SIUC Computing Advisory Committee

 

Meeting Minutes of 3 December 2001

 

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

 

Don Olson reported on the following items: 1) The "Guidelines for the Use of the 2.4 and 5 GHz Radio Frequency" on campus that were approved by the CAC members last month have been approved by the SIUC Administration and are now "official". 2) A project to install Ethernet access to the Internet in approximately 387 classrooms on campus has now been completed by IT. The list of classrooms was developed through a survey of the Deans from every college during the past year. 3) Chancellor Wendler has given the Strategic Planning Subcommittee permission to continue with its draft of a five year plan for computers and related activities on campus (the subcommittee had been concerned that its work might be duplicating planning work currently being done by the Chancellor's Strategic Planning Committee, and sent a copy to the Chancellor for his thoughts; the Chancellor, however, indicated that the subcommittee's work was welcome and that the

subcommittee could proceed). 4) Don is still accepting comments on the

draft of the Five-Year Strategic Plan (the draft had been sent to college deans, Faculty Senate, various committees and the CAC) and asks that comments be sent to him by December 14.

 

Don Rice (chair, Academic Subcommittee), reported that his committee had not yet met (since the last CAC meeting), but planned to meet on Thursday, December 6.

 

Tim Wills, chair of the Undergraduate Student Technology Fee committee reported that the committee had finished its work and selected 16 proposals (out of 41 submitted) to receive funding from the Undergraduate Student Technology fees. The committee had considered a number of issues, including the number of students who would use the equipment purchased (under each proposal), whether teaching equipment was included (the committee decided not to fund teaching equipment with this money), and whether money should be committed for the next three years to purchase equipment for the computer learning centers (although the committee funded IT's request this year on behalf of the clc's, the committee decided not to make the commitment on a three year basis this year, but to let next year's committee consider the issue). The Undergraduate Student Technology Fee fund totaled approximately $830,000 this year. Don Olson praised the student attendance at the committee meetings, noting that nearly all student members attended the weekly 7:30 a.m. meetings during October & November.

 

Andrew Lumpe, a member of the Graduate Student Technology Fee Committee, reported that the committee had received 23 proposals totaling $130,000 in requests for a total fund of approximately $40,000. The committee will be making decisions in a few weeks about selecting the winning proposals and distributing the monies. He also indicated that some deans had been advocating for a different way to allocate the funding, i.e., distribute to colleges based on their enrollments, and predicted that this issue will come up for discussion in 2002.

 

 

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of whether SIUC should require computer and/or laptop ownership for its incoming students. The discussion was spurred by Andrew Lumpe, who had attended a presentation by Apple Computers given to the College of Education. Many reasons for both requiring (aiding students in the classroom, lessening the university's need to provide equipment, allowing the cost to be included in financial aid, etc.) and not requiring (the cost, many students already have computers, perceived lack of utility in the classrooms, etc.) were offered. Don Olson spoke about his experience at Murray State, and various other universities that require student laptop ownership were mentioned. Don volunteered to forward links to websites and articles on the subject to CAC members (he later provided the following link: <http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/subjects.asp>; when you get there click on laptops, Handheld Computers and Ubiquitous Computing for the articles), and the committee decided to continue to discuss the issue.

 

The next meeting was set for Monday, January 28, 2002, from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm in Morris Library's American Heritage Room (306).