UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP TURNER, CHAIR, TIM CHRISTIAN, ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, JOHN HOOPER, GARY MATTHEWS, JUDITH ADKISON, RAMU MUTHIAH, SEAN MIKEL-FLOWERS (for JIM BYFORD), WIL CLARK (for JOHN PRICE), LOU ANN BRADLEY, BRUCE HUNTER, BILL JONES
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: JOE ADAMO, PHILIP BACZEWSKI, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: MAURICE LEATHERBURY, YUNFEI DU, FRANCES MAY, JON NELSON, DON GROSE, NOREEN GOGGIN, PATRICK PLUSCHT, WILL SENN, CENGIZ CAPAN, SCOTT WINDHAM, RAY BANKS, ABRAHAM JOHN, DONNA KEENER
GUESTS: CHARLOTTE RUSSELL
Judith Adkison moved for approval of the minutes of the March 11, 2008 meeting with a correction to the spelling of Wil Clark’s name; Tim Christian seconded the motion, and the minutes were approved as corrected.
Philip Baczewski reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that they met on April 4, 2008. Representatives from Hewlett-Packard (HP) were on hand to provide an overview of some of their products which may be of interest to UNT. They previewed a compact laptop computer which is smaller and lighter than others on the market. They also provided an overview of the current HP printer line. Krysta Kaye of CITC Data Communications presented information on the planned upgrade of the campus data network. The five-year plan will result in the replacement of all data switches on the UNT campuses, with the older switches to be targeted first. During the first year of this project, switches will be replaced in 20 buildings on campus, however, minimal network down time is expected. Also at this meeting, Philip Baczewski proposed that the new ITSM call tracking system be put into production operation as of May 12, 2008. This date was accepted by the distributed managers and it was suggested that at least a week be provided to close out tickets in the old Remedy 5 call tracking system. The old system will be unavailable as of May 19, but all tickets from the old system will be available for reference in an archive view within the ITSM application. As an item of old business, Mike Hatch suggested that a group from DCSMT coordinate on Exchange e-mail management now that a number of areas have made the migration from GroupWise. It was proposed that this idea be discussed at greater length at a future meeting of DCSMT.
Lou Ann Bradley asked for a status report of the Exchange migration. Tim Christian said that Arts & Sciences is scheduled for May and June. Judith Adkison reported that Education has completed their migration. Engineering is scheduled to migrate at the end of April.
Dr. Turner reported for the Learning Enhancement Planning Group that the committee has labored diligently on the project to replace or renew WebCT Vista. They are on track to bring their recommendation to the IRC at the May meeting.
Lou Ann Bradley reported that the Communications Planning Group will meet next Tuesday, April 22, 2008, and discuss VPN.
John Hooper reported for the EIS Planning Group that they are planning for the Financial upgrade which is scheduled for next spring. They are starting preliminary planning to include the south Dallas campus in the EIS system. They are about to place an order for more hardware for EIS; it has become apparent that additional memory is needed to improve response time. The additional hardware is also needed to support a Blackboard/Vista database. They are also working on a disaster recovery plan, which will involve getting a database machine for the Research Park for backup. In addition, they are working on increasing the speed of the Cognos reports, and feel they are close to finding the cause of the slowdown.
Tim Christian reported for the Standards & Policy Planning Group that they are looking at the Project Management Policy and the handbook that goes with it. They will run this by the DCSMT before bringing it to the IRC, but prior to that they need people to volunteer to use the Project Management program for a project over $10,000 (either an upcoming project, or a completed project). He asked people to let him know if they want to volunteer.
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that they are finishing up their plans to implement a new student email system. Microsoft Live has been tentatively chosen, and Elizabeth will be presenting it to the SGA next Wednesday.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:20 pm