SIUC Computing Advisory Committee

 

Meeting Minutes of 5 November 2001

 

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

 

Don Olson reported on the following items: 1) The Strategic Planning Subcommittee (which he chairs) continues to meet throughout the Fall semester. Members have surveyed faculty about computer goals and objectives for the next five years. A draft of the plan has been sent to the Chancellor primarily to alert him to the committee's work, but also to request guidance (should the Chancellor already have long-range computer plans, the CAC subcommittee would then like direction as to providing input on such a plan). 2) a website has been created (in response to work done by the Academic Computing subcommittee) that lists the various site licenses and software licenses that departments and other entities own on campus. The website address is <http://colanmc.siu.edu/site>. 3) Don distributed a graph showing the bandwidth usage of SIUC's internet connection on campus for the month of August. Nearly all of the 30 megabyte connection was being used by two programs: KazaA and Gnutella (both are used for file sharing, principally music files). IT has now limited resident hall student servers to a fraction of the bandwidth, which has freed up most of the internet connection. Don also mentioned an interesting statistic: of the nearly 2200 rooms on campus with ethernet connections, 1900 had students who signed up for ethernet access (and paid the semester fee). 4) Next month IT will submit a proposal to the Board of Trustees to upgrade the telecommunications system on campus. Estimated

cost: $3 million. 5) Don is still accepting comments on the "Responsible Computer Use Policy" that was distributed last month to CAC members. Don plans to bring the final policy to the CAC for approval in the next few months. David Carlson suggested that the policy was too legalistic, and could be worded in a more "user-friendly" manner. Don indicated that he would forward on all comments he received to the appropriate personnel.

 

The CAC unanimously approved a motion (by JP Dunn) to accept and approve the "Guidelines for the Use of the 2.4 and 5 GHz Radio Frequency" on campus that were distributed to CAC members last month by Charlie Campbell.

 

Don was asked about an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that suggested that the Internet2 organization was going to open access to Internet2 to all schools and libraries, whether or not they had paid the $25,000 annual membership fees, and whether this meant that SIUC still needed to belong to Internet2. Don indicated that the "open" access to Internet2 would be through state network lines, and would not necessarily be at "Internet2" speeds, something that SIUC had because of its Internet2 membership. Don was also notified of a situation in Computer Science in which students were dialing into the University modem pool, then attempting to telnet to the Computer Science server but were being denied access. Don suggested that Charlie Campbell be notified so that a solution could be worked out.

 

Tim Wells, chair of the Undergraduate Student Technology Fee committee reported on the committee's activities. The committee has ranked the top ten requests for funding (out of the 46 proposals that were received) and is now looking at funding amounts for each proposal. The committee hopes to announce its selections by Thanksgiving.

 

Andrew Lumpe, a member of the Graduate Student Technology Fee Committee, reported that proposals for funding were due October 31, and the committee was planning to meet sometime in November. The committee will be making decisions about the approximately $40,000 that is available for distribution.

 

Don Rice (Chair, Academic Subcommittee), reported that his committee had met on October 18 and had discussed a number of issues, including web site design, support for computer LAN administrators and web developers, and site licenses on campus. Don indicate that volunteers had contacted various academic deans, physical plant personnel and library staff and collected information on campus site licenses. The information was then organized by Thom Thibeault on the webpage "List of Software Site Licenses at SIUC" (<http://colanmc.siu.edu/site/>). Don also mentioned that the committee was looking at the issue of expected computer skills for SIU students (i.e., what computer skills should students have as they matriculate on campus).

 

Ed Riddle reported that Morris Library had nearly finished setting up new computer equipment in the Undergraduate Library, and was now installing various software packages on the computers.

 

Michelle Cunningham reported that a web design committee had been formed (the chair is Sue Davis, Public Affairs), and is charged with revamping SIUC's web pages, insuring consistency between department pages, and drawing up standards/guidelines for overall design. Scott Bridges, the "de-facto" SIU webmaster, is also on the committee.

 

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