Information Technology Council

Minutes for the Meeting of September 8, 1997

Members present: L. Colaw, B. Dauffenbach, F. Durso, B. Mason, L. Portwood, T. Ragan, W. Stolt, B. Swisher, D. Trytten.

1. Members were introduced and a brief discussion of the goals and structure of the ITC was given. Members were encouraged to review the subcommittee structure and join committees with missions that interest them.
2. Bruce Mason reviewed some items of interest to the ITC that occurred over the summer. This included the movement of the Instructional Services Center to DCTS, an effort for electronic registration, efforts at the library for electronic journals, the opening of the OU web server, and the closing of "guest" accounts on the OU modem pool. The coordination of the ISC and colleges was urged.
3. Lee Colaw reported on the current status of DCTS. This included:
• Support: The Computer Store and Help Desk are both doing big business. The Help Desk is handling 300-400 calls per day currently. Also, students moving into the dorms (about 500) received free help connecting to the network. It was suggested that this service be extended to graduate students and faculty.
• Modem Pool: The modem pool is currently running at 250 lines and the cost of extending it is prohibitive. A low cost alternative through a private ISP is being arranged. There was a brief discussion of how to handle this problem.
• Accounts: There are 31,901 central accounts at OU. Approximately 9,000 students use their central accounts. Approximately 480 faculty do not access their OU accounts. Deborah Trytten questioned the ethics of monitoring account usage. Lee Colaw responded that this is needed for security purposes, the 4+4 passwords not being secure enough for continual use.
• Computer Labs: Open access labs are being opened and/or improved. Bob Swisher pointed out a report on KGOU about all labs being open 24 hours.
• Site Licenses: A site license program with Microsoft is being completed. A site license for Dr. Solomon's Anti-virus software has been announced. It has been suggested that all this information be available on the OU info CD-ROM.

4. Bob Dauffenbach presented the results of last semester's faculty survey. Preliminary review indicated this shows needs in instructional technology. It did not seem to get information regarding research computing needs. This will be discussed at the next meeting.
5. The need for campus wide planning was discussed. This will require the standing committees to review their areas of responsibility to determine needs, goals, and processes for meeting these. The instructional and administrative committees are already working on these issues. It was suggested that the research committee be involved with the research council because of their history in dealing with these issues. A charge for the committees will be written and discusses at the next meeting.