UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
March 21, 2006
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, JUDITH ADKISON, PATRICK PLUSCHT, GUILLERMO OYARCE, TIM CHRISTIAN, CHUCK FULLER, LOU ANN BRADLEY, JIM CURRY, TOBYE RAE NELSON, RAMU MUTHIAH, JONEEL HARRIS, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, UWE ROSSBACH, JON NELSON, WIL CLARK (for JOHN PRICE), MARGARET AMBUEHL
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: MAURICE LEATHERBURY, JAMES STRAWN, PHILIP BACZEWSKI, JOHN HOOPER, JOE ADAMO, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: BRUCE HUNTER, RAY BANKS, ROBERT NIMOCKS, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, SARA WILSON MCKAY, CENGIZ CAPAN, DON GROSE, ABRAHAM JOHN, DOUG MAINS, BOBBY CARTER
GUESTS: CHARLOTTE RUSSELL, JENNIFER LAFLEUR
Lou Ann Bradley moved for approval of the minutes of the minutes of the February 21, 2006 meeting, with one typographical correction; the minutes were approved as distributed.
The Chair announced that Sara Wilson McKay is a new representative from the School of Visual Arts, but since she was not present today, he will introduce her at the next meeting.
The Chair announced that there has not been an IR Steering Committee meeting since the last IRC meeting.
Philip Baczewski reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that the committee met on March 3. at which time Craig Terrell of CITC Network Computing Services, reported that the CITC has purchased 6 months of Microsoft Premier Support to cover Microsoft Windows Servers deployed on campus. Craig will be the primary contact for such support and will escalate calls to Microsoft if problems cannot be resolved by on-campus staff. Service from Microsoft under this contract include Infrastructure Support Assistance, 24 x 7 Problem Resolution Support, Information Services, and Support Account Management. A limited number of support hours are available. Windows 2000 Server and above, along with associated software, will be supported. Windows NT 4 servers are no longer supported by Microsoft. Microsoft has offered to help system administrators migrate from NT4 servers to Windows 2000 or above, if UNT assistance is requested. Anyone interested in such service should contact Craig Terrell.
Dell representative, Bill Neiderstadt, was on hand to provide an update on Dell printer service issues and to provide an update on Dell printer offerings. As a result of these discussions, Bill agreed to arrange for a Dell Premier purchasing site for UNT so that we can get Dell's best pricing on printers and printing supplies.
DCSMT did not meet on March 17, since that date was during Spring Break. The next meeting is scheduled for April 7.
Lou Ann Bradley reported that the Communications Planning Group has not met since the last IRC meeting.
Patrick Pluscht reported for the Enhanced Learning Planning Group that this committee has not met, but that he has met with the Distributed Learning Steering Committee and updated the IRC on several items: 1) iTunes sales representative met with Patrick regarding a roll out of this technology to 100 universities (two or three of which are in Texas). UNT will apply to be included in that group by sending in a questionnaire, after which the company will may extend an invitation to UNT. As part of the program, they would like for UNT to have at least 5 or 6 courses that would have a robust use for iTunes university. iTunes will host academic materials for us at no cost for the use of their distribution system through the iTunes music store. Some customization of the product will be allowed. Patrick will discuss support issues with Philip Baczewski. 2) A demonstration was conducted for Intelligent Essay Assessor, a product that is supposed to take student assignments and grade them for the professor. To prepare for this, however, a faculty member would have to provide 300 papers that had already been scored by them, to create a standard for grading. Due to this heavy workload on the front end, this product may be more useful as a writing tool rather than a grading tool. It is rather expensive, at a cost of $.80 per paper; therefore, the group is probably not going to explore it at this time. 3) They have looked at another product called Grade Mark, by the same company that provides us with Turn It In; a 2-month pilot project has been going on for a whileis being considered with the English Dept. The company is also interested in peer review, so Patrick plans to ask Turn It In if they will provide us a similar pilot project UNT department; peer review would exist within WebCT Vista for students to go in and grade each other’s papers.
Joneel Harris reported for the EIS Planning Group that there have been problems with logging into various systems over the last couple of days. Maurice Leatherbury explained that there was a problem with the LDAP server but that it is believed that the problem has been fixed by now.
Joneel reported that the EIS Planning Group is dealing with upgrade issues. About 15 staff from UNT plus around 10 from HSC attended the Alliance Conference over Spring Break, where they looked at upgrade options. Since Oracle has established a migration path from the current version to their new product, called Fusion (a combination of PeopleSoft and Oracle), the committee is discussing what would be the best upgrade plan for UNT. Although the implementation of the upgrade will be a large project, it will not be like the initial installation and implementation. Joneel will keep the IRC posted regarding the committee’s decisions and plans.
Joneel also reported that they have initiated a purchase order to bring in a group to do a CRM workshop in April. The software modules, which are designed for student prospect management, already belong to us, but this workshop will help the EIS project group get started using the software.
Uwe Rossbach asked Joneel if the student advising tracking software was part of CRM. Joneel replied that it is not, but said she would look into the use of Notes in the student advising module.
Tim Christian reported for the Standards and Policy Planning Group that he had brought the final draft of the revised Computing and Information Technology Center General Computing Policy for approval, and distributed the final revision (see Attachment #1). Uwe Rossbach moved for approval of the revised policy; Jon Nelson seconded the motion and the policy was approved unanimously.
Tim reported that his committee is also working on a revision of the Web Publishing Policy. He hopes to have a draft of that document ready for a first reading by the IRC at the end of the spring semester. Tim expressed his appreciation of the General Access Labs for adapting their business processes to accommodate photoless ID cards.
Joneel Harris stated that Educational Testing Services is revamping the way they deliver GRE testing and are assuming that universities can use General Access Labs for that testing. It is not considered practical to use General Access Labs for that purpose; therefore the establishment of a new 100-seat lab is being considered for that purpose, as well as for an on-campus testing facility for distance learning students.
Philip Baczewski reported for Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner that there has been no meeting of the Student Computing Planning Group since the last IRC meeting, so there is no report.
The Chair reported that the recent LDAP server problems put WebCT campus edition out of business. He also reported that the WebCT Vista communication protocol has been activated, and that the migration continues from campus edition to Vista in an effort to have all courses migrated into Vista before the end of Spring semester.
Regarding QEP, the Chair invited everyone to a faculty coffee at 4:30 today in the Diamond Eagle Suite to hear more about this project. He announced that on April 4th and 5th a review team will be on campus to meet with many of the people involved in the project.
Maurice Leatherbury announced that on April 7th, CITC will begin its move to the Research Park. He also reported that he attended the LEARN Board meeting in Austin yesterday and stated that he has been re-elected as Secretary of that organization. Maurice announced that the build-out of the first link in the state-wide fiber optic network has begun and should be completed by the end of this summer. He added that the North Texas Gigapop group is well represented on the LEARN Board now, with 3 of the executives being from the North Texas Gigapop group, and CR Chevli of the CITC staff is Chair of the Technical Advisory Group.
Joneel Harris announced that Oracle wants to get into the learning management arena, but she believes they will not build their own product, but will buy one.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:45 pm.