The
Regular session – April 9, 2007 – 3:30 p.m. – Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail: facsen@ou.edu web site:
http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor Roger Frech, Chair.
PRESENT: Basic,
M. Bemben, Benson, Blank, Bradford, Brown, Brule, Civan, Cramer, Croft, Draheim,
Elisens, Eodice, Forman, Franklin, Frech, Gade, Greene, Gutierrez, Houser, James,
Knapp, Kutner, Lai, Lester, Livesey, Magnusson, Marcus-Mendoza, Miranda, Raadschelders,
Riggs, Roche, Scamehorn, Schwarzkopf, Skeeters, Strawn, Thulasiraman, Trytten, Vitt,
Warnken, Wei
ISA representatives:
Cook
ABSENT: Albert,
Badhwar, D. Bemben, Biggerstaff, Fincke, Ge, Keppel, Kolar, Rambo, Tan, Weaver,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
New senator
Employment Benefits Committee retiree member
Information Technology presentation
Senate Chair’s Report:
Regular faculty ballot: grading scale, reapportionment
Meeting with OU-Tulsa Faculty Senate
Presentations at May 7 Faculty Senate meeting
Preliminary nominations for councils/committees/boards
User Name/I.D.
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The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of March 12, 2007 was approved.
Prof. Michele Eodice (Writing
Center) was elected to complete the 2004-07 term of Prof. Ralph Hamerla
(Honors) and then to serve a full 2007-10 term on the Faculty Senate,
representing the Honors and Provost-direct non-degree-recommending
divisions.
President Boren approved the
recommendation passed by the Faculty Senate at its March 12 meeting that the OU
Retirees Association delegate to the Employment Benefits Committee become a
voting member.
Mr. Nicholas Key, Information
Technology Program Coordinator, addressed the issue that the OUNetID/User Name (4+4)
includes digits from Social Security numbers.
He said a process is in place to manually adjust those numbers. It has not been publicized because
Information Technology (IT) had been working with the Information Technology
Council (ITC) on a streamlined way to convert all the 4+4s that included Social
Security numbers. That process got
stalled, and now the conversion is optional.
Individuals who want to change can call the help desk, but that process takes
a lot of manual manpower to migrate mail to a new mailbox, especially for the
student e-mail system. IT would like to
set it up so users could log into their accounts page and click a button to get
a new 4+4. In late summer, IT plans to
move students from the POP e-mail system to the faculty/staff system because
Exchange/Outlook is more automated.
Prof. Trytten asked whether the
change from Social Security numbers could be done by IT. Mr. Key said individuals would have to log in
and authenticate. The POP system would
require a manual change. The other
systems could be updated automatically by pushing a button, but no formal
process has been set up yet. Prof. Trytten
explained that people who are not knowledgeable about IT issues would be vulnerable. A lot of staff members who do not use e-mail
very often may not know that having Social Security numbers in the 4+4 is a
risk. Mr. Key said the issue concerned university
policy. IT could make a recommendation,
but it would have to go through ITC and the provost’s office. Prof. Trytten pointed out that she knew that
ITC had requested a change because she was chair of ITC at the time. Mr. Key said someone in the administration made
the decision to delay. IT had been ready
to move forward. He mentioned that he
had started his job last summer and was not familiar with past ITC
actions. Prof. Trytten said the ITC had
been told last spring that the change was going to be made. She noted that financial and other
institutions verify phone transactions by using the last four digits of the
Social Security number, and those are the numbers that IT is e-mailing out to
300 people a day. Mr. Key agreed that
privacy was a big concern; however, IT was told at the beginning of this
semester that this project could be discontinued. He said IT could put some resources into
communication if the Faculty Senate had strong feelings. Prof. Trytten said the money should be spent
fixing the system, not communicating.
She said she was surprised that the 4+4 was acceptable to the Senate.
Mr. Key said another issue
for IT was e-mail spam. A study last
fall showed that 90 percent of all e-mail worldwide was spam. IT has a couple of solutions that will help. They have started testing some additional spam
filtering rules. Some people want a
strong spam filtering system, while others are concerned that legitimate
messages will be tagged as spam. Individuals
can set rules based on their comfort level.
He outlined the instructions for setting up the anti-spam service in
Outlook (see https://servicenow.ou.edu/kb_view.do?sys_id=a88cf8884657629201f79b9aec97df0d&sysparm_nameofstack). The tool
allows users to choose the way they want to filter mail. For example, they can filter out certain
words. Messages from a specific sender
or with specific words in the subject can be moved to a specific folder. When asked whether IT recommended Outlook as
the most secure mail system to use, Mr. Key said Exchange and Outlook were made
to work together as server and e-mail client and were more secure and user
friendly. He said he could find out the
recommended clients for Mac users. For
the IT filter, choose “with specific words in the message header” and type
“x-spam: Yes.” The spam can be deleted
or moved to a specified folder, such as Junk E-mail. Exceptions can be set at the same time or
later. Everything that IT tags as spam will
be sent to the junk e-mail folder. Outlook
also has an added level of spam filtering that sends spam to the junk e-mail
folder.
Prof. Marcus-Mendoza asked
why her University computer sends more spam to her junk e-mail folder than her home
computer does. Mr. Key said that was
because the University machines come configured to catch the first level of
junk e-mail. Prof. Schwarzkopf asked if there
was an easy way to get the setting back to default if necessary. Mr. Key said the procedure was to uncheck the
rule or click “delete.” Responding to a
question about filtering key words, Mr. Key said the key words could be in the subject,
in the body, or wherever specified. Prof.
Miranda asked why she would have to set rules separately on her work and home
computer. Mr. Key said it was because rules
apply to the client software program, not the server. In the near future, faculty and staff will be
moved from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007.
He said he thought the new version would pass some of the rules back and
forth. He demonstrated what the new
version of web mail will look like. Prof.
Miranda asked what sort of filters could be set through web mail. Mr. Key answered that individuals should be
able to set rules the same way. Prof. Kutner
said he found the idea of filtering useless because he would have to look through
two inboxes. He said the user should be
able to tell the system never to accept another message from a certain sender
or domain. Mr. Key replied that IT already
does that with messages that are obviously malicious. However, IT does not want to filter too
strongly because some legitimate messages will be lost. Users can set as an option that messages sent
by a particular person or domain should never get through, and one of the
options would permanently delete the message automatically. Prof. Kutner said he did not think that
option existed on web mail. Prof.
Miranda said there was a way to filter out an e-mail address in web mail. Mr. Key added that IT planned to add an extra
iron port to accept spam if our servers are backed up. This feature will get information from the
spam, block malicious messages, and give us better tracking. IT also is going to look at closing some of
the backdoor e-mail servers. The purpose
is to make sure all campus systems are protected and no ports are left
open. Storage is becoming a big issue;
that is one reason IT is changing the student system. The changes IT is making and the new 2007
Exchange server will help with the spam problem.
Prof. Frech asked about ways to
improve general communication between IT and faculty and staff. Mr. Key said there had been a lapse in
communication in the past. He wants not
only to communicate IT’s projects, but also find out from users the projects that
IT should work on. He asked about the
faculty’s preferred way to get information and share information. Prof. Blank responded that different people
use different methods, so IT should use several formats. Mr. Key asked if faculty preferred to receive
information through face-to-face meetings, instructional booklets, mass e-mail,
paper mail, or all of the above. Prof. Marcus-Mendoza
said e-mail was likely to be ignored. Faculty
members are more likely to pay attention to something that comes in their mailboxes
and via additional methods such as face to face or messages from deans or
chairs. For projects that affect the
whole campus, Mr. Key said IT would not be able to do face-to-face meetings. He asked if RSS feeds would be an option,
that is, a news feed that would be published on a person’s desktop or on a web
page. Mr. Key said he understood that it
was probably important to send communications more than one way. Prof. Vitt commented that for an issue such
as the 4+4, it is critical that messages be sent to deans and chairs so that
all staff are notified. He said the
notion that someone could use the last four digits of the Social Security
number to gain access was scary. Mr. Key
asked if the faculty generally received communications from their departmental
personnel or from deans and chairs. Prof.
Schwarzkopf responded that if an issue was important enough to require
universal access, IT could ask the Faculty Senate Executive Committee to help
distribute the information and also use every type of communication.
“A ballot has been
distributed by e-mail to the regular faculty on the Norman campus. There are two items on which to vote: the
proposed change in the grading scale and the recommended reapportionment. The Senate has previously discussed and voted
on both of these items. Please encourage
your constituents to vote; the ballots are due by May 11. Faculty can vote either by e-mail reply or by
printing off the ballot and returning it in a sealed envelope with their name
and academic unit printed on the outside. It is very important to have a significant
voice from the faculty.
“On March 29, Steve Bradford
and I visited the
“OU Athletics Director Joe
Castiglione will address the Senate at the May meeting. This talk is usually followed by a question
and answer session. The new Chair of the
OU Board of Regents, Tom Clark, also will speak at the May meeting.”
The Senate Committee on
Committees’ preliminary nominations for the end-of-the-year vacancies on
university and campus councils, committees, and boards were distributed at the
meeting and will be voted on at the May meeting. Prof. Frech said volunteers were still needed
for a few vacancies.
Prof. Trytten asked whether
the Senate wanted to take up the issue of Social Security numbers in the 4+4
user name/I.D (see earlier IT presentation).
Prof. Frech said, “We certainly do.”
Prof. Trytten moved that “the remaining four digits of the Social
Security number be permanently removed from all faculty and staff
identification numbers, including legacy systems, by July 2008.” Prof. Forman said Information Technology (IT)
should make the change as soon as possible and replace the last four digits with
the digits on the new I.D. cards. Prof. Trytten
said she came up with July 2008 because Information Technology Vice President Aebersold
had indicated to the Information Technology Council that it would take a full
year to make a change. Legacy systems
are a problem, and it is complicated to move mailboxes. To be fair to IT and make it more likely that
the change will be made, the Senate should have a reasonable, attainable goal. Prof. Frech asked whether Prof. Trytten was
willing to accept Prof. Forman’s language as a friendly amendment. Prof. Trytten suggested that her resolution
read “…as soon as possible, but not later than July 2008.”
Prof. Scamehorn said he had
to remember several I.D.s and passwords for various organizations and would
like the option to keep his Social Security number as his OU user I.D. Prof. Trytten said the issue was the
responsibility of the University to protect the private information of its employees. It is a tremendous risk. She said she was concerned that employees who
were not very knowledgeable about the issue were at a tremendous disadvantage. She said she did not think it was a good idea
to have part of one’s Social Security number publicly viewable. Prof. Kutner said he agreed that Social Security
numbers should not be displayed, but that was only one part of the
picture. The same I.D. and password are
used to access e-mail, the library, and personnel functions. Until all the pieces are worked out, he said
he was reluctant to fix just one. Prof. Benson
said the Senate could resolve the one objection by saying anyone who wants to
use the original 4+4 (with the Social Security numbers) must choose to do so. That would also take care of the people who
do not use e-mail. Prof. Trytten remarked
that computer scientists debate whether it is better to use one password for
everything or have multiple passwords.
Multiple passwords lead people to unsafe behavior, such as putting
passwords and I.D.s on a post-it note on a computer screen or in a file on the desk.
Following some discussion
about logons for personnel records, Prof. Trytten agreed that her resolution
would not solve all the problems, but it was a first step. Displaying digits of the Social Security
number is unacceptable. Prof. Schwarzkopf
said the more important piece is security awareness. The resolution would send the message that we
do not want to be cavalier about security.
Prof. Frech said the Senate would vote on the resolution at the May
meeting. The proposed resolution
reads: The remaining four digits of the
Social Security number shall be permanently removed from all faculty and staff
identification numbers, including legacy systems, as soon as possible, but not
later than July 2008.
The meeting adjourned at 4:30
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, May 7, 2007, in Jacobson
Faculty Hall 102.
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Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
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Cecelia Brown, Secretary