Minute - March 10, 2000
1-2:30 pm - I.G. Greer Room 224
I. Welcome and Announcements
Doug May called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m., filling in for Chair, Jeff Williams, who was out of town. Other members absent were Teresa Canton, Al Harris, Dick Riedl, Troy McHenry, Jeff Craven, Pete Wachs, and Don Rankins. Guests present were Terry Combs, Ray Pittman, Wayne Fee, Steve Breiner, Gary Yorkdale, Joyce Roy, Michael Bennett, and John Spagnolo.
II. Review of Minutes � February 11, 2000
The minutes of the last meeting as posted on the web were approved.
III. WebCT Demonstration postponed until later in the meeting.
IV. Update on Campus Pipeline
Beth Davidson addressed the issue of how IT-related decisions, particularly those affecting the at-large campus, are made at Appalachian. The discussion specifically addressed Appalachian’s decision to obtain and deploy Campus Pipeline (CP), with an understanding that implications of that action apply to other IT decisions, as well. Davison suggested that it will be important to establish a mechanism for general discussions to obtain more constituent input. Chairman May suggested, and most of the group concurred, that the discussion should be continued at the next meeting with stakeholders to propose ideas for appropriate fora to discuss such issues. On closing of the discussion, Davison suggested that it would be appropriate to establish an avenue for educating students about issues involving products like CP.
V. Student Printing
Doug May appointed a subcommittee to investigate the potential of a charge for print system to address some of the concerns voiced by various segments of campus regarding escalating costs associated with printing. The committee consists of Doug, Mick Kreszock, Lynne Lysiak, Dave Sampson, Troy McHenry, Jeff Craven, Ed Pekarek, and Michael Bennett. Others interested in this issues were invited to volunteer and encouraged to Doug.
VI. Other Business
System perfomance
Terry Combs briefed the group on the arrival and imminent installation of the Winchester Systems storage “farm”. Combs suggested that, when the new system is placed online, users should experience significant performance increases in those applications which are currently I/O bound. Combs was careful to mention that users should maintain realistic expectations and that the new system will not completely alleviate current limitations on faculty and student usage of disk space. Most of the group concurred that even with greatly expanded storage capabilities, users can and will consume those resources - hence some limits must remain in effect for the foreseeable future.
Administrative Support Systems
Clayton Cook reported to the group that the University had received seven bids for a new HRS (Human Resources Services) system. The products from three of the vendors, SAP, Oracle, and SCT, were selected for the “short list” and these vendors would send representatives to campus to present their wares on April 4th, 7th and 12th, respectively. Presentations will demonstrate the features and options (e.g., self-service employee options,) available from the vendors. Anyone interested in viewing the presentations should contact Lani Hicks (262-2031 or hicksll@appstate.edu) in the Business Affairs office to arrange for his or her attendance.
No additional items were brought up.
III (Postponed Agenda Item). WebCT Demonstration
Steve Breiner presented a short overview and demonstration of the features and capabilities of the WebCT course tools package. Breiner stated that the package is currently available to any who request a course site, and that Instructional Computing Services (ICS) will begin to offer WebCT workshops (unrelated to the laptop/WebCT initiative) to interested Appalachian personnel this Spring.
The next meeting will be on April 14 at 1:30 p.m. A note will be sent out the week before, asking for possible agenda items. The meeting was adjourned at 2:15 p.m.
