registering network machines.   Charlotte Russell added that the definition of an "information resource" was added, and that a title had been changed--- information security coordinator was changed to information security officer.  A vote was called for and this policy was approved as presented. 

Tim then presented the revised Web Publishing Policy, #3.9, which had been presented at the October meeting.  Tim stated that there was one substantive change; a paragraph had been added regarding Research and teaching information, on page 1 of the document which he distributed .  A few other minor corrections were made.  This policy is going to facilitate a means by which UNT can do regular audits of systems that may collect private information and hopefully avoid problems like the ones UNT experienced this past summer.  Following discussion, a vote was called for and this policy was approved as presented, with corrections.

Student Computing Planning Group 

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that the Center for Media Production  is framing the General Access Lab signs and they hope to have the signs placed in time for the Spring semester.

Cengiz Capan commented that last semester COBA’s undergraduate committee developed a questionnaire for graduating seniors, to check their satisfaction level.  The results of 1000 student responses showed that their highest level of satisfaction was with the computers on campus and the computing infrastructure at UNT.

Joneel stated that by March 1^st, they will have transitioned off of the use of Social Security numbers on ID cards and will have completely moved to the use of Employee ID numbers instead.  Notice of this has already been sent out to all UNT ID card holders, but reminders will be sent out again in order to give everyone time to have new ID cards made before the March 1^st deadline.  Philip Baczewski added that this was discussed at a recent DCSMT meeting, and all of the network managers are aware of the transition.  Joneel asked that IRC members help by sharing the announcement with their constituencies.

WebCT, WebCT Vista

Patrick Pluscht reported that the migration from the Campus Edition of WebCT to WebCT Vista is moving ahead, with approximately 62% of students using Vista now.  June 1 is the deadline for having all the courses converted to Vista.  He stated that they are closely following the merger of WebCT and Blackboard, and they do not expect it to make an impact on UNT’s migration to Vista.  The phase-over to the Blackboard product is expected to be a long, slow one.  Cengiz Capan questioned Patrick about the remaining 40% of courses that have not yet been converted, asking if he thinks that faculty who have not yet converted their courses are hesitant to do so with the Blackboard merger still pending, and Patrick responded that he couldn’t be sure, but that he is aware of issues that faculty have with Vista, and/or the conversion to Vista, because they monitor a “known issues list” where faculty can post their comments.

Maurice Leatherbury stated that Patrick’s office and his office have weekly meetings with other universities who use WebCT, to share problems and solutions.

Other Business 

Cengiz Capan asked about the clicker technology and asked how soon a selection will be made for a standardized product.  Patrick replied that no date has been set for that selection; the committee still plans to gather input from student computing users and SGA members before making a decision.

Maurice Leatherbury announced that there has been a ruling by the FCC which states that internet service providers and local internet providers have to make it possible for federal law enforcement and homeland security to monitor network traffic on the network.  This ruling came out in late October, and apparently colleges were included in that ruling.  There is some uncertainty about what this really means, but it could mean replacement of every switch on campus to make them accessible to the federal government.  It is really too early to tell what the impact of this ruling will be, but Maurice stated that the higher education community is fighting it. 

Uwe Rossbach asked that the IRC look into the systems that are used on campus to track advising.  Joneel responded that we have DARWIN and have a new version of it that will allow us better access to data.  Cengiz stated that his department developed a system for tracking information for advising and even though it was intended to be only a temporary solution, they have used it for a number of years now.  Cengiz confirmed that a better system is definitely needed by faculty for their use when advising students.  Joneel said she would look into the features and possibilities offered in the new version of DARWIN.   There is a DARWIN advisory group made up of representatives from various colleges, and this group can certainly look into whether or not DARWIN can meet this need.  Joneel further noted that it looks like the PeopleSoft CRM module will have a lot of comment fields available and may provide a solution for this need. 

Maurice announced that the RFP for a new telephone system for UNT was released today.  They expect responses back by the middle of December, which they will take to the Board of Regents in January.