DCSMT met again on May 4. Charlotte Russell reported on issues related to timely IT Systems access revocation and outlined a procedure for departments to submit notification of changes in employment status and for system administrators to remove access as appropriate. She asked DCSMT to provide feedback in regard to the nature of the reporting required to support access revocation for the systems they manage. Patrick Pluscht introduced Estellita Young of Wimba, Inc. who gave a demo of the Wimba live classroom service. The DCSMT chair gave a status report on the Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange migration project. Uwe Rossbach announced that a meeting would be held to develop common procedures for deploying the Outlook 2007 client on desktop workstations on campus.

There was some discussion about the proposed naming convention for email addresses and it was noted that DIR has guidelines that recommend that the proposed naming convention be used. Uwe Rossbach suggested that faculty not be required to follow the proposed naming convention. Philip Baczewski pointed out that according to the DCSMT proposal, people would continue using their current email address until such time as they chose to change it, and new employees would be required to use the proposed naming convention when they first receive an email address. There seemed to be a consensus that there not be a required naming convention established at this time, and the issue was tabled until next Fall. 

Uwe Rossbach asked if the Active Directory conversion project would mean getting rid of Mail Host. Charlotte Russell responded by saying that Mail Host is a cluster system so she didn’t think the new system would replace the Mail Host servers. Philip Baczewski added that Mail Host serves Eagle Mail as well as others, so he believed it would be around for a while.

Learning Enhancement Planning Group 

Patrick Pluscht reported for the Learning Enhancement Planning Group that they met last Thursday and discussed the progress so far in the review of the four demonstrations of Angel, Desire to Learn, Sakai and Vista.  Patrick will share the meeting notes with the IRC Recording Secretary, who will send them out to IRC members.  Uwe Rossbach asked if Patrick thought there were any front-runners, at this point.  Patrick said that some people liked one product better than another but there was no consensus about any one of them.  Patrick explained that they looked at only four products because there were only four that met their basic criteria.  In further discussion, Patrick pointed out that the committee will be talking to other institutions who have used WebCT’s new product before considering that choice, or any other, as well.  In response to a question about cost, Patrick said that Sakai has a fee of around $10,000; others between $100,000 and $125,000, and WebCT’s cost would be $182,000 to renew the current contract.  There was discussion about how online courses create higher enrollment numbers and Patrick said he would share the 2006 Spring statistics with the IRC.

EIS Planning Group

Don Butler reported for the EIS Planning Group that the Learning Solutions upgrade is ahead of schedule; it was supposed to be complete by June 4 but was completed on May 15.  They have gone live on CRM already.  Don reported that PeopleSoft has made no plans to certify IE7 with Version 8.1.  When a later version of Tools is available in November, Learning Solutions will become certified.

Standards & Policy Planning Group

Tim Christian reported for the Standards & Policy Planning Group that they had made quite a few changes to the Computer Use Policy, and had found that there were some duplications of other policies so recommended that the policy approval be tabled until more research could be done.  The IRC members agreed to table this issue.

Joe Adamo reported that as a result of the Virginia Tech incident, UNT is looking into its emergency notification systems and procedures. A committee has been formed, chaired by Police Chief Deter, to look at available systems and procedures in place today as well as see how it can be improved. They will be gathering information on requirements and looking at various methods of notification. This committee will also be responsible for deciding what constitutes an emergency, and will write policies and procedures.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.