SIUC Computing Advisory Committee

Wednesday, September 29, 2004 – 2:00 pm

American Heritage Room, Morris Library

 

In attendance:  David Carlson, William Crimando, Jon Davey, Tom Furby, Duke Koch, Alice Noble-Allgire, Don Olson, Mary Rippon (for Ruth Bernhardt), Amy Sileven, Chih-Fang Wang, Lichang Wang, and Emily Williams (secretary)

 

David Carlson opened the meeting at 2:00 pm.  An agenda was distributed. Members introduced themselves and stated the constituency that they represented.

 

Mass Email Policy Discussion

 

Don Olson informed the group that the upgrade to the email server was completed this summer.  The project upgrade totaled $500,000 which includes the commercial version of SendMail and saves 1 F/T position from monitoring the email servers.  SendMail has better SPAM and virus monitoring and over the course of the next year, more options should be available to implement, including the capability for distribution lists.  At this time, SendMail is only available for siu.edu addresses.

Student Affairs is working on a policy for mass email distribution, and will likely have one next semester or Fall 2005.  The policy would cover anything coming from SIU email addresses. Don stated that there are a variety of reasons to send mass email, and part of the policy will be determining what types of emails are allowed to be sent and which types are inappropriate.  The policy also will include an approval process for all emails sent, but it has not been determined exactly how that process will work.  Don said he would work to compose a draft of the mass email policy within the next two weeks and email a copy to the CAC.  He asked committee members to forward email policies from other universities that may be useful in creating ours. 

The issue of moving away from listservs and mass emails towards a bulletin board type posting was discussed.  Don stated that it was a good idea to have all information in a central location and that perhaps, a bulletin board suggestion could be worked into the mass email policy.

Amy Sileven brought up the topic of pop-ups with emails that she had heard from Larry Dietz.  Both David Carlson and Don Olson said they had no knowledge of that idea and that, if there was some discussion, the CAC should be involved. 

 

State Ethics Test

            Don stated that the state is requiring every state employee, including all university employees, to take a web-based ethics test.  Issues that are still being resolved include lack of access for all employees (those that do not normally work on computers), whether or not graduate students and student employees will take the same online test as employees, and having time for IT employees to take the test to be able to assist with technical issues.  IT tried to take the training earlier and were unable to get into the test. 

            David Carlson noted that this is a requirement for all state employees as a condition of employment.  At this time, the penalty for non-completion is not known, but he has heard there will be a letter circulated from the Chancellor within the next two weeks.

 

Network Instability Resolution

            Don passed out a handout detailing the network instability during the first part of September.  IT is still not clear on the cause of the network issues, and were only able to find two routers that were not talking to each other.  There was an HP monitor on these routers, and they did not indicate a problem that would cause this kind of network response.  It was not a hardware failure.  Don said that IT will continue to monitor the issue.

 

Wireless Networking

            Vivato Networks was chosen for the external wireless campus project.  IT purchased 11 antennas, 9 of which have been successfully installed.  PSO will install the last two within the next month.  The benefit of choosing Vivato is that the same system can be used to expand wireless capabilities indoors, which IT plans on doing next year.  Vivato is less expensive than Cisco - for example, Vivato’s bridge routers for indoor connections are only $500 each. 

            Security on the wireless network is still being worked out.  As the campus moves to more wireless capabilities, security is going to become more and more of an issue.  Current policy requires users to sign into the network using their Kerberos IDs.

 

Copyright Programs

            Don introduced a project that IT is currently testing, regarding Audible Magic’s CopySense product.  This product deals mainly with movie and music copyright and IT is testing it in trial phase through December.  It monitors the uploading and downloading of content on a network and will cause of Denial Of Service message if a user attempts to download or upload copyrighted material.  This product will not affect legal downloading of materials.  If there is an item that the user thinks should be a legal download, they will be able to contact the CSC for assistance.  If a user is found to be d/l or u/l copyrighted materials, the student will receive an email and letter from the authorities. After a second offense, Housing will be notified and the student’s account can be terminated.  Don will send out additional information on the product to the CAC later this week.

 

Salukiware

            Housing is distributing Salukiware CDs free to all students in Housing who signed up for service.  Free copies are also being distributed by the CSC and through the FTP site from the IT home page.  Next year, all students will be directed to a web page to download the files and programs.

 

Items of Interest

            Alice Noble-Allgire inquired about the status of the new uniform requirement for University webpages.  Specifically, she asked how many departments were not compliant and what was being done to bring them into compliance.  Dean Carlson stated that he would work to bring Sue Davis and Janet Douglas to the next CAC meeting to discuss the implementation status and if there is a Phase 2 of the project.

            David Carlson inquired to the status of a University browser policy and if those policies included testing of Foxfire and Opera.  Don Olson stated that, at the current time, the only supported browsers are IE and Netscape.  Duke Koch has been testing Portal, which will customize your web page and features a single-access sign-on point. Duke is still waiting for documentation and to do more testing.

 

            Discussion was held on whether WebCT was being phased out.  At this time, David Carlson said that WebCT will be around for a while, but open access sources were being explored.

 

            Duke Koch inquired as to the status of the Oracle project.  Don Olson stated that the recommendation to the President is that we retain Oracle.  When upgraded to Oracle 9, the upkeep will be easier, as unnecessary customization can be removed.  The biggest concerns deal with the new student information system.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 3:03 pm.