April 4, 2002
PRESENT ABSENT Dr. Jack Armistead Ms. Taunia Coe Mr. Eric Brown representing Dr. Martha Kosa Dr. Sheila Green Mr. Frank Bush Dr. Martha Kosa Mr. Rick Cashion Dr. Jeff Plant Mr. Travis Shears representing Ms. Taunia Coe Mr. Kevin Givens Dr. Jon Booker Mr. Jodie Swafford Mr. Charlie Ferrill Dr. Tom Furtsch Dr. Craig Henderson VISITORS Dr. Glenn Johnson Dr. Bob Clougherty Dr. Francis Otuonye Ms. Monica Greppin Dr. Carl Owens Mr. Jim Johnson Dr. Gary Pickett Mr. John Smith Dr. Winston Walden
APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Dr. Jon Booker made a motion to approve the agenda. Dr. Tom Furtch seconded the motion.
APPROVAL OF OCT 4, 2001 MINUTES: Dr. Carl Owens made a correction to the October 4, 2001 minutes. October 4, 2001, minutes have been corrected.
STATUS REPORT ON RECYCLING OF LAB COMPUTERS TO DEPARTMENTS:
Mr. Frank Bush /Mr. Jim Johnson
Mr. Bush said it was discussed at Dean's Council how many computers go out on line to upgrade and where they will go. Mr. Bush asked if there was a finalized list as to where the computers would go. Mr. Reese said we have a finalized list with one correction to make: the computers that were coming out do not have enough memory to support new operating systems. Mr. Reese said there would be some cost to the department to get computers upgraded. The cost will range from $40.00 to $100.00 with the average around $50.00. Mr. Bush said there were 162 computers to be relocated. Mr. Jim Johnson said letters would be sent based on the information we have. Mr. Reese said letters were ready to send out to individual people that are on the list. Dr. Pickett asks if the list would be sent to the Provost before going out. Mr. Reese said yes. Mr. Reese said we do not have any permanent funding to replace faculty and staff computers.
STATE OF AFFAIRS WITH ADMINISTRATIVE COMPUTING:
Mr. Richard Cashion
Mr. Cashion said that in the mid 80's the TBR decided that all TBR schools should be running the same administrative software. After some deliberations they went with Information Associates (IA). In 1993 Systems Computers Technology (SCT) bought out IA. SCT is now our current vendor for administrative software. When SCT bought IA they already had a completive product, now they have two completive products, and are completive with themselves. One software was an older technology, which is what we have, and this is based on a relation data base oracle. SCT said they were going to keep everything together and then after a year or so they were going to merge all the systems together into state of the art technology using Java server pages an oracle data base SQL server that will run on any platform. Mr. Cashion said they worked on this project several years and it is called a Relationship Levered Solution (RLS). After several years of working on this SCT decided they could not do it. This was too much technology and a lack of standards in the industry at that level of technology, so we were reduced to a punt, which means us being on the older Technology System. Mr. Cashion said we are in a maintenance status. There would be no functional enhancements as far as adding new functionality to the system. SCT is providing us with some migration tools to move to a better system. The Board is currently in discussion with SCT about migrating to this. Tech will be one of the Pilot schools. The earliest implementation for FR would be July 1, 2003; HR, January 1, 2004 and Student Systems would be 2 years. Others could be completed in the next 6 months. A statewide system running from the time the first school begins and the last school finishes has a projection time of seven years. Mr. Cashion said the cost would be substantial.
STATUS OF TTU WEB PAGE:
Ms. Monica Greppin
Ms. Greppin reported to the committee that they were taking a good look at the TTU website, and were looking into reconstructing it. Ms. Gripping said the home page would be an audience driven menu. The reconstruction would be set up in groups: student, departments, faculty, staff etc. Ms. Gripping said student needs are different from faculty needs, thus we need to gear each of these sites from our homepage to meet the needs of that audience. Ms Gripping said they would be doing the reconstructing in different audience layers. She said that offices and departments would be in phase 2 of this layering. Ms Greppin said software has been ordered to do a university wide Calendar. The calendar is separated into topics for ex; there might be an academic, cultural events, sports events etc. It will be structured so you can go in and select any given day and see what is happening. Ms. Gripping said the key to this is to keep the calendar updated and maintained. We will have designated staffers to do maintenance on the calendar from different departments on campus.
WEB CT:
Dr. Bob Clougherty
Dr. Bob Clougherty reported to the IT Committee that the Institute for Technology Scholarship was opened on February 18, 2002. The Institute is for faculty support in the use of Technology in the classrooms. The Institute has training, tutoring and vendor workshops facilities to help faculty learn how to use WebCT. The WebCT server currently has 2048 faculty and 157 courses. Dr. Clougherty said that thirty seven percent of our faculty has had WebCT training. Ms. Lauren Neal just prepared a set of templates for faculties who need a jump-start for getting their WebCT courses going. Dr. Armistead asked if the Institute could hire a student to help train faculty. Dr. Clougherty said the Institute has staff to do training sessions, and this is our responsibility to be there for faculty. Dr. Furtch asked to plan for future use of WebCT in some way to administer examines on campus. Mr. Reese said the problem is if we have 10 labs taking test the servers will use a lot of resources. Mr. Reese said the real intent was for a student to take examines over a days time or a 4 hour period. Mr. Reese said this would not be in everyone best interest to let student take examines over a long period of time. Mr. Frank Bush said a second processor was on order and should arrive next week. The old processor should be replace beginning of fall term.
IT PLANNING PROCESS:
Mr. Danny Reese
Mr. Reese moved toward doing the IT form electronically, using Microsoft Word. The planning process has several forms; some new forms have been added. Form C was a new form added, this form was for faculty and staff requesting computer replacements. Form F was for the needs of central services, needs of the department. Form G is a Vision form, which means if we had the money what would we request. Mr. Reese mentioned that 1.5 million dollars was spent out of TAF monies. Mr. Reese said the plan was sent out March 15 and was due back to the provost office April 17.
Dr. Gary Pickett made a request that the IT plan should start earlier. Dr. Pickett asks that it start around October. He asked that the time frame go before the Sub Committee.
SUCH OTHER MATTERS:
Mr. Frank Bush said there was a complaint about a printer not duplexing in the Johnson Hall lab. The conclusion; fixed printer in 2 minutes.
Dr. Carl Owens asked if the campus was moving to campus wireless networking. Mr. Reese said we are looking at products that will come out to accommodate wireless networking. Mr. Eric Brown asked if a wireless network would change current usage. Mr. Bush said it would present a challenge. Mr. Reese said we are going to move in the wireless direction.
Mr. Reese asked that a new Chairperson be elected electronically by May 3, 2002.
ADJOURN:
Dr. Carl Owens made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 3:45 p.m. Dr. Jon Booker seconded the motion. The motion carried.