SIUC Computing Advisory Committee

 

Meeting Minutes of 8 October 2001

 

Those present: Ruth Bernhardt, Charlie Campbell (for Don Olson, ex-officio), David Carlson, Philip Chu, Michelle Cunningham, James Duggan (recorder), JP Dunn, Susan Logue, Andrew Lumpe, Matthew Newton, Don Rice, Richard Steffen, Kelly Thomas, Chih-Fang Wang, Tim Wills.

 

The CAC welcomed new members David Carlson (representing Dean's Council), Michelle Cunningham (representing A/P Staff), Matthew Newton (representing GPSC), and Tim Wills (representing USG).

 

Charlie Campbell reported for Don Olson 1) The Strategic Planning Subcommittee, chaired by Don Olson, met a few times during Spring Semester 2001, and has their first meeting of the Fall 2001 semester last week. Don had drafted a working document to devise a long-range strategic plan for the University. Several members of the subcommittee had volunteered to work on the continued development of the document in areas of concern, including research, computer support, teaching and learning support, and networking. They will meet again soon, and hope to get a combined document together this fall. Subcommittee members (and their assigned area of the

document) are: Don Olson (Computer Financing), Jim Tyrell (Research), Rob Jensen (Support), Richard Steffen (Teaching/Learning), Claudia McIntyre (Network). Input from subcommittee members is due back to Don Olson by October 15. These will be combined into a single document and a subcommittee meeting will be held shortly thereafter. A draft for the community will be ready sometime in November; 2) A draft of IT's Responsible Use Policy (prepared by Lee Ellen Starkweather) was sent to the members of the CAC (although not everyone received a copy) for comments. Don received only written comments from Dick Steffen, who raised several concerns under the Impermissible Use section: a) unapproved mailing lists (i.e., mailgroups for members of a committee, etc.), b) use for personal/private business (i.e, what about using an SIU computer to order a gift from JC Penney's website for one's spouse, and c) posting or sending...offensive material (what is offensive defined as? who defines it?, etc.). Discussion was deferred until later in the meeting (to allow Dick Steffen, who arrived late, to discuss his concerns).

 

Charlie also distributed a draft "Guidelines for Use of the 2.4 and 5 GHz Radio Frequency" (based on one developed at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville). Because of numerous requests for wireless networks across campus, IT is concerned that if these networks are allowed to grow uncontrolled, they would create severe radio frequency interference across the campus, which could interfere with the operation of wireless LANs, cordless telephones, cameras, audio speakers, wireless mics, and research equipment. The draft document, once approved, would provide administrative control of the radio frequency spectrum that wireless devices that utilize as their based transport mechanism to Information Technology. Charlie asked that anyone with comments on the policy to please e-mail them to <wireless@siu.edu>. IT has tested potential interference with the wireless networks at the College of Business, and will also test the wireless LAN at the Lesar Law Building. David Carlson asked about security concerns and wireless LANs, which raised an issue that IT is also concerned about, but has not yet formulated a specific policy for wireless LAN's. Charlie indicated that the guidelines only addressed the interference policy, and that other guidelines were being (or would be) drafted; and 4) Charlie also reported on a bandwidth problem that was noticed recently on campus (approximately 60% was caused by residence hall traffic downloading MP3 and video files. IT is working on a permanent solution, but has already managed to decrease some of the excessive bandwidth use. IT may bring a draft policy on this issue to the CAC at a later date.

 

Don Rice (Chair, Academic Subcommittee), reported that his committee had met in the past week, and was working on several issues (at the request of Dr. Winters), including web page content/formats (including ADA compliance), and providing assistance for creating and maintaining webpages within the colleges, including those faculty/staff who are the computer gurus on campus, and looking at what might be provided for these webmasters/LAN administrators (i.e. identifying training possibilities, possible upgrades or other recognition, etc.), possible purchase and utilization of plagiarism software on campus, adoption of a replacement cycle scheme for campus computers, provision of campus site licenses for various software applications (and training of users of these various applications), and connectivity issues.

 

James Duggan reported that the Undergraduate Student Technology Fee Committee met on Wednesday, October 3 with a full complement of student members. The committee had set up weekly meetings, and would be looking next week at criteria for evaluating the large number of requests that had been received by the September 1 deadline. A request from Vice Chancellor Poshard to fund the Computer Learning Centers on a continuing basis was discussed, and James reported that the committee had met with Chancellor Wendler to discuss Vice Chancellor Poshard's request. Several members of the CAC voiced concern that this request would severely limit the amount of funding available for the various of labs on campus, and questions were raised about how a computer lab was defined under the request, and whether other computer labs (not part of the CLCs) could receive money under this request. James responded that although Chancellor Wendler had voiced his support for the Poshard request, the Committee had yet to vote on the issue.

 

Andrew Lumpe indicated that the Graduate Student Technology Fee Committee (he's a member) had met and set a deadline of mid October for receipt of funding requests for the approximately $42,000 collected on behalf of graduate students. The committee will consider (and decide on the award of the funds) later in the semester.

 

The CAC again took up the issue of IT's Responsible Use Policy (Draft). Charlie Campbell suggested in response to Dick Steffen's concerns (see

above) that a) there was a need to define what was meant by "mailing list" and who approved the use of same (indeed, members of the CAC acknowledged that just about anyone using e-mail created user groups and sent out mail without getting "approval", b) the personal use of SIUC equipment prohibition was probably meant to apply to persons running personal businesses with SIUC equipment, but this was not clear, and c) there were no ready answers about what was defined as "offensive." JP Dunn mentioned a e-mail that had been received by many staff on campus last year that had received approval from the campus research office yet still offended some staff. Charlie reminded members to provide any comments they had to Don Olson.

 

Susan Logue gave a quick status report on the computer changes to the Undergraduate Library. Eventually, nearly 100 computers (many of which have already been installed) will be available on the first floor for student us. Multi-media software will be loaded soon. In addition, the Academic Technology Center (a joint project of Library Affairs and IT) developed a "hands-on" workshop on combating computer virus, which has been given to the AIS team on campus. Plans call for the workshop (which was developed by Sue Zamora, IT and Ed Riddle, Morris Library) to offer the workshop to LAN administrators and other interested groups on campus (the workshop may eventually become part of Morris Library's ongoing workshop series).

 

The next meeting was set for Monday, November 5, from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm in Morris Library's American Heritage Room (306).