SIUC Computing Advisory Committee

DRAFT Meeting Minutes of 21 October 2002

Those present: Bob Baer, Howard Carter (for Susan Logue), Michelle Cunningham, James Duggan (recorder), Jim LeBeau, Don Olson (ex officio), Amy Sileven, Kelly Thomas, Chih-Fang Wang, Lichang Wang. Visitors included Scott Bridges (Institutional Research and Studies), Charles Campbell (Information Technology), Matthew Herman (Admissions and Records), and Jerry Richards (Information Technology).

James Duggan, Chair, invited Matthew Herman (Assistant Director, Admissions and Records) to speak about the Office’s recent decision to no longer make printed copies of the SIUC class schedule available (thereby saving approximately $36,000) but instead make it available via the web on salukinet (see http://www.siu.edu/departments/oar/schedclass.htm). Mr. Herman indicated that the decision had been made because of University Budget constraints (Admissions and Records was faced with a cut of approximately $150,000), and the searchable class schedule had been operational for a number of years, so this seemed to be an area where the cut could be made.  On Thursday, Oct. 17, a “new and improved” version of the schedule was released, that allowed for “real-time” updates rather than nightly updates.  In addition, the schedule is searchable by a number of components, including day/time, core course, etc.  He indicated that he had just learned that a group within Academic Advisement  was proposing a limited number of schedules be printed for the Spring Semester, but that he had no more information other than they were proposing that 8,000 copies be printed.

Mr. Herman indicated that he was the chair of the web registration working group on campus, and that he hoped that a pilot project allowing web registration and the Graduate School and Journalism students this Spring would be successful; if so, then full web registration for SIUC might begin in June 2003. 

Mr. Herman was asked if there was a way to manipulate the schedule so that classes could be compared on one (or multiple) screens.  He responded that they were still working on the software product, but at this point a comparison feature was not available. In response to other questions, he indicated that the current registration system would continue on unilink; his web registration working group would work with the advisors (and others) from the graduate school and journalism to see that any necessary training was provided; and that they were still working on troubleshooting some issues, including working with non-windows based pcs.  In response to why a pdf format of the class schedule was not provided, he stated that although the issue is still up for discussion, he believed that it would only shift the printing costs from Admissions and Records to the labs on campus (and the point was to have users utilize the web).  Mr. Herman also suggested that a pdf format would not be updated as often as the real-time web version, and any savings derived from not printing the schedule might be eaten up if his staff had to prepare updated pdf copies (typically, up to 2,000 changes are made to the class schedule during the course of a semester).
 
Don Olson announced that a new edition of Dawgbytes (IT Newsletter) was coming out shortly, and that he would defer his report and recommend that committee members read the newsletter.

Charlie Campbell reported on the ongoing bandwidth problems with the University access to the internet. The problems generally emanate out of computers in the residence halls, many of which are using KaZaA (fastrack) to download/upload music and video files.  Unlike Napster, which IT was able to limit, KaZaA simply looks for any open port within the University CAN, and then utilizes large amounts of bandwidth.  IT has temporarily rerouted bandwidth from Internet2 to help with the problem, but better long-term solutions are being explored.  Currently, outbound traffic on the CAN is limited to 10Meg, and this has helped somewhat.  The issue of users obtaining/exporting copyrighted material is still being looked at, as is the possibility of further limiting residence hall computer access.

Jerry Richards reported on the interim report of his Security Taskforce, an outgrowth of the CAC’s Long Range plan subcommittee (the report was distributed to the CAC membership via an e-mail attachment).  Among the recommendations that the taskforce is proposing are: forming a permanent Campus Computer Security Group; creating a Campus Security Education program, creating, then regularly enforcing and updating a SIUC Campus Security Policy handbook; installing and managing a centralized first level security tools/devices to help protect resources on the CAN; and continuous monitoring and testing of campus computers and servers for security risks. The report also outlines recommendations for providing functional security guidelines and policies for a number of areas, including authentication and authorization, virus, e-mail, data administration, the internet, network and telephone switches, workstations and client servers, and server computing equipment.

The next meeting was set for Monday, November 18, 2002, from 900am-1000am in
Morris Library's American Heritage Room (306).

Please let me know if there are any changes/corrections.

James E. Duggan
Chair, SIUC Computing Advisory Committee
Professor
Director of Information Technology
Southern Illinois University School of Law Library
Lesar Law Building, Mailcode 6803
Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6803
618-453-8791; Fax: 618-453-8728
duggan@siu.edu