Minutes of the Computing Advisory Committee Meeting

April 13, 1999

 

Those attending: Jim Belk (for Al Allen), David Blakesley, JP Dunn, Jim Duggan, Larry Schilling, Carolyn Snyder, Brad Wilcke, Tom Petroski, Duke Koch, Ruth Bernhart

 

Discussion began with Jim Belk reporting on IT plans for upgrading the dial-up modem bank. He reported that more than $71,000 had been authorized to upgrade the slowest of the modems to 56K standards, and that Chancellor Argersinger may add $70,000 to that figure. They would also be upgrading the switching system. Ultimately there may be as many as 192 56K modems and an additional 96 28.8K. After some discussion on time limits it was decided to postpone a decision until the exact number and type of new modems was known.

 

The question of the status of the Midwest Internet bid was raised, and Geoff will contact the Chancellor to find out where it currently stands.

 

Jim also announced that fiber is being installed in Grinnell and Trueblood, as well as $80,000 in electronics. There is also a proposal to Housing to wire all of the residence halls with 10BaseT wiring. If all timing works correctly this will be a Board item for the May meeting and it could be ready as early as August. The old residence hall modem pool will be kept because not all students may want to pay for access to the fiber.

 

Duke asked about wiring the Blue Barracks `across the tracks'. Jim replied that people seemed unsure whether it constituted a permanent installation, but they continue to investigate whether it was possible, and whether fiber or some other type of installation, such as T1 or DSL might be cheaper. In particular it was necessary to assess the need for the high speed connection. Small Group Housing is not connected yet, although some connections are available. Evergreen Terrace and Southern Hills are physically too far away at this point. However, the labs in the East Campus residence halls are being upgraded.

 

Brad reported that the Y2K desktop initiative continues, but is running slowly. A fairly large number of low-end machines are failing, but are probably fixable with a manual rollover. Every department will receive an accounting by barcode number. In response to a question about whether Customer Service was ready for a barrage of questions, Duke reported that none have been received so far.

 

Geoff proposed that the question, raised in the Long-Range plan, of a multi-layer support system be discussed at the next meeting. CASA already has such a system, and David Blakesley, Susan Logue and Brian Kearny have done some discussion on the question. One issue that was raised was the continuity of support if it depends on transient personnel such as graduate students.

The meeting adjourned at 4:00 pm.

The next meeting will be on April 27 at 3:00 P.M. in the Library Conference Room.

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Last Updated: April 17, 1999--DB

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