February 19, 2008

VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:   MAURICE LEATHERBURY (for PHILIP TURNER, CHAIR), TIM CHRISTIAN, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, DOROTHY FLORES (for JOHN HOOPER), GARY MATTHEWS, FRANCES MAY, LOU ANN BRADLEY, CLEATUS ESTES (for WILL SENN), JON NELSON, DON GROSE, NOREEN GOGGIN, BRUCE HUNTER, PATRICK PLUSCHT, JUDITH ADKISON, RAMU MUTHIAH NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:  PHILIP BACZEWSKI, SEAN-MIKEL FLOWERS, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary) MEMBERS ABSENT:  JOE ADAMO, CENGIZ CAPAN, YUNFEI DU, SCOTT WINDHAM, ROBERT NIMOCKS, JOHN PRICE, RAY BANKS, ABRAHAM JOHN, DONNA KEENER

The minutes of the January 15, 2008 meeting were approved as distributed.

Distributed Computing Support Management Team**

Philip Baczewski reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that DCSMT has met three times since the last meeting of the IRC.  On January 18, 2008, Charlotte Russell presented information regarding Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance standards and noted that on-campus vendors who accept payment via credit cards are required to be certified by Trust Keeper, a third-party company with which UNT has a contract to provide such certification. Representatives from UNT Student Accounting were on hand to answer any questions from the distributed managers.  Also at that meeting, Charlotte Russell discussed progress implementing reporting for online system access removal upon termination or change in employment.   Philip Baczewski reported that CITC EIS staff have relayed that Internet Explorer 7 is now certified for all of the PeopleSoft applications that form parts of the EIS system. This may remove the last barrier for general adoption of IE7 on campus. Jason Myre reported that GroupWise to Exchange migrations have been scheduled and are underway and that Exchange accounts had been already created for most campus users defined in Active Directory.

DCSMT next met on February 1, 2008.  Maurice Leatherbury related that there were still problems being observed with incompatible file formats being exchanged between Office 2007 and Office 2003 users. He urged DCSMT to coordinate software versions to avoid such problems. Philip Baczewski agreed to draft a statement to this effect and present it to the appropriate authority.  Patrick McLeod (CITC Research and Statistical Support Consultant) reported that CITC RSS is currently supporting 9 different versions of SPSS. SPSS will only support the current and one prior version of their software. Therefore, as of the end of the Spring semester, CITC RSS will change its support policy to match that of SPSS and only support SPSS versions 15 and 16 for Windows and versions 13 and 16 for Mac OS. 

At the February 15, 2008 meeting of DCSMT, representatives from facilities were on hand to discuss planned electrical maintenance to a number of UNT buildings.  DCSMT was consulted to help minimize the impact of the maintenance on IT resources.  The maintenance will require the shut off of power to buildings between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.  Maintenance for the ISB, GAB, and Chilton Hall is scheduled for the spring break week, since those buildings support critical parts of the campus network infrastructure.  The maintenance is planned to start on February 26 and extend through April 3. DCSMT members again discussed the Microsoft Office support strategy in preparation for a presentation at the February IRC meeting.  Chris Strauss demonstrated features in the new ITSM call tracking system that will allow searching of all prior tickets made in Remedy and also the feature to post a notice of a campus-wide service outage.

The DCSMT’s next meeting is scheduled for March 7.

Transition from Microsoft Office 2003 to Office 2007 

Philip Baczewski distributed a document originating from DCSMT outlining the plan to transition from Microsoft Office 2003 to Office 2007.  He reported that a number of large units have already moved to Office 2007, and that things have been going smoothly, for the most part.  The only department that requested to stay with Office 2003 was College of Business because of a particular curricular need.  Philip asked for an IRC recommendation that Office 2007/2008 be adopted as the campus standard by Fall of 2008.  Lou Ann Bradley moved for such a recommendation; Elizabeth Hinkle Turner seconded.  Before voting could take place, a motion was needed to suspend the usual rules of order, allowing a vote on the first reading.  Tim Christian made a motion to suspend the rules in this case, and it was seconded.  The motion to suspend the rules was passed.  Then the council approved DCSMT’s recommendation.

December IRC minutes approved

Tim Christian pointed out that the council had not approved the December IRC minutes, due to lack of a quorum at the January meeting.  Don Grose moved that the December minutes be approved as distributed; Lou Ann Bradley seconded and the minutes were approved.

Learning Enhancement Planning Group

Michelle Farley reported for the Learning Enhancement Planning Group that the LMS Evaluation Committee met on January 30 and distributed the meeting notes.  It was noted that these notes are also available at http://web3.unt.edu/lmseval/.  The notes include project updates, team research, testing and reports, and a report on the Vista 4.2 problems encountered in the first weeks of the semester.  The committee agreed that all four systems should remain in the running at this point. 

Since the committee meeting, the project coordinator has met with Purchasing and submitted the content for a formal RFP which, when posted, will be available for 30 days on the state bid board.  It’s possible that other vendors who feel they meet the requirements of the RFP could submit a proposal, but it would not require repeating any of the review work already completed. 

Executive briefing on iTunes U

In other news, Apple is hosting an executive briefing on iTunes U for President Bataille and other senior administrators on March 5, 2008.  This does not represent a launch of UNT’s iTunes U which is being worked on as a collaborative effort between University Relations Communications and Marketing, Central Web Support and the Center for Distributed Learning.  When a launch date is available, it will be announced to this group.

New Accessibility Standards

Maurice Leatherbury announced that there are new accessibility standards that the state has drafted.  They are in review and they are extensive.  It will be a new statute and puts the burden on the purchasing institution.  The old version saw that the DIR certified that the products we bought were Section 508 compliant, but now it’s up to us to make sure we are compliant.  Higher education is objecting to this. 

Communications Planning Group

There was no report from the Communications Planning Group.

EIS Planning Group

Dorothy Flores reported for the EIS Planning Group that the Finance upgrade will begin shortly.  They will have started the technical planning and the project plan will be finished by the end of the week and will begin user evaluations next month, in anticipation of a “Go live” in March of 2009.

Standards & Policy Planning Group

Tim Christian reported for the Standards & Policy Planning Group that there has been no news about the email retention policy or the computer use policy revision.  He stated that the committee will review Maurice’s proposed restructure of the IRC.

Student Computing Planning Group

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner stated that there was no report from the Student Computing Planning Group, but stated that they are still looking at student email outsourcing and hope to have a recommendation soon.

Desktop Replacement Planning Committee

Maurice Leatherbury reported that the Desktop Replacement Planning Committee met on February 14^th for discussion, with no conclusions reached.  Hard data about how many pc’s there are is needed, as well as a method of determining which ones are “primary machines.”  The group has drafted a survey to send to colleges and vice presidents to get feedback on machines that are 3 or 4 years old.  Donna Asher will present the survey to the Deans on Feb. 20^th.  When the data from the survey has been gathered, the committee will meet again.

Draft proposal for the restructuring of Information Technology Advisory Committees

Maurice Leatherbury distributed copies of the draft proposal for the restructuring of Information Technology Advisory Committees for a first reading, and asked for comments.  Some discussion followed during which Maurice noted that there really is no standard format or pattern for the structuring of such committees at other universities in Texas.  Maurice stated that an IT Project Management Policy has been drafted in response to a state mandate.  One feature of that policy is that different sized projects get reviewed and approved by different groups in the university, and depending on the dollar amount, some get reviewed and approved by the IT Steering Committee.  The IRC Planning Groups will take on added responsibilities if this restructuring proposal gets approved.  There will be further discussion of this proposal at the March 11^th meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m.