Minutes of the Computing
Advisory Committee Meeting
June 23, 1999
Those attending:
Dennis Leitner, Duke Koch, Larry
Schilling, JP Dunn, Ray Goering, David Blakesley, Ruth Bernhardt, Susan
Logue, Geoff Nathan (Recorder)
Duke reported informally that
purchase of the new dial-up modems is proceeding. A general issue was raised
that will be addressed further after a VC for Administration is named, specifically
the question of to whom we report.
The discussion then turned to
the report from the subcommittee on institutionalization of computer support.
One major question that was raised was whether the model being proposed
was a leftover of the eighties way of doing things. For example, who would
be responsible for training the departmental-level support people? Almost
everyone agreed that the three-level structure proposed was useful, simply
to ensure that anyone with a problem with a computer at any level knew where
to call for help. The task seems to be to create a culture where everyone
has a computer guru to whom they can turn. In order to make this tractable
it was suggested that calls to the next higher level be limited to one person
per department. Duke Koch volunteered to survey a number of other universities
to see how this problem is managed--some places severely limit the software
supported, while others make extensive use of student workers.
The subcommittee discussing
the maintenance of infrastructure pointed out that a crucial issue that
would determine choices on infrastructure would be whether the University
decided to go with continued use of labs or whether students should be required
to purchase laptops. Now, at a time when crucial decisions need to be made
about infrastructure upgrading seems a particularly good time to discuss
this issue. It was decided that the topic of the next meeting would be the
question of laptops vs. labs. It would be good if we could all check with
our colleagues and get some sense of what other universities are doing,
and we would ask Patty Cosgrove to discuss overall trends in lab use. The
third committee deals with software licensing. They have been charged with
finding information about licensing of system software and MS Office products,
as well as finding further information on leasing of computers (the Edwardsville
campus has recently decided to go that particular route.)
The next meeting is scheduled
for Monday, July 26 at 3:30 in the Library Conference Room.
