UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, Chair, JUDITH ADKISON, CAROLYN WHITLOCK, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, RAMU MUTHIAH, KENN MOFFITT, JONEEL HARRIS, VIRGINIA WHEELESS, JENNY JOPLING, PAM HIGHT (for DON GROSE), CRAIG BERRY, JON NELSON, WIL CLARK (for JOHN PRICE), ROBERT NIMOCKS
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: RICHARD HARRIS, JUDY HUNTER, JOE ADAMO, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: PATRICK PLUSCHT, DONNA ASHER, DUNCAN ENGLER, LOU ANN BRADLEY, COY HOGGARD, CENGIZ CAPAN, JIM CURRY, DOUG MAINS, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, TOM JACOB, ARMIN MIKLER, BOBBY CARTER, ABRAHAM JOHN, DUNCAN ENGLER
GUESTS: JENNIFER LAFLEUR, TIM CHRISTIAN
The minutes of the February 18, 2003, and the minutes of the Tuesday, March 11, 2003 meetings were approved as distributed.
The Chair announced that there has not been an IR Steering Committee meeting since the last IRC meeting, but there may possibly be one on Wednesday, April 24th, at which time they expect to discuss the Web Accessibility Policy.
Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that at their last meeting they talked about dropping support for Windows 98 and agreed to encourage people in their departments to stop using old operating systems. The group also discussed a desktop back-up software package but since the cost was prohibitive, they decided to explore other alternatives.
Maurice also announced that notification of the discontinuance of Premium and free dial-up services has been sent out to the UNT campus community by several methods, including a press release, through Benchmarks, and through various electronic mail resources. His staff is looking for other free or low-cost services to suggest to users as alternatives to what UNT has been providing.
Jenny Jopling reported that since the Instruction Planning Group does not currently have a charge, they have not been meeting.
Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Communications Planning Group that they will meet on Thursday, April 24, 2003 to work on revising a Communications Policy that was previously approved by the IRC but never forwarded to the Vice Presidents.
Joneel Harris reported for the EIS Planning Group that the project is progressing satisfactorily. An internal audit of the EIS project is nearly completed, and they are about to begin a quality assurance audit by Ciber. In addition, the Project Management Group has reorganized to provide more time for John Hooper to coordinate the technical side of the project. Bob Woelfel from the Health Science Center will take a more active role with the software module family groups. (?) They are, of course, concerned about the budget cuts and hiring freezes and the impact of those things on the project. The Health Science Center has already had to make cuts in their personnel and expect to have to make more. Of greatest concern is in the area of Contributor Relations, where HSC has already lost 4 out of their 8 positions.
Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Research Planning Group that they have met to discuss research projects that could potentially be funded by the Computing Center. Their next meeting is Thursday, April 24th at 4pm.
Kenn Moffitt reported for the Standards & Policy Planning Group that they have not met since the last IRC meeting, but have a meeting scheduled to work on a GroupWise Policy that they plan to bring to the IRC.
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that they will meet Monday, April 21st at 2pm to work on a draft of the Student Computing survey.
Jenny Jopling reported for the Distance Learning Team that they are scheduled to meet on Thursday, April 24th, but have not met since the last IRC meeting. She stated that there is new verbiage for weather-related university closings which gives additional information related to on-line courses, which are not necessarily stopped by weather conditions. Dr. Turner added that a plan is being formulated that would provide a back-up server in the event the WebCT server should shut down as a result of inclement weather conditions or under any other circumstances.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m.