ITPAC Meeting Minutes: May 4, 2000
Last edited September 21, 2000 by Fedro S. Zazueta.
Call to Order
A regular meeting of the ITPAC was held on Thursday, May 4, 2000. The meeting was chaired and called to order by Joe Joyce, due to absence of Chair, V. Parmenter, at 9:00am in room 1031-A McCarty Hall.
Attendees
Present: Eleven members were present: Larry Halsey, Joe Joyce, Ashley Wood, Roger Clemmons, Mary Ann Andrews, Fedro Zazueta, Ricky Telg, Jane Luzar, Jim Syvertsen (via phone), and Marilyn Norman (via phone).
Absent: V. Parmenter, B. Brown, L. Bobroff, J. West.
Dr. Joyce presided as Chair in Vernon Parmenter's absence.
All new members were introduced to the committee.
Approve Prior Minutes
The minutes of the January 20, 2000 meeting were approved.
IT Updates
Update on E-Rate
The letter sent by VP M. Martin asking NASULGC to assist in championing the cause of expanding E-rate institutional coverage to include county extension offices been received and NASULGC is handling the issue. Myron Johnsrud, of NASULGC, thinks E-Rate is an excellent idea.
Update on FIRN
IT had been having trouble getting ID/Routing numbers from FIRN. When the Division of Communications was informed IFAS was not getting the service needed, they responded quickly. A dozen units have been received and will be on line within two to three months.
Voice/Video/Data Integration
IT has been speaking with several companies, in particular Marconi, Inc. These companies handle very large networks which will allow for integration of voice, video and data. Some benefits of this system are: no reoccurring expenses; and, enhancement of distance education capabilities. However, the cost of this type of system would need to be determined.
Wireless LAN Networks
Tests are being conducted on the wireless networks. IT believes there is good support at the UF level. However, a wireless network is substantially more expensive.
McCarty Hall Wiring Project
There is an initiative to wire all classes in McCarty Hall. The funds will be provided by the office of the provost. The difficulty has been finding a location to put new equipment. Presently, space has been secured in 2 wings of McCarty. After the meeting all 3 wings were resolved.
Oracle, Inc. Education Technology Package
Mr. Scott Dennison of the Oracle Inc., attended the meeting. Mr. Dennison is involved in higher education software development, project implementation teams and product development teams.
Mr. Dennison shared that UF is already a customer of Oracle, Inc. The School of Computer Science uses Oracle software to teach the internet. Under Oracle's Academic Initiative most of its software would be provided over the internet for its customers use. However, software use must be for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for administrative services, budgets, student enrollment, or, as a means to develop software other than for education/instructional purposes.
Oracle does have a research grants program, similar to its academic initiative, that is available for federally funded research programs. Mr. Dennison state it sounded plausible that UF/IFAS could use the Academic Initiative program. Oracle has a software that specializes in E-business stores. This software has the ability to track customers, the items purchased, as well as, the production of items.
E-mail Policy
There is no central email address for faculty & staff. Everyone needs to have an email address that can be centrally maintained.
IT has worked up a list with the names of liaisons, who will be responsible for maintaining personnel information and new/correct email addresses, for individuals in each unit. Each new email address would be made up of the first & middle initials and whole last name, i.e., Goldie J. King, would be "GJKING@ifas.ufl.edu". The old email address would still be valid and mail would roll to either name. However, faculty and staff would be encouraged to move to the new name.
This will go into effect at the beginning of the new fiscal year. ITPAC concurred.
IFAS Network (Services & QOS)
In the immediate past there have been a series of network outages that have caused service interruptions for users. These outages have been caused by legacy hardware failures and included the main router, and two consecutive failures of the storage array controller for the VAX/VMS system. Problems have been temporarily resolved and efforts are being made to accelerate the divestment from the VAX/VMS platform into the Windows/Intel platform. Divestment from VAX/VMS has allowed significant investments into Windows/Intel, by the end of this fiscal year all replacement hardware will be in place. A major effort remains in porting applications into the new platform.
Faculty Accountability System
Concerns were expressed by unit heads and deans that the Faculty Accountability System does not have adequate output search engines available. Report on search engine testing was sent out for beta on 05/03/00, which should be available soon. Users of the system would like to have the ability to cut and paste components. The current deadline for changes and enhancements to FAS is mid-June.
UF NAC Advisory Committee
An issue addressed by this committee is employee retention. This committee has recommended to Provost that the B.S. requirement be waived for an A.A./A.S. requirement for A&P network administrator positions. ITPAC concurred. Dr. Zazueta should draft a letter from Dr. Martin to Dr. Colburn
UF IT Review Committee
This is a university-wide committee of which Fedro Zazueta is a member. It is similar to the IFAS Infostructure Taskforce. Fedro made a presentation about IFAS Infostructure Taskforce report to this committee. It was well received.
Other Discussion
Next Meeting
The next ITPAC meeting is scheduled for July 20, 2000, 9:00am-11:00am, room 1031-A McCarty Hall.
Meeting Adjourned.