UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
January 18, 2005
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, JONEEL HARRIS, JENNIFER LAFLEUR (for DON GROSE), ROBERT NIMOCKS, BRUCE HUNTER, MARGARET AMBUEHL, ANDY NOVAK (for KENN MOFFITT), CHUCK FULLER, PATRICK PLUSCHT, JUDITH ADKISON, KATHY SWIGGER
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: COY HOGGARD, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, PHILIP BACZEWSKI, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: JON NELSON, CENGIZ CAPAN, JOHN PRICE, JON NELSON, RAMU MUTHIAH, JIM CURRY, LOU ANN BRADLEY, SANDRA TERRELL, JOE ADAMO, MAX KAZEMZADEH, ABRAHAM JOHN, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, DOUG MAINS, BOBBY CARTER
The minutes of the October 19, 2004, November 16, 2004, and December 21, 2004 meetings were approved as distributed.
The Chair reported that there had been no IR Steering Committee meeting since the last IRC meeting.
Phillip Baczewski reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that at their last meeting they reviewed the implementation of strong passwords, stating that as of December 31, 2004, any passwords that had not been changed to a strong password were set to expire. To date about 90% of the passwords have been changed to strong ones. More publicity about the need for strong passwords is planned. In addition, DCSMT has a subcommittee to evaluate a variety of different kinds of software that will sync GroupWise to pda’s of various kinds. The subcommittee’s job will be to evaluate, test, obtain pricing and pursue the possibility of obtaining a campus-wide site license for one of the software packages.
Kathy Swigger asked if GroupWise would always be UNT’s email of choice. Maurice Leatherbury replied that there are no plans to change it at this time. Patrick Pluscht asked if Intellisync software is being considered as one of the software packages. Philip replied that Intellisync remains an option, but the expense of Intellisync is one reason that other products are being examined.
Patrick Pluscht reported that the Learning Enhancement Planning Group has not met since the December meeting. Patrick reported that they plan to announce the grant recipients very soon. He also reported that training has been completed for 130 to 140 registered users of Turn It In.com and they expect an increase in that number as classes begin.
Kathy Swigger asked if WebCT had the capability to report the number of students enrolled in on-line courses. Patrick responded that WebCT was not designed to give that kind of report. Dr. Turner added that there is information available to departments who have applied for the distributed learning funding model that will tell where students live who sign up for on-line courses.
Joneel Harris reported for the EIS Planning Group that they are working on the issue of reports, which seems to be one of the biggest problem areas. They are about to attempt to put out their first data warehousing report which will require pulling data from three sources. They met this week to discuss the use of RDS to create a data mart, because this is critical data for budgeting. Joneel reported that the loaner equipment Sun let UNT use has been returned and she was glad to report that during the latest registration period its absence was not noticed, even with 4000 students registering on a single day. With just a slight slow down in response time, things went quite well. In addition, the grade reporting function went well also.
Margaret Ambuehl reported that Human Resources is also working very hard to try and make more reports more easily available to distributed areas.
Joneel continued that in the Finance area, the development of the Budget Module is the biggest thing going on. She was aware of some problems with EPM, which is the budget data warehousing tool. Also, Contributor Relations has been looking at imaging because of some issues with their current imaging system. Joneel noted that Mr. Diebel has asked that some of the budget initiatives for the coming year be adjusted to put more emphasis on support in the area of report development. In response to a question from Kathy Swigger, Joneel stated that she believes the implementation of the EIS system to be at around 75-80% at this time, but pointed out that the finish work and fine tuning on a project of this type goes very slowly. Joneel introduced Andy Novak, who she explained was hired as part of the project management team, and who has developed a project portfolio management approach, which involves cost benefit analysis for completed projects.
Joneel continued that data warehousing tools are how they hope to put data into the hands of the people who need it, so that these people can create their own ad hoc reports. It’s going to be a while before they reach their goal in this area, however.
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that they had recently met with Jesse Davis, President of the SGA, to discuss publicizing the need for strong passwords, which everyone is now required to use. In addition, the General Access Lab managers are working on better signage for the campus, and they expect to have the new signs up before Spring Break.
Dr. Turner reported that work continues with WebCT to resolve all of the outstanding issues with their software product, with an eye toward the March 31 deadline to either go back to the previous campus edition of the software or continue working with Vista. Discussion followed regarding the specific issue of load balancing with Maurice Leatherbury stating that CITC is trying to get an evaluation model of a new load balancer and will either replace current load balancers or add to them. WebCT has devoted additional resources to providing help for UNT’s situation, and in addition UNT has formed a group of "heavy user universities" who talk together regularly to share issues and solutions. Kathy Swigger asked if other products are being looked at, and Dr. Turner replied that if on March 31st they decide not to continue with Vista, then other alternatives will be considered.
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner added that a large sign at the Willis Library will be a campus map that shows all of the labs. She noted that Willis lab is still the only 24-hour lab, but she hopes there will eventually be another area as desirable as the Willis Library . Elizabeth also noted that students can access lab availability from the UNT.GAL.edu website.
Patrick Pluscht suggested that UNT look into a toll-free phone conference service for faculty to have conference calls with students. Since CITC would have to provide this, Maurice Leatherbury said he would check into it.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.