MINUTES
University Technology Committee
February 10, 2008
Members Present:
Lance Taylor, Chairperson
Michael Biagini
Peter Braza
Katharine Brown
Dale Clifford
Richard Crosby
Michael Kucsak
Albert Loh
Marsha Lupi
Jerry Merckel
Deb Miller
Tom Van Schoor
Lucy Trice
Bobby Waldrup
Others Present:
Rick Buck
Jeff Durfee
Kathy Hughes
Jennifer Kane
Doug Leas
Steve Lyon
John Sharp
Fred Sudler
Tony Turrin
Chairperson Taylor called the University Technology Committee meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. in
Bldg. 15 Room 1105.
Approval of Minutes - December 10, 2007
Chairperson Taylor asked if the UTC members had any changes, additions, or corrections to the
Minutes from December 10, 2007. No changes were noted and the Minutes were approved as
submitted.
Announcements
Taylor introduced Bobby Waldrup from the Coggin College of Business. Dr. Waldrup is replacing Jay
Coleman on the committee.
John Sharp presented the "work at home" rights currently provided under our Microsoft Campus
Agreement. In the past, faculty and staff would request a diskette and pass code from the c-tech to
take home and load on their computer. Now in order to be in compliance with Microsoft's licensing
codes, the university will no longer provide a diskette. Individual unique pass codes will now be used
through a 3rd party vendor, E-Academy. Later this week, their website will have a link under the
MyWings portal staff channel along with instructions for accessing this service and ordering. Any
interested UNF faculty and staff can purchase the listed software products for a nominal charge and
have the items shipped directly to their home address. The campus community will be notified of this
link later this week after the portal committee meets. Sharp noted that there are limited quantities of
the software and it can be used on personal computers at home.
Update: Blackboard Performance Issues
Tony Turrin stated that BlackBoard will be visiting campus in the near future to review their
recommendations that we put in place and also the resources that were applied to this system.
Currently we are not seeing any major performance issues and have experienced only minor problems
to date. He reminded the group that the entire BlackBoard environment was reconfigured along with
additional servers being purchased and installed. Deb Miller agreed to supply information on the
service providers used by people that experienced earlier connectivity problems.
Update: Content Management System
Kathy Hughes informed the group that there has been a delay in the "go live" date. The new date for
the first fourteen (14) pages is set for March 18, 2008. The delay is due in part to a perceived
requirement to adhere to stricter ADA compliance issues. Hughes noted that we passed ADA Section
508, but our UNF compliance officers would like us to go to the W3CAAA guidelines compliance. She
noted that every attempt is being made to meet these guidelines, but there is not a current UNF policy
in place.
Hughes stated that the intensive technical training session for the .net programming developers was
completed and now they will begin having user training every month beginning this month.
Report: Campus Technology Committee
Katharine Brown stated that several of the guest speakers for the CTC's last meeting were out sick.
Dmitriy Bond did attend and spoke about the UNF MyWings portal redesign.
Report: GOT
No report.
Report: IT Security Action Team
No report.
Report: Campus Information Display Action Team
Jeff Durfee stated that the team met last week and they are continuing to discuss potential solutions
for campus information software and hardware (kiosks, information portals, television, etc). The team
has resumed a regular meeting schedule and Durfee will report any recommendations at future UTC
meetings.
Report: Portal Committee
Scott Bennett was out of town and unable to attend the UTC meeting. A few of the issues brought up
by the committee included: not user-friendly, non-intuitive, items not easy to find, the BlackBoard
toolbar is not a fully functional navigation bar in the portal, there was not an accurate communication
plan with consequences clearly stated (e.g. lost bookmarks), unnecessary double login, and not
enough useful tools and information on portal in order to draw more users.
Taylor encouraged anyone with portal issues to please forward these concerns/comments to Scott
Bennett via email.
New Business
Marsha Lupi requested that the issue of additional Distance Learning Programs be addressed. This
issue includes support being needed with Information Technology Services and other units, more
server space, additional streaming storage, investigation into media streaming and technology issues.
She stated that open communication, resources, finances need to be addressed as soon as possible.
Taylor requested that the Distance Learning Committee (DLC), the Center for Instruction and
Research Technology (CIRT), Gang of Technology (GOT), and the Faculty Association (FAC) all look at
these issues and report back to the UTC. Deb Miller said she will take this request/information to the
DLC meeting scheduled for tomorrow and will ask them to recommend a procedure. She will report
back any possible suggested formalized procedures to the UTC.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.