Steering Committee for Information Technology
October 21, 2009 Minutes
Members Present: Zoe DuRant, Ninette Carter, Linda Phillips, Carol Claiborne, Sherry Hendrix, Aubree Helvey,
Jennifer Holland, Debbie Goode
Members Absent: Jamie Glover, John McArthur, Glen Pinkston
1.
Minute Review/Change/Acceptance of July 15, 2009 Minutes - approved
2.
Next Meeting – November 18 at 11 a.m.
3.
Banner Update – around the table
o Zoe DuRant: Admissions is busy testing. They had a meeting this morning with all the Admissions
staff, to include CU-Duncan and Ft. Sill. It was a very productive meeting to discuss the dates from the
recently updated production transition matrix. They established procedures for handling applications,
mail, residency applications, etc. for legacy and Banner entry.
o Ninette Carter: They have purchase requisition training on Friday, Oct. 23. They are looking forward
to this first session. They are still determining what they will do for departmental statements, which they
will need to have in place by February 2010.
o Linda Phillips: They are working diligently on data cleanup. It is a huge task. They are also working
on data validation tables to insure they are setup properly.
o Carol Claiborne: They are doing a lot of testing. They are not encountering any major obstacles.
o Sherry Hendrix: Feels all teams are working very hard preparing for go live. Help desk information is
underway so it will be well publicized for go live. All Banner-related applications will be down October 30
and November 6 for upgrades - reminders will be sent. There are still a few gaps, but no show stoppers.
She encourages all teams to test. She has some concern regarding the lack of testing and suggests 4 to
6 hours per week should be devoted to Banner testing. Overall, she is pleased with the progress.
o Aubrey Helvee: She is scheduling demos of Aggie Access for the council of deans and council of
chairs in November. She plans to have several demos for faculty before semester end. The various
browser versions are problematic. Banner requires IE6, while Turnitin and Blackboard require at least
version 7. I.T. is trying to figure out a solution for this. Sherry will visit with Mike Pfeifer about this.
o Jennifer Holland: They need a way to upload photos of students as part of their campus safety
initiative. She expressed concern that Office of Public Safety is not represented on any of the teams and
they do not have a software system for their use. Sherry offered to follow-up with Mike Pfeifer to see
what other schools are doing for their OPS. Ninette expressed the problem of falling revenue for traffic
permits due to the fact that tickets are not being written. OPS can capture this info in an Excel
spreadsheet and the Business Office can place offenders on financial hold. Her area will make a
concerted effort to test on a regular basis. The Blumen database interface needs attention - Debbie is
following up on this.
o Debbie Goode: ODS setup is currently the most challenging task for the technical team.
4.
Any feedback from the Dell deployment of PCs? Everyone is generally pleased. There were the usual
problems of files not all being moved, a few software applications missing.
5.
Replacing 3Com Core Builder - Replacing 3Com CoreBuilder with Cisco enterprise network switch on Nov.
13th. Any objections to this date? This will shut down everything except for the dorm and village residents and
video conferencing. Card swipe system might be affected as well. The data is stored in the reader in the
event of network issues, but we should have a contingency plan for housing and OPS to be ‘on call’ in case
the readers do not hold the data. Cash register data is supposed to be stored until the network is available
and it is uploaded after connectivity is restored. As a contingency plan, a list will be prepared for Sodexo.
Wireless will also be down. Best case scenario for downtime is 30 minutes to an hour and worst case, several
hours. Debbie will take this to V.P. McArthur for Executive Council’s consideration.
6.
ITS Computer Replacement Procedure – DRAFT – consideration and action
Information Technology Services does not ‘recycle’ older computers for continued use within departments.
Computers older than 4 years are considered to be no longer up to optimal standards, including with regard to
security settings and security issues. To avoid security violations and exploits, computers older than 4 years
must be replaced with new PCs.
Price quotes for new computers can be requested by emailing support@cameron.edu. New PCs are shipped
to I.T.S., where a work order is entered for the computer to be configured, delivered, and set up. All data on
the old PC’s hard drive will be backed up, and then restored to the new computer after being scanned for any
security issues or security threats.
The old computer being replaced, or its hard drive, must be taken by Information Technology Services for
salvaging. All Hard Drives in salvaged computers are formatted to standards required by State Law.
The hard drive will be removed from the old computer being replaced and kept in a secure location within
Information Technology Services through the last day for faculty to post grades. At that point in time, the hard
drive will be formatted to standards required by State Law. Disposal of the old computer is the responsibility of
the department to follow University guidelines for property disposal.
Discussion followed. This will be discussed at the next meeting and action taken.
7.
Informational
•
CU-Duncan hired a tech
•
Computing and Technology hired a tech
•
We will soon be ordering technology for School of Business and CU-Duncan for ITV courses to be ready
in January 2010
8. Vice President McArthur and Vice President Pinkston – any guidance and or topics for group’s
information? n/a
9. Any other topics?
ITS needs to know when student workers with administrative access leave in the middle of the semester.
Carol reported that Financial Assistance generally receive termination notices and will start alerting ITS when
those are received.
To promote the green initiative, ITS suggests:
o Promoting responsible printing
o Adding statements to our email signatures – adopt something standard?
o Consideration for print management – very hot topic on small college listserve
o Turn off PCs at night