Office of Information Technology

Technology Appropriations Board
Minutes of the meeting October 10, 1997

Location: AHT 4th Floor Conference Room
Time: 2:00 - 3:00PM

In attendance:

Due to the difficulty of scheduling meetings with the diverse membership of the Board, which includes students, faculty, and administrators, it was decided to pre-arrange regular monthly meetings for the Technology Appropriations Board on the third Wednesday of the month, from 2:00-3:00 PM.

An extensive discussion was held regarding the proposal to include the University Center in the next phase of network upgrades, along with Perkins Hall and Dougherty Engineering Building. Although the University Center was not part of the original plan, it has been identified as a priority, as it has high usage by current students, and high visibility to future students and parents during Orientation.

An RFQ, including a partial networking of the University Center, has been issued and the bids for this work have been received and are being evaluated. The terms of the RFQ allow awarding the bid for all three buildings or any combination. The architect has identified potential spaces in the University Center for installation of networked computers to provide access to E-mail or Web Home Pages (e.g. access for participants in Orientation to Academic Department Home Pages).

The consensus was to pursue networking selected areas of the University Center based on a review of costs and potential locations. Jeff Maples will represent the University Center administration in reviewing the plans.

Redistributing the student demand for computing lab usage from the Hodges Library computing lab to other available labs was discussed once again. It was decided to place a sign in the Hodges Library Lab, with a listing of available seating in other DII computing labs. Lab monitors in those labs would be asked to provide timely information to the Hodges Lab staff when seats are no longer available, so that a No Vacancy sign could be posted for the individual labs as necessary.

Rob Powers reported the request from a student that the Board ban or limit the number of Apple Macs funded by the Technology Fee. The Board reaffirmed the responsibility of Deans, Department Heads, and Faculty for curriculum development and the associated determination of the hardware and software needed to support the academic curriculum.

In addition, it was reported that there had been a student request for the installation of a CD Writer that would be accessible to students. This functionality is needed by students for creating multimedia resumes, graphics files, and archiving work that accumulates over several years residence at the university. CAS will investigate technical specifications and costs for a CD Writer, with the purpose of installing this equipment at the central location of the Hodges Library Computing Lab.

There was a general discussion of the need to upgrade the UNIX machines which support the general purpose UNIX account and E-mail for over 20,000 students. As student use of E-mail and other applications on the UNIX platform increases, it is clear that the current hardware is inadequate. CAS has placed an order for new UNIX servers to alleviate this problem. It is planned that these new servers will be in place and available to students upon return from the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Related to the UNIX discussion was the suggestion that an effort be made to make students aware of utilizing a POP mail client rather than PINE where possible. This would help to reduce the load on the UNIX mailhost. In particular, students with personal computers in the dorms are advised to utilize a POP mail client, such as Eudora, in lieu of PINE, as their mail can thus be stored on the local machine.

A question was asked about the coordination of the UNIX password with the PH alias. There continues to be confusion for new users in understanding the function of the PH directory in setting the address for delivery of E-mail, and distinguishing between the passwords for the UNIX account and for PH. It is standard practice to initially set these passwords to be the same to simplify the environment for new users, however, each password may be individually be reset by users who wish to do this.

The next meeting of the Technology Appropriations Board is scheduled for November 19, 2:00-3:00 PM. The location will be announced prior to the meeting.