Academic Computing Committee

Meeting Minutes (Approved Dec. 10, 2003)

November 10, 2003

Members Present

A. Adarkar, E. Chapel, M. Davidson, T. Devlin, J. Gaynor, M. Heller, L. Jenkins [CEHS Administrative Rep.], A.J. Kelton [CHSS Administrative Rep.], G. Klajman, J. Youn [proxy for M. Kruge, CSAM Administrative Rep.], A. Koeller, M. Mallery [Library Administrative Rep], A. Pemberton, R. Salomon [Proxy for Dean Alan Oppenheim], S. Shapiro, R. Sharps [SART Administrative Rep.], R. Xing

Members Absent

K. Cohen [Graduate School Administrative Rep], D. Stevens, Associate Director of Information Technology [VACANT]

Guests Present

E. Mayfield, J. Minier, K. Tighe, R. Wolfson

Presiding: M. Heller, Chair Pro Tem; Reporting: M. Mallery, Secretary

Distribution: ACC Web

Convened: 4:05 p.m. [Library Special Collections Room]

Adjourned: 5:30 p.m.

1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m.

2. Minutes: The minutes of the October 13 meeting were approved with amendments and will be posted to the ACC Web page.

3. Announcements:

· November Faculty Forum: "Online Communities of Practice: Lessons from Two Projects at Montclair State University" (as seen at edTeXpo 2003) Wednesday, November 12th at noon, presented by Angel Gutierrez of Computer Science and Christine Lemesianou of Speech Communication.

4. Reports

· Chair's Report: Chair Pro Tem Heller reported that he has received confirmation from all Deans of their ACC Administrative Representative appointees.

Heller consulted with the Registrar and OIT administration regarding the question of eliminating Social Security numbers in grade rosters and class lists. The existing MSU systems are dependent on 9-digit identifiers. Chapel noted that IT is currently working on putting a new campus management system in place that is more flexible. Also, Minier reported that the Registrar will be going live with the electronic grading system as of December 7th. There could be 50-60 faculty, however, who do not have a computer and may still have to use the grade rosters. Heller said that the ACC will monitor the situation and discuss it at a future meeting.

· OIT Report: Chapel reported that, pending action by Human Resources, he can share limited information about OIT reorganization. He noted that one important change is that Institutional Research now reports through IT.

Search committees will be forming soon for the MIS Director and Academic Technology Director positions, and Chapel invited members of the ACC to join these committees. IT is also seeking two additional positions to match the growth in IT commitments for the new residential halls.

In addition, OIT is developing an RFP for a campus-wide system. Shapiro asked when laptop distribution will be implemented in the Library. Chapel responded that 40 laptops were received, and they should begin the laptop program in the Library this month.

5. Ongoing Business

a. Elections (Chair, Web master)

* Chair: Heller reported that no one has come forward for the Chair position. He agreed to act as Chair Pro Tem for the Fall semester. The ACC will revisit this question in the Spring semester.

* Webmaster: Heller announced that Shapiro accepted the Webmaster position and has begun updating the ACC Web page at:

http://frontpage.montclair.edu/acc/

b. Vacancies

Heller noted that J. Gaynor is ratified as the second Faculty Senate representative to the ACC. There are still ACC membership vacancies that should be filled: the second undergraduate student representative, a graduate student representative, and the OIT Assoc. Director of Info. Tech. position. Chapel said that he would assign a representative from OIT to fill this seat until this position is filled.

c. EDUCAUSE 2003 Update

Four members of the ACC attended EDUCAUSE 2003 in Anaheim, California: Kelton, Mallery, Salomon, and Tigue. They gave the following updates:

Kelton reported on his work as co-Chair of the EDUCAUSE Distributed Technology Support Constituent Group http://www.educause.edu/cg/dts.asp

He was a presenter at a poster session, as well as the facilitator of a pre-session entitled: "What is Distributed Technology Support and How Will it Benefit Me?" Kelton also led a follow-up constituent group forum at the conference. He recommended that MSU could become more active in EDUCAUSE because we are entitled to 9 participating reps. and 16 subscribing reps. Chapel noted that he is the EDUCAUSE voting representative for MSU. Heller charged Kelton to contact EDUCAUSE for more information on the different representative categories.

Salomon participated in the EDUCAUSE Preconference on "Faculty Development That Works: A University Summer Academy," which provided examples, guidelines and strategies used to institute a highly successful faculty development program at Auburn University. Auburn introduces its faculty to computers through Web page development, use of Dreamweaver, and image manipulation software, such as Adobe Photoshop. Salomon suggested that MSU should consider developing a similar faculty development program.

Tighe attended the EDUCAUSE Preconference on "Building Successful Enterprise Information Portals" (See http://www.princeton.edu/~howard/educause/preconf2003.htm ). He particularly enjoyed sessions from the Emerging Technologies and Practices track and is investigating the "Instant Messaging Interactive Agents" in use at South Orange Community College to respond to student queries.

Mallery reported on attending the Library, Information Resources and Digital Content track at EDUCAUSE and especially recommended the California Digital Library at http://www.cdlib.org/ . Mallery will give a Brown Bag presentation on Digital Libraries in the Spring. She and Tighe attended the workshop on eliminating Social Security numbers from campus systems, and Mallery distributed copies of the session handout with links to other university SS# policy Web sites.

6. 2003-2004 Action Items

After conducting an online poll of the voting membership using the Zoomerang system, the ACC chose 5 priority issues to work on this year and formed ad hoc subcommittees to work on these items. Members and guests should contact the Chair to participate on any of these ad hoc subcommittees. Reports will be submitted to the ACC by February 19, 2004. The ACC may make some recommendations to the University Senate based on the ad hoc subcommittees' reports. The 5 Ad Hoc Subcommittee Chairs and charges are as follows:

· Laptop ownership requirement --- Chair Roger Salomon

This Ad Hoc Subcommittee of the ACC will investigate what it takes to institute a laptop requirement especially since it was identified within the recently adopted Strategic Plan. How is the laptop requirement funded (payment options, implications for financial aid, lease versus buy)? Do students trade in their laptops after a period of time? How do these get used in the educational context? Are the laptops pre-loaded with discipline specific software and, if so, how is this licensing arranged? What has been reported back with regard to successes, failures, and new areas for investigation by institutions that have adopted laptop requirements? What do students at institutions with laptop requirements have to say? Is in-house maintenance a must for a successful deployment? What models exist for high speed, off campus network provisioning?

· Mandatory MSU NetID Registration and Use --- Co-chairs Joe Youn and Michael Heller

This Ad Hoc Subcommittee of the ACC will investigate the possibility of a mandatory MSU NetID registration (and use) by MSU students. This subcommittee might also see why students sometimes prefer other email services than those provided by MSU (the most obvious of the MSU NetID based computing services). What benefits can be derived from a mandatory MSU NetID use and what services do or will rely exclusively on MSU NetIDs (i.e., unified email, SAN/remote desktops, print accounting, etc.). What obstacles exist to a mandatory implementation of the MSU NetID for students?

· Physical security of facilities and hardware --- Co-chairs Andreas Koeller and Joe Youn

This Ad Hoc Subcommittee of the ACC will investigate security of MSU facilities and hardware. What alarm systems are implemented and in which locations? How does monitoring of these alarms take place? What alternative alarm systems exist? What security devices exist for particular equipment (LCD projectors, kiosk computers, etc.)? How have some areas been successful in keeping their losses to a minimum? How is lost equipment replaced and how quickly is it replaced (implication for teaching facilities where faculty have relied on equipment that is not replaced in a timely manner)? Are there best practices that could be adopted at MSU?

· Wireless implementation at MSU --- Chair Anthony (Tony) Pemberton

This Ad Hoc Subcommittee of the ACC will investigate the current implementation of wireless at MSU. What are the future deployment plans? Do they include wireless provisioning in open areas or only in University buildings? Why move toward ubiquitous wireless computing provisioning at MSU based on practices at other institutions? What kind of authentication will be used to join the MSU-WirelessNet (mdh coined term)? Will we have encryption (WEP or WPA)?

· Leveraging middleware application** services --- Chair Michael Davidson

This Ad Hoc subcommittee of the ACC will investigate what online/middleware services are currently provided and which could be provided in the future. We recently learned of the online submission of student grades, but what other middleware application services exist and might be desirable? Examples include HR middleware application services like consulting an individual employee's benefit plan, vacation time, sick time. Students might want to be able to select housing and/or meal plans online, refill their RedHawk Dollars, apply for parking permits, see their most recent time sheet and pay tuition online. What are the new middleware application services being added to MSU Web for Students (Faculty and Advisor Self Service, Employee Self Service)? Can these middleware application services be unified under a common portal? Are

they secure (signed certificates)?

**Note that the term middleware and application services are being used quite freely. This ad hoc subcommittee could provide more accurate definitions of these terms in its report.

7. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn was made by Salomon; seconded by Youn. The meeting was adjourned at 5:30PM.