UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
September 21, 2004
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: RICHARD HARRIS (for PHILIP TURNER), Chair, PHILIP BACZEWSKI (for ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER), LOU ANN BRADLEY, JONEEL HARRIS, JIM CURRY, DON GROSE, ABRAHAM JOHN, CENGIZ CAPAN, WIL CLARK (for JOHN PRICE), PATRICK PLUSCHT, ROBERT NIMOCKS, SCOTT KREJCI (for JON NELSON), KATHY SWIGGER, MAX KAZEMZADEH, SANDRA TERRELL
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: COY HOGGARD, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: CHUCK FULLER, RAMU MUTHIAH, BRUCE HUNTER, JUDITH ADKISON, JOE ADAMO, KENN MOFFITT, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, DOUG MAINS, BOBBY CARTER
GUESTS: PAUL DWORAK, DOUG WELCH, KELLY DONAHUE-WALLACE
All members were introduced, this being the first meeting of the FY05 term and there were several new members.
Patrick Pluscht moved for approval of the June, 2004 minutes; Don Grose seconded the motion and the minutes were approved as distributed. Joneel Harris noted a correction later to the 6th paragraph on page 2 as follows: "In response to a question, Joneel explained that when a student applies for admission a notification is sent to that student giving them an EUID and a student ID."
Dr. Paul Dworak spoke to the group about E-mail retention, as a part of the university records retention policy, and Maurice Leatherbury distributed two draft documents for approval by the council, "Electronic Mail Usage and Retention Policy," (Attachment 1) and "Electronic Records Retention at UNT Standards and Procedures" (Attachment 2). These proposed policy and procedure documents are an attempt to make the best effort possible to manage and safeguard records, in order to meet state auditing requirements within UNT’s economic capability, as explained by Dr. Dworak. If these procedures are approved, there will be training provided. Discussion followed. Since these documents were presented at a prior meeting, there was a motion to approve by Kelly Donahue-Wallace, seconded by Don Grose and the council voted to approve the policy as presented.
Richard Harris reported that the IR Steering Committee had not met since the last IRC meeting so there was no report.
Maurice Leatherbury reported that the Distributed Computing Support Management Team has been meeting regularly. There is a sub-committee looking into Instant Messaging and is still working on a recommendation. There has been discussion of a policy on expiring EUID passwords. The new policy is that these passwords will expire every 120 days and strong passwords are now required.
Patrick Pluscht reported for the Enhanced Learning Planning Group that they are re-forming and adding new members. The group has negotiated a contract for a campus-wide site-license for "Turn It In.com" software for use by faculty to search for duplication of material in papers submitted by students.
Lou Ann Bradley reported for the Communications Planning Group that they met last week and discussed possible future projects. Bradley requested suggestions for projects and issues for their group to consider.
Richard Harris reported his having attended a meeting with Verizon where he received very positive input from a North Texas Exes member regarding the wireless at UNT.
There was some discussion about Instant Messaging and other collaborative messaging techniques now available.
Joneel Harris reported for the EIS Planning Group that the implementation of EIS has been very successful, and that Fall Registration was very successful. With other universities around the country experiencing difficulties with their PeopleSoft implementations, UNT feels very fortunate to be having such a good implementation. Joneel praised all of the team members and end users who have played key roles in making UNT’s implementation so successful. She explained that doing the load balancing testing and finding out beforehand that there was not enough equipment in place was a big help. They were able to obtain the needed equipment on loan from Sun Microsystems and get it installed prior to registration. In addition, they are working on improved reporting capabilities, and she acknowledged that the Portal is an area that needs more work.
Kathy Swigger asked about the rumor of the possible sell-off of PeopleSoft. Coy Hoggard speculated that IBM might be interested in buying PeopleSoft in an effort to keep Oracle from monopolizing the field, but there is nothing definite about this now.
There was no report from the Research Planning Group.
Maurice Leatherbury reported that things have been heating up on the state-wide network front. The Legislature passed a bill granting 7-1/2 million dollars to the state for that network and it is hoped that the Governor will soon release those funds.
There was no report from the Standards & Policy Planning Group.
Philip Baczewski reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that the group has tentative plans to make the student computing survey an annual event.
Cengiz Capan suggested that the Planning groups be given a new charge at the beginning of each new year, and that a status report be given by each group to the Chair or Council prior to the beginning of each new year. Kathy Swigger suggested that one of the groups could address issues concerning Web site development and management. Cengiz further suggested that everyone send suggestions of new issues and questions to Dr. Turner prior to the next IRC meeting. Richard Harris, who was chairing today’s meeting in Dr. Turner’s place, said he would talk with him about this.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.