Enterprise Systems Committee (ESC)
December 16, 2002
Present: Bill Post, Arno Rethans, Len Fisk, Wendi Beane, Bob Hannigan, Jeff Wright, Don
Graham, Brooke Banks, Kim Williams
1. Portal Project Update
The portal is up and running at an acceptable speed from various campus locations. The
speed when using off-campus modems is slow. The upgrade that will be installed mid-year
should help increase modem speed. The Beyond 2000 committee made the decision to have
a minimum number of icons initially available on the WebCT portal shell for each course.
The decision was based on the feeling that faculty would not want icons to automatically
appear that are not in use by a majority of faculty. The B2000 committee will be having
more discussion on these types of issues in coming months.
2. TII Project Update
The trenches are being dug and the project is moving along, however, we continue to slip
behind schedule.
3. Microsoft License Negotiations Update
The basic Microsoft agreement with the CSU is up 12/31/02. Any new contract will cover
faculty, staff, and student labs. The previous contract included students, but it was reported
that only a small fraction of students actually purchased software under the contract. It is
likely student licenses will be dropped to keep the systemwide license within allocated
dollars. A separate arrangement will be made to provide students with low-cost versions of
MS products.
4. CSU Student Technology Fee Update
A comparison of IT fees at non-CSU universities was distributed to members. In fall 1998
and winter 1999, more than 3,000 students from all of the CSU campuses were surveyed.
Fully 91% of those students indicated they would be willing to pay a technology fee if they
were provided a package of information technology services and support. In spite of these
findings, there are still only two CSU campuses today that have student technology fees. A
technology subcommittee of the CSU campuses will be forming guidelines to present to the
Chancellor’s Office in support of a student technology fee.
5. Wireless
An example of a wireless policy and a “Wireless Discussion Points” document were
distributed to members. Staff has researched various wireless policies in order to write one
for this campus. A lot of planning is required when implementing a wireless policy. Four
main points for discussion were: network reliability, security, suitability, and
responsibilities.
A policy would need to include what we would do in the case of interference. One example
from another campus established wireless priorities in this order: Public access points,
instruction, administration, research, and personal. (Committee requested further
clarification on “public access points.”) The airwaves, the radio frequency on campus, is
university property. Therefore, the policy must address users that are causing interference.
For security purposes, a VPN (virtual private network) solution will be used to ensure that
the traffic is encrypted. VPN client software will be downloaded to a user’s machine prior to
the user accessing the wireless network. Policy would need to address visitors to the campus.
A visitor not in the Wildcat LDAP directory would need to be provided "visitor" access.
Suitability addresses the fact that wireless networks are not a substitute for wired network
connections.
Because wireless on campus is an enterprise resource, it needs to be well managed.
Responsibilities to be clarified in the policy might include: Information Resources must
approve all installations on campus, only hardware and software approved by Information
Resources can be used for wireless access, and department heads responsible for wireless
access points within campus buildings used by their department must register any
deployment of wireless access points with Information Resources.
We will need to develop a wireless policy next semester that could be approved by the ESC
and Beyond 2000. The CIO would then forward the policy to the provost for Cabinet
approval.
6. Identity Management
There is a new systemwide initiative on identity management under way. Identity
management has to do with determining who is accessing networked computer systems, and
defining what they are allowed to access based on their role. We currently use several
different systems that require several different sign-ons to access information. The CSU, at
the system level, will be looking for pilot campuses to implement this initiative. Chico and
four or five other campuses are at the forefront with this issue. Our director of Computing
Services will be invited to talk about our current state of identity management at a meeting
this spring.
7. Voice over IP (VoIP)
Voice over IP is the process of running voice (telephone) over our data network. The major
difference is that there will be only one infrastructure. In January, CSU, Northridge will be
the first campus with a beginning Voice over IP system. Our campus currently contracts
with PacBell for their Centrex services. We don’t have a PBX phone switch system on
campus. We may be a perfect case to go to Voice over IP once the TII project is built. Now,
it looks like it may be viable for Chico to swap out its current phone system in about two
years. We would need to put in a higher powered switch. Many questions still must be
answered.
7. Adjournment
All other discussions were deferred to a future meeting.
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