Minutes

May 4, 2001

Willard 005

Present: Don Adams (Philosophy), Paul Altieri (Economics), David Blitz (Honors), Don Blume (English), Lynn Bonesio-Peterson (Registrar's), Sharon Braverman (Sch.of Business), Tom Burkholder (Chemistry), Joan Calvert (CS), Jim Conway (Psychology), Bruce Day (Sociology), Thom Delventhal (Theatre), Tom Eisenlohr (Registrar's), Scott Erardi (Media Center), Antonio Garcia-Lozada (Modern Languages), Bob Hayes (IS), Peter LeMaire (Physics), Amy Magno (IS), Brian O'Connell (CS), Dave Orschel (IS), Sherry Pesino (Media Center), Lisa Ricci (IS), Glenn Sunshine (History), Roy Temple (Media Center).

The meeting was called to order by Tom Burkholder at 2:05 p.m.

1. The minutes of March 2, 2001 were approved.
     
2. Announcements. The Information Technology Committee (ITC) was approved by the Faculty Senate and is awaiting President Judd's signature. (We learned that the President signed the bill after the meeting.) Elections for members will be conducted within the schools, library, and AFSCME. The Senate Steering Committee has asked Paul Altieri as chair of the ad hoc committee on information technology to coordinate the election. Paul asked if he should go ahead with the election at this late date, since the timing of nominations and voting would probably go into the summer. The consensus was to have the elections completed before the fall semester begins.
   
   Sherry Pesino reported on the workshops that she coordinated. There were 12 workshops, with 103 different attendees and total attendance of 130; some people attended more than one session. Out of all these individuals, only a handful completed the questionnaire. She urges everyone who participated to provide feedback so that she can make changes and improvements next year. You can click here to go to the evaluation form.
     
3. Old Business. None.   
     
4. Status of computer orders. Amy Magno provided an update on faculty computer upgrades. Seventy new computers for A&S faculty have been ordered and are expected to arrive in 2 to 3 weeks. She will meet with Paul Altieri next week to make decisions on the next group of machines. Current configurations are Dell PIII 933, 256MB RAM, 20GB HDD, CD-RW and 17" monitor. The laptops are Dell Latitude PIII 650, 128 MB RAM, and 6-10 GB HDD. All the Macs are G4, 533MHZ and 256 MB RAM.
   
   Some departments did not indicate on their inventory sheets what type of computer their members wanted. Paul Altieri sent out emails to those involved, but a number of people have not responded. Their computers have not and will not be ordered until we hear from them. If you are one of those affected, please send Paul an email indicating whether you want a PC, MAC, desktop or laptop.
     
5. Roy Temple presented an update on the classroom multimedia stations. The rooms in Vance and the equipment that will be added to 10 additional rooms on campus will be virtually identical and similar to the current configuration. They will have a desktop PC with a CD-RW drive, and Zip and floppy disks. The current stations with laptops will be retrofitted with desktop machines. The computers have been ordered for the rooms on the ground floor of Vance; rooms 105 and 204 will be the last to be done. 
   
   At present the instructor faces away from the class when using the computer. Roy noted that the cabinets are not bolted to the floor and can be rotated. Also, they are experimenting with a wireless keyboard and mouse and if these work the instructor will not need to go to the cabinet to control the computer. 
   
   When Roy listed the rooms where he installed equipment, Tom Eisenlohr countered that two of the rooms in Copernicus do not have computers. It seems that at least three different numbers may refer to the same rooms. Tom Eisenlohr uses one number when scheduling classes, Lisa Ricci uses another when she administers the computers, and Tom Burkholder said that a different 7 digit number is on the door. Something should be done to clear this up.
     
6. Lynn Bonesio-Peterson, Tom Eisenlohr and Bob Hayes reported on the registration period with Banner. A total of 5400 students registered, 84% on the web. There was confusion with pin numbers. The instructions directed the students to use the last 6 digits of their Social Security number as printed on their ID card as their pin number. However, two digits are added to the SSN on the ID and many students were not able to access their data. There was a technical problem on the first day, but once it was corrected the following days went smoothly. 
     
   Some changes need to be made. Faculty can access lists of courses, but secretaries, who often need this information, cannot. They may move that data outside the protected area so that everyone would be able to view it. This would be very similar to the OPENCLOSE listings we currently have on the VAX. Chairs need class lists for all members of their departments and faculty need transcripts for advising. The Banner Team will need to identify different groups that need different kinds of information, such as secretaries, advisors, teaching faculty, chairs and deans. Once appropriate security is set for each group they will conduct training. The client program requires more training that the web client. Classes will first concentrate on navigating through the menus, and subsequent sessions will cover the proceses. 
     
   The issue of using the SSN for the login name and having it appear unencrypted on the screen was raised. Brian O'Connell noted that if someone's identity is stolen as a result of this disclosure, the University might be open to a lawsuit. Lynn Bonesio-Peterson said that she will see if a different Banner will accept a different identification number or if the number can be encrypted, the same as the password.
     
   Summer registration for incoming freshmen will be on the web. When students arrive on campus for 5 days in June, they will not have NT accounts. Lisa Ricci said that she can enable the computers in the registration room with a generic login. As long as the students can get to a browser they will be able to complete their registration. They will also be able to register from home over the web. 
     
   Lynn Bonesio-Peterson noted that faculty will have the option to go back to the former advising system by requiring students to get a pin number from a faculty advisor before registering. Sharon Braverman asked if students who are minoring in Business can register for courses that are restricted to Business majors since those courses are also required for minors. Tom Eisenlohr stated that Banner does not allow for minor programs and that the School of Business will have to handle all minors manually or open all of its courses to all students.
      
7. The future of the Arts and Sciences Computer Committee in light of the establishment of the campus-wide Information Technology Committee was debated. The A&S committee has been in continuous operation since 1985 and it has been a vehicle for sharing of ideas and dissemination of information. Tom Burkholder asked if we might spend more time with demonstrations and sharing our classroom and online techniques with each other. Would we do this as a full committee or split into discipline-specific groups? We could highlight projects that others have done. We might have workshops on more advanced topics that are of common interest such as forms, etc. Bruce Day felt that the committee was a good way for him to get information and share it with his department. The ITC will have members from different areas of Arts and Sciences, but many departments will not be individually represented. Amy Magno and Brian O'Connell felt that we should take a wait-and-see approach. The new committee will not meet until the fall and the direction that it will take is still unknown. There was a consensus that we should continue as usual and adapt to changes when the need arises.
     
8. New Business. Lisa Ricci reported that CSU is buying a license for SAS and that will make it possible for SAS to be on the Citrix server. At present the Citrix server is limited to 50 users. If they find that more people need to use it, they will expand the license. She also said that they are planning to put up a bulletin board, similar to the one that had been on the VAX for many years. Dave Orschel is working on the server for WebCT and hopes to have the machine ready by next week. He is not familiar with the WebCT software, but he hopes to have it running soon. Paul Altieri asked if there is a feature in Outlook to collect votes for an election responses for a survey. It wasn't clear if this could be done. Dave Blitz noted that it can be done in FileMaker Pro. 
      
9. The meeting was adjourned at 3:35 p.m.

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