UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
January 28, 2003
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, Chair, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, JIM CURRY, BRIDGETTE CARTER (for DONNA ASHER), CENGIZ CAPAN, WIL CLARK (for JOHN PRICE), JUDITH ADKISON, CAROLYN WHITLOCK, LOU ANN BRADLEY, VIRGINIA WHEELESS, ROBERT NIMOCKS, COY HOGGARD (for JONEEL HARRIS), CRAIG BERRY
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: DOUG MAINS, JUDY HUNTER, JOE ADAMO, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: SCOTT KREJCI (for JON NELSON), JONEEL HARRIS, MATT CREEL, PATRICK PLUSCHT, TOM JACOB, DON GROSE, ARMIN MIKLER, BOBBY CARTER, ABRAHAM JOHN, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, RAMU MUTHIAH, KENN MOFFITT, JENNY JOPLING, DUNCAN ENGLER, RICHARD HARRIS
GUESTS: JENNIFER LAFLEUR, PHILIP BACZEWSKI, MARY FINLEY
The minutes of the November 19th, IRC meeting were approved as distributed.
The Chair reported that the IR Steering Committee has met since the last IRC meeting, but there were no items of business that pertained to the IRC.
Philip Baczewski, reporting for Maurice Leatherbury, reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that at their last meeting they had a briefing on the Texas Optical Network and the National Light Rail. There was also discussion of a Zoom Text software license, and the renewal of the Adobe site license.
Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Instruction Planning Group that they had met on December 12th and discussed changes in computer-based training software. He announced that SkillSoft has acquired SmartForce, and they plan to replace some of the course content formerly provided by SmartForce with Adobe and Macromedia products. There is a new web site under development called New Faculty and Staff Survival Guide, which was developed in response to requests from faculty and staff. The group viewed a demonstration of an e-learning assessment tool called Learn Track, but decided they were not interested since the cost was so high.
Lou Ann Bradley announced that the Communications Planning Group will meet Thursday, January 30th.
Coy Hoggard reported for the EIS Planning Group that the Fit Gap Analysis has been completed and they are finalizing the Project Plan which will set the schedule for implementation. The project offices have been moved to the Research Park, with a number of Computing Center staff and all of the Ciber consultants out there now. A large number of work areas have been provided for people from this campus and the Health Science Center to work out there as needed. They are also working on filling PeopleSoft tables with data so that a base-line system can be running soon with UNT’s and UNTHSC’s own data. It has been tentatively decided to accelerate implementation of the student system to summer of 2004. Coy stated that, overall, things are going quite well. Cengiz Capan asked if the project is on time and within budget. Coy responded that except for the Project Plan not quite complete, putting it about a month later than expected, that everything was on time and within budget. Coy stated that this should not delay actual project implementation since work is proceeding while the plan is being finalized. It is tentatively expected that the core of the Financial System will be ready in late August, 2003, along with Contributor Relations during the summer; Human Resources should go live in December of 2003, with the Student System following in summer of 2004. Coy expressed concern about the implications of the state budgetary shortfall.
Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Research Planning Group that they met in December and discussed the possibility of the Computing Center using some money that has been dedicated to research support to purchase licenses for financial database content for use by the College of Business faculty. Capan added that most other research universities have this to support teaching and research. He stressed the need for both centralized and distributed research support for faculty, stating that even with grant funds, most faculty members cannot afford to purchase these data sets for their own use.
There was no report from the Standards & Policy Planning Group.
Philip Baczewski reported for the Student Computing Planning Group, since Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner is on maternity leave. Elizabeth is working at home on revisions to the proposed student computing survey.
Dr. Turner reported for the Distributed Learning Team that another video conference classroom in the Gateway Center has been completed and a 6th room is planned for later this year. Also, the College of Education, Dept. of Technology and Cognition has recently received eleven portable video-conferencing units. He reported that WebCT has been running smoothly. The Texas Distance Learning Association annual conference will be held in Austin, March 3-6. The President of the University of Phoenix will be there. The Media Library, the Center for Distributed Learning and the Center for Media Production and University Communications and Marketing are co-hosting 3 installments of the PBS satellite series "Critical Challenges to Distance Education", on Feb. 20th, Chilton Rm. 245, from 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Dr. Turner also reported that of the approximately 29,600 Spring 2003 enrollment numbers, 4,109 are fully on-line, with 6,022 taking at least one on-line class.
Maurice Leatherbury reported that the deadline for this year’s Teaching With Technology grant proposals is February 7, 2003.
Maurice also reported that he attended a recent meeting in Austin where the National Light Rail (a national fiber optics network connecting educational institutions) and plans for connecting to it from various sites in Texas was discussed. It is estimated that it will cost $5 million dollars to develop an access point in Dallas. Although Internet2 was perceived as being a research network, it can no longer be used to do research on networking itself, so there is still a need for a research network, and it is felt that the National Light Rail will fill that need. At the present time, the telecommunications industry has an abundance of fiber that might be available for purchase at a greatly reduced price. It is hoped that a connection to this network can be accomplished, although the budgetary restraints imposed on state agencies will make it less likely.
It is estimated that the Texas Optical Network, which would connect Dallas, Houston and Austin would cost $5-10 million dollars. The Higher Education Working Group for TIF met the past two weeks to come up with a plan that would provide this high speed network to all TIF groups. At this time, it is unknown what implications the current state budget restraints will have on that plan.
Virginia Wheeless announced that in the past the university has not had to report to the Southern Association programs that were offered through the internet. It will now be necessary to report these; with the result that an internet program will have to go through the same scrutiny that a video-conferencing programs have to go through.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m.