UNT IRC Meeting Minutes
April 17, 2007
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
April 17, 2007
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, CHAIR, PATRICK PLUSCHT, TIM CHRISTIAN, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, JOHN HOOPER, ERIN MURRELL (for CHRISTY CRUTSINGER), UWE ROSSBACH, MARGARET AMBUEHL, LOU ANN BRADLEY, PAUL HONS (for JUDITH ADKISON), RAMU MUTHIAH, SARA WILSON MCKAY
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: JOE ADAMO, CHARLIE ANDREWS, MAURICE LEATHERBURY, PHILIP BACZEWSKI, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: JOHN PRICE, BRUCE HUNTER, ROBERT NIMOCKS, CENGIZ CAPAN, JIM CURRY, GUILLERMO OYARCE, STEVEN KING, SCOTT WINDHAM, DON GROSE, GINNY ANDERSON, JON NELSON, RAY BANKS, BOBBY CARTER, ABRAHAM JOHN
GUESTS PRESENT: JIM BYFORD, CHARLOTTE RUSSELL, TROY JOHNSON
The minutes of the March 13, 2007 meeting were approved as distributed.
Philip Baczewski reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that they met on March 16 and again on April 6. On March 16, a scheduled demo of the Horizon Wimba service was postponed due to technical difficulties. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner gave a presentation on SkillPort CBT offerings. KnowledgeNet will be available through May. Office 2007 and Vista CBT will be available by the end of the 2nd quarter. CBT is available to students, faculty, staff and HSC at www.unt.edu/cbt . Philip Baczewski provided an update on the AD/Exchange migration project. DCSMT members unanimously expressed support for using the existing EUID values for primary login for Active Directory and Exchange. Uwe Rossbach, reporting for an ad hoc subcommittee on coordinating the Office 2007 rollout, related that there was no agreed-upon coordinated date for implementing Office 2007 on campus computers. Different areas have different requirements for their rollout time frame, so efforts need to be
concentrated on supporting import or export of appropriate file formats. It was noted that new and returning students in the Fall of 2007 will likely have Office 2007 on their computers.
At the April 6 meeting of DCSMT, Rich Anderson of the CITC Security Team
discussed security incident reporting, asking members what information was requested and how should it be delivered. DCSMT members expressed that they would like to know the number and nature of security incidents on a monthly basis, perhaps as a summary version of the report UNT supplies to the DIR. Rich related that there has been a decline in the number of incidents since August of 2005, with the current average being about 5 incidents per month on the campus network and 20 per month on Resnet. Tim Christian, at the request of the DCSMT chair, relayed a status update regarding the Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange migration project. DCSMT is next scheduled to meet on April 20.
Patrick Pluscht distributed a UNT Learning Management System Evaluation Project Update (see Attachment #1), which lists the four products that will be demonstrated during April and May of 2007. This Evaluation Project is a result of the new charge by the IRC for the Learning Enhancement Planning Group to evaluate learning management systems. Patrick asked members to note how they can participate in this process of evaluation. Patrick stated that a faculty member of the College of Engineering, as well as a member of the Health Science Center, has been added to the Planning Group’s membership. They have completed the design of a survey and plan to send this out to students and faculty.
Lou Ann Bradley reported for the Communications Planning Group that they have met and discussed the firewall, and then deferred to Joe Adamo to make the report. Joe explained that they will be looking at three issues revolving around the firewall: 1) implementation of VPN access to campus; 2) how they will block existing locations (staff and faculty computers); and 3) creating a DMZ (area where you put computers that have to be seen by the outside world, such as research machines). The committee discussed various options and came up with priorities: 1) looking at a VPN solution; Datacomm will be taking responsibility for polling the campus and the network managers to find out requirements for a VPN solution; 2) looking at the blocking issue – are there any places where we can say, with the agreement of the network managers, that do not need to be seen by the outside the world – and trying to lower UNT’s profile; and 3) DMZ, which is a lot more complicated as to how it can be developed. This last is the most difficult and will be taken up last. Tim Christian asked, just for clarification, if the firewall is up and running, and Joe replied that it is. Joe added that in actuality the firewall has been running for the last two weeks without any problems. They have made some minor configuration changes in what we were logging and also how many simultaneous sessions were allowed, and it appears that this is either masking the problem, or has fixed it. In the meantime, they have stopped having to re-boot the firewall every morning. They are, however, still working on a permanent fix.
John Hooper reported for the EIS Planning Group that the PeopleSoft V. 8.9 upgrade is underway; therefore, no new development activities can take place at this time. They plan to move over to the new version in November of 2007. A lot of testing will take place before then, including the use of the previously acquired load-runner testing software. The group is also looking at refreshing the EIS hardware with a goal of purchasing fewer hardware devices with more capacity and lower support costs. In addition, they have kicked off the budget preparation project, for which they bought a Cognos Enterprise Planning System to use for the budget preparation system. Another project is the CRM project for Graduate Admissions; this is to go on line the first of May. They are getting good data on this project thus far. Troy Johnson commented that those students who have tested the system have given very positive feedback. In response to a question about the cost of the planned hardware refresh, John Hooper estimated the cost to be around $1 million, funding for which was included as a budget line item in this year’s budget.
Tim Christian presented a revised Computer Use Policy for the Standards & Policy Planning Group (see Attachment #2) and pointed out the changes and additions that have been made. Tim also distributed a Computer Access Matrix as a reference document associated with the Computer Use Policy (see Attachment #3). Tim pointed out that this is a first reading of the revised policy and a vote will be called for at the May IRC meeting. Members were urged to send comments regarding the proposed policy to Tim.
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that they have been meeting via email regarding a proposal from a gentleman from College Station who wished to set up a computer hardware repair store on campus that would repair students’ personal computers. Their proposal included a student fee to be charged along with their tuition and other fees. Although the proposal was not feasible, since the company has not actually formed yet, Elizabeth said it brought to hers and others’ attention that there indeed is a need for a repair service for students and she is pursuing this for the future. It seems that RESNET used to have just such a service for students that was much more reasonably priced than what is now available to students.
The other issue Elizabeth has been dealing with is upcoming student orientation sessions, and possible improvements to the format, along with the possible production of a video of FAQs and by making information available electronically. Both Dr. Turner and Troy Johnson encouraged Elizabeth to pursue more innovative means of providing orientations to new students, such as interactive, computer-oriented sessions.
Dr. Turner announced that there will be a QEP Faculty Forum at 2:00 pm, on May 11, 2007, in Union 411. Three of the faculty fellows, from Chemistry, World Literature, and Business Communications, will present their courses, as developed over the last 8 months.
Dr. Turner also announced that he has had a meeting with the Provost regarding the development of a Testing Center and the new Provost is favorably disposed to the ideas presented. In addition, 2 course redesign projects were approved to propose, and they are: Algebra I - Developmental Math, and US History II - Developmental Writing, as combined classes. Awards of up to $ ¼ million each are available.
Philip Baczewski announced that he has an article in the current issue of Benchmarks in which he reports the status of the Microsoft Active Directory conversion. There will be a regular feature in Benchmarks to keep the campus updated on the progress of this project.
Maurice Leatherbury passed around a sample of a visual aid that will be provided to all computer users at UNT when the conversion is made to Microsoft Outlook.
Uwe Rossbach asked about the possibility of cutting back on the large number of emails sent out by the Registrar’s office. He also inquired if there was further status available on the compatibility of our computer systems with ie7. John Hooper stated that Oracle probably will not certify that until UNT has completed the upgrade to EIS.
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner announced that she has an article in Benchmarks concerning recommendations to students and their parents as to what computer software and hardware configurations to buy when they enroll at UNT.
Patrick Pluscht asked if there was any update in the use of CopySense to detect the illegal use of copyrighted materials. Charlotte Russell responded stating that they are working out technical issues. CopySense is already being used to monitor systems, but the feature that would actually block the transfer of illegal files has not yet been enabled. The first area to have that policing feature turned on will be RESNET. The product will be configured so that it will not cut off something without authority from the Security Team. The Security Team will be working with Student Development to set up some rules for implementation before CopySense is made fully functioning.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.