Institutional Technology Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes
January 20, 2009
I. Call to order
The CIO called to order the specially-scheduled meeting of the Institutional
Technology Advisory Committee at 1:00 PM on January 20, 2009 in the IT
Conference Room.
II. Roll call
The following were in attendance: Steve Vieira, Carl Toft, John Panzica, Peter
Woodberry, Deb Aiken, Karen Allen, Ruth Sullivan and Kay Johnson. Cody
Houghton was ill and unable to attend.
III. Approval of minutes from last meeting
Minutes were approved through email response.
IV. Discussion Items
a) Gratuity Account Policy
The CIO explained the need for a gratuity account policy to grant departing
employees in good standing the opportunity to maintain their email and portal
accounts. No written policy exists at CCRI at this time though there are
accounts being maintained for departed faculty and staff at their request. A
draft policy was distributed a week before the meeting in order to give
members the chance to review and comment.
Several good questions and comments were raised. Peter Woodberry
suggested moving the procedural piece from within the policy and list it under
a separate heading “Procedure”. Another suggestion concerned the location
of the form on the Human Resources form page. Both of these amendments
will be adopted.
Another amendment to the policy was the replacement of references to
“retirees” or “retirement” to departing or leaving the college. This would
allow those who were not necessarily retiring to request these accounts. That
change will also be made.
The CIO explained that the three primary reasons that departing employees
asked that their accounts be maintained were: 1) to close out their account
and let people know they were moving, 2) to stop or divert listserv emails
received or 3) a real desire to keep in touch with the college once they have
left. Reasons 1 and 2 usually follow up with the departed employee letting
Human Resources and/or IT know when they no longer need the account.
The committee voted to let the CIO make the necessary changes in the draft
policy, distribute it and adopt its approval through email.
b) Student Email Accounts
The CIO presented the draft policy for Student Email Accounts. This would
be in addition to the Electronic Communications Policy currently in existence
because this more specifically relates to the future of student email at CCRI.
Starting in 2010, student email accounts will be provisioned in the Microsoft
Live@edu system. With so many more features than can be offered at CCRI
for students, the decision to venture into the “cloud” for email was
straightforward.
The CIO further explained the timelines for implementation for students, the
new requirements and challenges that our students would face and how
student accounts, the new email system and print management come together.
Changes in the draft policy concerned page 1 paragraph 2 where the issuance
of accounts was mentioned. This was changed to reflect the fact that students
were issued accounts once they were accepted to the college. A second
change was made to page 3 under the Responsible Department heading noting
responsibilities of the Enrollment Services department and acceptance of
credit students to CCRI.
Discussion also centered on the difference between credit and non-credit
students and to whom email accounts were issued. Though there are courses
in CWCE that might require email accounts, generally speaking they are
unneeded in most cases. Exceptions could be made when there is a
requirement for them to exist and that has been done in the past.
The committee voted to allow the CIO to make the suggested changes, to send
the draft policy out through email and to have the committee adopt the policy
with changes in place through email.
c) Pipeline Server Elimination
The CIO announced that at the last meeting he provided a document from
Bortie expressing the fact that the old “Pipeline” server was not receiving any
new content. As a result, anyone visiting that site would not have the latest
information, email or self-service functionality offered through myCCRI.
The CIO suggested that the old server be shutdown as of the end of the month
of January and that he was going to submit the request to the Change
Advisory Board to have that done. As a result, the URL of pipeline.ccri.edu
would no longer exist and people would get an error message (404 page not
found) if they tried to connect.
The committee voiced no opposition to this action being taken.
d) Data Cleanup/Integrity Software review result
The CIO offered that the committee reviewing the two third party options
supported by SunGard HE (our Banner vendor) for data cleanup, Experian
QAS and Runner Technologies Clean Address, had come to a decision on
which to pursue. Clean Address, an imbedded product residing within Banner
data input forms, was selected. The advantages of this product were the lack
of training needed for staff and users to institute it at the college, the ability to
work with both Banner and Raiser’s Edge (currently in development) and the
number of changes impacted upon test data given to the vendor to
demonstrate. With 10,000 records from the current database, Clean Address
was able to fix all but 150. Another feature of the software was its ability to
mark records within Banner that were not dependable addresses.
The requisition for this product will be issued by end of week.
e) Print management system
The CIO reported that he had met with Ruth Sullivan and the various library
staffs to introduce and gather feedback concerning the new print management
system. Sometimes referred to as the “pay-to-print” or print quota system, the
librarians provided comments and concerns about how the system would be
introduced and delivered to students and “guests”.
The CIO explained that the system, to be piloted in late May with the first
summer session, would require non-students to purchase print cards from a
card dispenser for either printing or copying. Dispensers would be located
within the four computing labs and four libraries.
The print management system is scheduled to be fully implemented in
September 2010.
f) Other issues
Kay Johnson asked about the role of the ATAC advisory group. The CIO
explained that he felt that that group should be providing direction and input
concerning faculty –related issues. Specifically he cited the review and
evaluation of the learning management system, the introduction and creation
of additional technology-enhanced classrooms and the evolution of
technology-enhanced instructional tools and media on campus. The CIO and
Kay both agreed on the fact that the ATAC should not simply be a signoff
committee and that their advisory role is particularly important in the delivery
of IT-related customer service to students and faculty. ATAC, in his mind, is
supposed to be making suggestions for improving IT services and not simply
listening to decisions that have been made.
Kay also asked if there were plans to establish a web advisory group based
upon comments that she had collected concerning the functionality of the
current CCRI web site. The CIO suggested that he would discuss this with
Jim Kirby and Sara Hill.
g) Adjournment
The CIO adjourned the meeting at 2:15 PM.
Minutes submitted by: Stephen A. Vieira