UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
October 19, 2004
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, LOU ANN BRADLEY, COY HOGGARD (for JONEEL HARRIS), JIM CURRY, PATRICK PLUSCHT, ROBERT NIMOCKS, JON NELSON, SANDRA TERRELL, RAMU MUTHIAH, BRUCE HUNTER, JUDITH ADKISON, SCOTT JOYCE (for CHUCK FULLER)
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: JONEEL HARRIS, JOE ADAMO, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, MARGARET AMBUEHL, KATHY SWIGGER, MAX KAZEMZADEH, DON GROSE, ABRAHAM JOHN, CENGIZ CAPAN, JOHN PRICE, RICHARD HARRIS, KENN MOFFITT, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, DOUG MAINS, BOBBY CARTER, CHUCK FULLER
GUESTS: JENNIFER LAFLEUR
Sandra Terrell moved for approval of the minutes of the September 21, 2004 minutes; Patrick Pluscht seconded the motion and the minutes were approved as distributed.
The Chair reported that at the last meeting of the President’s Council he and Richard Harris presented the E-mail Retention Policy and Procedures; however, they had a very short time for discussion so he plans to bring up the issue again at the next meeting of the Council. Dr. Turner stated that he believes that the Vice Presidents need more information on this matter.
Patrick Pluscht reported that the Learning Enhancement Planning Group has not yet met, explaining that there are several dual appointments on this group and on the Distance Learning Steering Committee, which is the policy-making body. He plans to call a meeting of the Planning Group after the Steering Committee meets in November. Patrick distributed an announcement of future seminars on distance learning (see Attachment #1) and asked the group for suggestions on how to best publicize such events. Several suggestions were offered, including posting the event on the EIS My Training module, using the Television display, and email.
Patrick also announced a call for proposals for Learning Enhancement grants totaling $150,000 offered by the Provost, stating that the proposals could be for inter- or multi-disciplinary instruction, or use of technology to improve the students’ educational experience. The deadline for submission is November 1, 2004, and the awards will be made by mid-December. To obtain more information regarding these grants, one can go to the Center for Distributed Learning web page and look up Learning Enhancement Grants.
Lou Ann Bradley reported that the Communications Planning Group has not met.
Coy Hoggard reported for the EIS Planning Group that they have been taking a close look at a concern expressed to them that too many people have access to sensitive information in the system. He clarified that not everyone has access to all information. Social Security numbers are no longer used as identifiers, but social security numbers are still in the system, and is part of the information available for secondary confirmation of identification, if needed. They have received a patch to the software that offers a way of masking all but the last 4 digits of the social security number, in an effort to add more security, and they are making sure that only the most appropriate people have access to this information. The group is also working to improve reporting procedures. They have engaged PeopleSoft services to provide assistance with the RDS project which will assist with extracting information from the transaction database and put it in a more reporting-friendly database.In addition, they are proceeding with the implementation of the Budget Module, which is part of EPM (Enterprise Performance Measurement), and which they hope to have completed this Fall. This will replace the current reporting system.
In response to a question about slow processing speed, Coy stated that they continue to tune the system, and have borrowed equipment from Sun to boost processing power. He believes that processing speeds have improved since early September.
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported that the Student Computing Planning Committee has not met, but that General Access Lab Managers have been working with Facilities to get better signage and a map showing where all the general access labs are. They plan to post the map at all of the labs. Elizabeth has been exploring computer-based training possibilities, and integrating this into the EIS system. Use of the EIS MyTraining Module will be a good way to publicize training or assigning specific training to people.
Sandy Shelton, Director of Purchasing and Payment Services, by invitation of the Chair, spoke to the Council regarding the new EPro purchasing system and the procedure for processing legal contracts through the Purchasing system. Sandy explained that because of EIS there have been a lot of changes in Purchasing procedures and a reorganization of the PPS office. They have dedicated a full-time position to Contracts Administration, and are trying to fill that position presently. She also announced that there is a new University Attorney, Alan Stucky, who will be dedicated to handling contracts for UNT. PPS is currently working with the Attorney to establish a working procedure for handling contracts that are associated with purchase orders. Sandy stated that she is aware that the handling of legal contracts associated with purchase orders has been a problem area in the past. She explained that any EPro requisition that is submitted, and which involves a legal contract, should have that contract attached to the requisition.
Sandy also confirmed that the dollar limit for a requisition with three quotes has been raised from $10,000 to $25,000 per order. She stated that the revised dollar limit and the legal contract procedure will be addressed in the next issue of the Spreadsheet. Sandy fielded several questions from the group regarding turnaround time for orders, and how to track requisitions through the system.
Dr. Turner announced that there would be discussion at the next IRC meeting regarding WebCT Vista problems and their resolution. He announced briefly that a private hotfix from Vista had been installed and that Vista has pulled people to work only on the UNT implementation.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.