Information Technology Advisory Committee
TO:
Information Technology Advisory Committee
[Jim Brown (Chair), Mike Cerveny, Jean Donham, RJ Holmes, Paul Miller, Dee Ann
Rexroat, Jackie Stewart, Ellen Whale, Jim White, Todd White
FR:
Jim Brown, Chair
RE:
Minutes of 7 December, 2006, meeting
1. Report from Instructional Technology Subcommittee: Jim White reported on the subcommittee’s
recommendation regarding classrooms to be retrofitted with teaching technology at the next
round of IT upgrades. ITAC approved the recommended first tier, to be forwarded to Acting
IT Director Mike Cerveny, Assistant Dean Ann Opatz, and CFO Mark Zinkula. In rank order,
the rooms are
College 13
Commons Beijing
West 302
College 301
South 10
Should additional monies become available, the recommended second tier of rooms includes
Law 109
West 106
Norton 303
Norton 308
Commons Harlan
2. Report from the Web Redesign Task Force: Dee Ann reported on the three-day visit by
representatives from our web redesign vendor, mStoner. There was excellent representation at
meetings from most segments of the college community and substantive conversations. Most
attendees were complimentary regarding the knowledge and approach taken by our visitors;
mStoner will produce a draft report stemming from their visit and will return to campus on
February 12 and 13 for follow-up discussion and some initial ideas. The visiting team found an
unusual and helpful unanimity of marketing message priorities on campus and a clear desire for
maintaining a balance among the three main categories of web site use – marketing, educational
support, and institutional communication.
3. Administrative software conversion: Mike and Jim reported that the college wishes to move ahead
with the proposed calendar for administrative software conversion, despite the recent
resignation of John Dixon, the conversion project manager. The proposed calendar shows the
appointment of a steering committee by February 07 to prepare an RFP for relevant vendors,
approval for funding at the May 07 Board of Trustees meeting, sending out the RFP in June 07,
and inviting top choice vendors to campus in Fall 07. A choice would be made by December
07, with the conversion to take place between January 08 and August 09.
Mike and Jim noted that the technical aspects of the conversion can be handled by IT but
that the majority of work is outside IT in the various offices served by the software. Thus, we
intend to identify co-project managers, one to manage the IT work and the other to work with
the user community. Since the college has no one on campus with experience in managing this
kind of conversion, we must consider retaining an outside consultant to help us avoid mistakes
costly in time and dollars and to help us organize ourselves optimally for this project. Mike is
investigating the availability and costs of this kind of consultant.
4. Jim reported on the status of IT upgrade requests. Mark Zinkula has instituted an improved
capital request process, but in its first iteration it has left IT a trifle out of the loop. Jim
promised to contact Mark to get divisional requests to IT for pricing. But each division is now
responsible for prioritizing their own requests, and all-college prioritizing will be discussed at the
president’s council level.
5. Members briefly discussed informal inquiries from a group of students interested in attaching
faculty ID photos to a Committee on Committee site showing committee membership. ITAC
had insufficient information to make any recommendation.
6. The committee discussed the use of the Computer Sciences teaching lab [Law 113] as a 24-hour
access computer lab. So far, use has been relatively high and problems few, with the exception
of refuse left in the lab, particularly over weekends. IT staff have been doing some clean up.
Mike will speak with the CSC faculty about the possibility of placing in the room reminders that
this is a teaching space and asking folks to be considerate in the matter of trash. Jean observed
that the library has little problem with this and that students may be happy to be tidier if
reminded.