Office of Information Technology

Technology Advisory Board (TAB)
Minutes of Meeting of February 19, 2003

Location: 4th Floor Conference Room, Andy Holt Tower
Time: 2:00 - 3:00PM

Attendance:

Members: Bill Britten, Elizabeth Clement, Jim Gehlhar, Marcel Grubert, Ray Hamilton, James Hughes, Matt Johnson, Lori Jones, Bryce McKenzie, Faye Muly, Marla Peterson, Stan Pinkleton, Luther Wilhelm, Jenny Wright.,

Others: Michael Burke, Jean Derco, Nancy Gnilka, Ashley Jarrell, Robin McNeil, Judy Travis

Enhanced Student Technical Support Services

Co-Chair Matt Johnson, after calling the meeting to order at 2:00PM, introduced Ashley Jarrell, Manager of the OIT Service Center and Help Desk. Ms. Jarrell gave an update on the new services being offered at the OIT Service Center in Aconda Court as of Monday, February 17.

Last fall an OIT Service Center proposal to expand the computer software application support services was approved. It included (1) the installation of software applications, (2) reloading and/or upgrading operating systems, (3) disinfecting machines with viruses/and or applying virus protection, (4) patching compromised machines, and (5) solving basic desktop related problems. These services will be offered free of charge on a first-come, first-serve basis to all students affiliated with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Initially, two GA positions and a relatively small amount of new equipment are estimated to be sufficient to address the additional service load.

Mr. Stan Pinkleton, Executive Director of Computer Technology Support, commented this new service not only gives us the opportunity to solve problems for the students, but will be a valuable communication tool allowing us to incorporate a level of proper computer use training into the process at the same time. (More specific details about these services will be on the OIT Help Desk website next month.)

Update on Usage of Public Labs

Next, Mr. Johnson introduced Ms. Robin McNeil, Manager of Lab Services, who presented a short report on the usage in the public labs on campus. She indicated the number of students using the public labs has increased, not decreased with the advent of student owned laptops. There are seven public labs on campus: the Art Lab in A&A, the Math Lab in Ayres Hall, the Glocker Lab, the Humanities Lab, the Hodges Library Lab , the Engineering Lab in Perkins, and the Presidential Court Lab. The total visits to these labs, not including Presidential Court, (allowing for duplicate ID’s) for the fall semester, were 279,690. The total unique users (no duplicate ID’s) for the fall semester were 10,677. The total for the year 2002 was 426,224 sessions and 35,473 unique users.

These data do NOT include labs in Presidential Court, residential areas, rentals, academic labs, honors, or career services. At the present time, the data collection is done by Volcard scans, however, with rollout of the active directory, the students will actually login for a session using their NetID. With this method, the Lab Services group will be able to report on actual numbers of every machine they maintain. This will start in rental properties on March 3, 2003.

Pay-for-Print

Bill Britten responded to a question on the status of the pay-for-print project which is under consideration for the Library as well as the OIT Public Labs. Dr. Barbara Dewey, Dean of Libraries, has asked Mr. Britten and his staff to pursue this since the Library spends quite a lot of money on printing and there is also quite a bit of waste. Some of this may be due to accidental printing which the user doesn’t know how to stop. Also, syllabi and a lot of course materials are now being printed in the library. At this time, the Library is having vendors come to campus and demonstrate their products. One scenario would be a limited number of free copies and then charge so much per page. This should not affect the average student who would probably never exceed the free copy number, however, the people who print an excessive amount would have to pay if they print beyond their limit.

It was the consensus of the TAB members that this subject will require more discussion and input from a number of people before any decision could be made on print quotas and the possibility of extension into departmental labs. Mr. Johnson suggested that prior to making a decision on a policy or a technical solution, a public forum should be held involving possibly SGA and faculty.

Ms. Faye Muly said if the pay-for-print policy were enacted, the quota would be set appropriately so as not to affect the majority of people working on their university projects, however, it should have a positive effect of lessening the abuse.

Departmental Computer Lab User Group

Mr. Pinkleton announced the newly established Departmental Computer Lab Users Group met for the first time last week. It will address issues pertinent to departmental computer labs. Approximately twenty-four people attended the first meeting. Forty-four people have signed up for the listserv. The listserv has been very active with discussions about numerous problems/solutions, some of which were brought up in the meeting. This group should be a venue for learning and sharing innovative solutions as well as an opportunity to communicate the various needs of departmental labs.

FY/04 Technology Fee Requests

Ms. Nancy Gnilka reported over seventy Technology Fee Requests have been received for the upcoming year totaling approximately $1,500,000.

Student Technology Assistants for Research and Teaching (START) Proposal

Drs. Jean Derco and Michael Burke asked if there were any question about the START proposal the ITC group presented in the November TAB meeting. They indicated the Program Timeline was geared to a Spring 2003 start time, but obviously would have to be adjusted accordingly. There were no specific questions. The proposal may be viewed online. ( START Proposal ).

March TAB Meeting Date Changed

Since the next regularly scheduled TAB meeting occurs during Spring Break, it was decided to reschedule the March meeting to the following Wednesday. It will be held March 26, 2003, at 2:00PM in the 4th Floor Conference Room of Andy Holt Tower.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes Prepared by: Ms. Judy Travis