Technology Advisory Council (TAC) Notes

November 1 , 2007 Meeting Notes

Members Present: Warren Ashley, Ron Bergmann, Doug Borcoman, David Bradfield, Carole Casten, Lisa Chavez, Mohammed Eyadat, Raoul Freeman, Nathlyn Hirohama, Brenda Knepper, Kazimierz Kowalski, Sandra Parham, Marion Smith, Yvette Velarde

Guests: Tim Farris, Director, Administrative Information Systems

Handouts:

Information Security training flyer
Draft Computer Replacement Roll-Out Policy
Draft Academic Technology Plan 2007-2010

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Ron Bergmann, CSUDH CIO.

Announcements - Ron Bergmann

Information Technology and Human Resources Management are offering information security (IS) training this month. Ron handed out a flyer to TAC and indicates that he will e-mail it to the campus. IS training will be offered every semester as both standup and online training. Last spring the topic was the new information security policy [PM 2007-02]. This month one policy session will be offered (November 8), and there will be two new sessions on hacking (November 14 and 15). In the spring, IS training will feature a different topic.

Computer Replacement Roll-Out Policy - Ron Bergmann

After last month's meeting, at which Ron distributed a draft Computer Replacement Roll-Out Policy, Raoul, Ron and Marion met. This month's draft is a product of that meeting. The policy is written in terms of current funding, though funding issues will always be an important part of a roll-out policy.

The current version is an Office of Information Technology (OIT) policy. Once in final form, Ron will ask President Garcia if she wants to issue it as a presidential memo. It is expected that Academic Affairs will have a separate, though complementary, policy. The Academic Affairs policy will provide a roll-out policy for faculty and staff in the colleges and the University Library. Administrators and staff in other areas of the university will be handled by the OIT policy. Please e-mail comments/corrections to Ron. The Academic Affairs Council + [includes associate deans] awaits a briefing by Ron.

Regarding the database: A current asset database is quite comprehensive already. Lisa indicates that an asset tag will indicate that the machine is in the inventory database. ASI gives the computers it purchases through the technology fee to the university, so they become property of the university and get asset tags. The problem witih the current asset database, though, is that it does not provide the mapping to ports. However, Lisa and Ron believe that that data could be added to the asset tag database, so perhaps a second database does not have to be created.

Notices that an inventory will be made will go to deans and associate deans. Carole stresses that the notice has to go to faculty, and she asks that associate deans be asked to track the inventory for their colleges.

PeopleSoft Help Desk

Tim provided a demonstration of the draft online help system that is being put in place to accompany the launch of the PeopleSoft (PS) Student Administration system. Users can create their own help desk tickets with this new front end to the current Heat system.

The IT Help Desk currently supports campus desktops using Heat, but 289 PS tickets have been recorded since July. With the new Web-based system, a ticket will be generated in Heat, and based upon some choices the user makes, a PS ticket will be immediately e-mailed to the corresponding PS functional analyst rather than a help desk consultant.

When a ticket is created, the requestor's information, including office location and telephone number, is pulled from the LDAP to populate the ticket. Heat has its own database, and you have to be known to Heat in order to have a ticket created. Tim's program adds requestors to the Heat database, if they are not already there.

Access to the online help system will be links from the University home page Quick Links, PS login screens, and the CMS Web site.

Sandra asked about evening and weekend help desk coverage for students. Ron indicates that at 6 p.m., when the IT Help Desk closes, calls are directed to Instructional Media, which is open until 10 p.m. to support campus desktops. In the hours that neither the help desk nor IMS are open, calls about enterprise software and systems are directed to IT directors' Blackberries.

Ron is in discussions right now with Monterey Bay and Fullerton campuses re 24-hour Blackboard support.

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

This discussion was postponed. Mark Seigle indicates that the AUP has been approved, but David is not positive about that.

Allocation of Lab Time/Classes - Raoul Freeman

Raoul asks how labs are assigned to certain classes. Yvette says when a lab is used as the classroom for the whole semester, that request is made on a first-come, first-served basis long before the class schedule is published. If a professor wants to reserve a lab for an ad hoc meeting of her/his class, that reservation is handled through the Instructional Computing lab and Anh Lam, x2121, after the deadline for semester-long reservations is past. Raoul says he has a deadline of November 7 for the Fall 2008 class schedule, and he points out that it can be expected that there will be some changes to the department's schedule between now and the fall semester.

Yvette notes that one can understand the deadline by working backwards from the date the published class schedule is available. There are earlier deadlines for proofreading and getting the copy to the printer, among others. The way colleges handle scheduling differs, too. CBAPP has one scheduler for the whole college. Another college distributes scheduling to department secretaries.

Policies about scheduling labs are set by the Academic Affairs Space Planning Group.

Ron suggests that perhaps funds could be found for a portable lab, 24-48 stations, that could be wheeled to different physical spaces. Perhaps the ASI Technology Fee could be used to provide a portable lab.

Academic Technology Plan 2007-2010- Sandra Parham

Sandra distributed a draft plan that she began developing with former CSUDH CIO Min Yao. She asks that we review the plan and send comments to her.

The plan has a new dimension, now that the Chancellor's Office (CO) is planning to distribute $30M over three years for technology [not reflected in her draft plan]. A committee of four provosts and four CIOs, none of whom are from CSUDH, will determine the number of dollars each campus will receive from the CO. All provosts serve on a CSU Academic Technology (AT) committee. Funding for AT is always an issue. This campus has an AT Planning Group.

Here are some things to consider when reading the draft AT plan:

The CSUDH strategic plan, being revised;
The Academic Master plan;
Individual college plans;
The IT strategic plan--on hold so that it can be aligned to the new CSUDH mission; Ron is writing an operational plan now.

The meeting was adjourned.