UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY DUAL ASSURANCE, 24 May 2011
PRESENT: David Allen, Peter Lacey, Jeremy Lindley, Hugh McCann, Sally Wilcox, Michele
Shoebridge, Jill Williams
1. Strategic Communications and Information Technology
David Allen welcomed Sally Wilcox and Michele Shoebridge to the meeting and noted
that they would be invited to attend all meetings from now on to ensure that IT was fully
integrated with Infrastructure DA.
Feedback from recent meetings between the Vice-Chancellor and Deans of Colleges
about IT issues was discussed. The following summarised the main points from the
feedback:
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Huge strides have been made but the network is still too slow and there is a
perception that there is too much downtime.
There is also a perception amongst some colleagues that the IT team can be quite
defensive when issues are raised.
Investment in IT should be a top priority (year on year)
Sally Wilcox had met with College Managers and noted that there was a lot more
communication needed between Colleges and Professional Services.
The time was now right to move forward and the next phase of academic network
upgrade work was going to ICG in June. Colleagues wanted a consistency of
experience across campus – through an effective hub and spoke model. The other
major issue for Colleges was systems development.
2. Items for consideration at the meeting of the Infrastructure Strategy Group were
discussed as follows:
Great Hall
A proposal would be brought to VCEG about works to the Great Hall when it is handed
over for electrics, emergency lighting, stage lighting etc. This would be in the region of
£300k and would be brought forward to 2010/11.
RILD Wonford
Joint governance / project management arrangements were now in place and were
working well. The legal agreements for the project had been finalised and would go to
Council for approval on 25th May. However, the RDE Board had confirmed that a
decision between Plan A and Plan B would not now be made until July; rather than May
as originally agreed. The agreements would need to be amended to reflect these new
dates. The project manager from Mace had informed the University that this change may
cause a 6-8 week delay in the project, which would put pressure on the programme, but
the target completion date was still achievable.
Northcott Theatre
VCEG had considered and set out its conclusions on its position in relation to the
Northcott Theatre. This would be taken to Council on May 25th. It was understood that
the Northcott Board has also come to the same conclusion as VCEG. It was re-stated
that there was no current business case for the building to be a teaching space. Stuart
Franklin was working on a communications plan.
Forum
The University had received assurance from Sir Robert McAlpine that the Forum would
be completed by Christmas 2011.
Geoffrey Pope
Members discussed the latest legal position in relation to the Geoffrey Pope Building.
Review of External Services Infrastructure
Bob Alcock would be reviewing the long term strategy to lower utility usage and the use
of renewable across the University. This would look at the technical and net cost
elements. It was noted that wind turbines were no longer a matter for discussion
however.
Awards
Congratulations were recorded to Bob Alcock who had been named Property Personality
of the Year at the Michelmores and Western Morning News Commercial Property
Awards. The INTO Building had also been named as Building of the Year at the awards
ceremony.
ESI
The project was currently forecasting a £1.6m underspend. The project team would
investigate whether colleagues required any additional research equipment. If not, the
University would wish to gain permission from the RDA to use the underspend on the
Heart of Campus project. Outputs would need to be attached to the project for the RDA
to allow funding to be used for this.