Academic Computing Committee

Academic Computing Committee

Meeting Minutes

November 13, 2006

Members Present:

University Senate Representative: J. Alvares

Faculty Representatives: S. Sotillo [CHSS Faculty Rep.], C. Du [CSAM Faculty Rep], S. Shapiro [Library Faculty Rep.]

Administrative Representatives (Academic Deans): M. Mallery [Library Administrative Rep.], A.J. Kelton [CHSS Administrative Rep.], S. Poger [CEHS Administrative Rep.], J. Youn [CSAM Administrative Rep.], R. Salomon [SBUS Administrative Rep.],   P. Kahn (proxy for Associate Vice President for Information Technology)

Non-voting Members Present: J. O’Brien, OIT

Guests: M. Heller

Absent: R. Xing [SBUS Faculty Rep].,  A. Pemberton [CART Faculty Rep.], R. Wolfson (Local 1904 Observer), T. Devlin (Academic Coordinator of Education Computing Network) , D. Stevens [Undergraduate Student Rep], A. Mohiuddin [Graduate Student Rep.], J. Donadeu [Graduate School Administrative Rep.], VACANT [Undergrad. Student Rep.], E. Harris [CART Administrative Rep], VACANT [CEHS Faculty Rep.]

Presiding: M. Kasner, Chair

Reporting: M. Mallery, Secretary

Distribution: ACC Web at http://frontpage.montclair.edu/acc/

Convened: 3:10 p.m. [Library Special Collections Room]

Adjourned: 5 p.m.

1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:10 p.m. when there was a quorum.

2. Minutes: Minutes for Oct. 9th were approved with one abstention.  O’Brien had a question about the ACC Motion on Workstation Integrity Software. There was discussion about the process for tracking follow-up actions requested by the ACC.  Mallery offered to write up Action Items with Motions and charges for new subcommittees within one week of the monthly ACC meeting and distribute via the listserv, which the ACC approved.

3. Announcements: Kelton gave a brief summary of the EDUCAUSE conference in Dallas, October 9-12. Sotillo asked if the sessions were videotaped, and Kelton said that some of the sessions are available as videos and podcasts via subscription on the Web site at: http://www.educause.edu/11944 . Kelton added that the EDUCAUSE 2007 Conference will be held in Seattle, Washington on October 24–26, with the theme “Information Futures: Aligning Our Missions.”   The Call for Proposals for presentations is online at: http://www.educause.edu/11215 and the deadline is Feb 6th.

4. Reports

• Chair's Report: Kasner called for a discussion of ACC communication problems as follow up to his Chair’s Message, which he distributed via the ACC listserv.  In response to O'Brien's questions on how to follow up on ACC Motions, Kasner will ask the Faculty Senate how motions from ACC should be directed.

Kasner reported that he followed up on the Workstation Integrity Software Motion from the ACC.  Several faculty from CSAM and CHSS said they do not want PCs to re-image on reboot because have files loaded on the PCs for students.  Heller noted that there are better mechanisms in place, such as netDrive and BlackBoard, for distributing files to students, and workstation integrity software protects against viruses. Kelton recommended in the interest of time that the Technical Specifications Subcommittee review workstation integrity software packages and their specifications at their next meeting and report back to the ACC on best practices.

In response to Kahn's request that ACC college and school representatives report on projects as well as OIT, Kasner asked that ACC faculty and administrative representatives report on new projects during the Announcements part of the ACC meeting.

• OIT Report: Kahn distributed the following spreadsheets:

1) OIT Standard Software Image - Windows, and

2) OIT Standard Software Image - Mac.

After discussion, ACC members requested that OIT add a column to the spreadsheets for "number of permitted users" for software with site licenses and "number of PCs" for those with a Microsoft Campus Agreement.

There was discussion about when a software license is purchased by MSU, how is the installation decision made?  Kahn gave the example of the BlackBoard implementation, where there was a pilot project in SBUS, followed by evaluation and testing, including a faculty survey, then OIT consulted with the Faculty Senate before a site license was purchased.

Kelton asked if the Apple Maintenance Program (AMP) has been purchased for MSU?  Kahn will follow up with IT to get the answer.

• Ad Hoc Committee Reports:

a) Learning Management Subcommittee (LMS) - Kahn reported that the LMS met on October 16th; Christine Lamasiano was elected the new chair. Shapiro will post to the ACC Website the LMS Meeting Summaries that Kahn compiles and sends to him via email.  The next LMS Meeting is Nov. 20th.

b) Technical Specifications Subcommittee (TSS): Kasner reported that he will convene the TSS in November, and at the first meeting, they will elect a Chair.  The TSS will review possible workstation integrity software packages and make suggestions for the ACC to consider.

c) Survey Subcommittee:  Kasner reported that he met with Steve Johnson of Institutional Research, and they will put together a survey for the ACC.

After discussion, the ACC had the following recommendations on the contents of the Survey:

1) Basic questions are: Do you have an MSU Computer?;

What operating system: Windows/Mac?;

What software do you use?; How frequently?;

What other software do you have?

2) Kasner noted that the survey will limit questions to software used for "research, teaching and other duties."

3) Kelton advised that survey designate "software purchased with university funds"

4) Kahn will email Kasner a list of instructional applications, such as Wimba, Lecture 123 and BlackBoard, to include in survey.

5) Kasner noted that the basic OIT Standard Software build should be included in the survey.

6) Alvares recommended that the survey ask "Do you find yourself purchasing software for your own use?"

Kasner will work further with Steve Johnson of Institutional Research on designing the survey instrument with these recommendations. ACC recommended also that we ask to be custodians of the survey data.  Kasner proposed the timeline for survey implementation: Survey will be sent out at beginning of Spring academic semester, so ACC needs to approve survey content at December meeting to meet this timeline.

5.  Old Business

a) Workstation Integrity Software

*Kasner will meet with Saundra Collins to find out the procedure for the ACC to bring forward a recommendation for campus-wide implementation of a technology for academic computing, such as Workstation Integrity Software.

6. New Business:

a) Guidelines for Responsible Computing

Kelton distributed the text of the Guidelines for Responsible Computing from Oakland U. He will distribute these via the ACC listserv, and in the interest of time discussion was deferred until the next ACC meeting with the possible outcome of drafting a set of Guidelines for Responsible Computing that deals with issues of civility, computer harassment, libel and slander.

b) Representation:

Kasner noted that there are still vacancies in the ACC faculty representation from the schools.  He will send out an email to all Deans asking for names of elected ACC faculty representatives and their terms.

7. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5 PM.