Hong Kong Baptist University
School of Business Computing and Equipment Committee
First Meeting, 2010-2011
Date: 2 November 2010
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Venue: WLB705A
Present:
Dr. Vincent Chow (Chairman)
Dr. Li Sung Ko
Dr. Alex Lau
Dr. Ludwig Chang
Dr. Michael Young
Dr. David Ko
In-attendance:
Mr. Thomas Chung
Mr. Tong Siu Hung
Mr. Lawrence Lee
Minutes
I.
1.
To confirm minutes of last meeting (App. 1)
The minutes of the last meeting held on 13 April 2010 were confirmed as true
record of meeting.
II. Reports and matters arising
A.
ITO Updates (App. 2)
2.
The Chairman invited ITO staff to present the report, and then to answer
members’ questions.
3.
Mr. Tong reported that IT Committee and IT Users’ Sub-committee discussed
and made the following arrangements for staff and students:
- The print quota for students would be extended to usage in library in
addition to in computer rooms. Student consultation would be conducted
in this month.
- Recycled papers were being used.
- Modem dial-up lines would be terminated this year due to low utilization.
- Old email server would be terminated by end-December 2010 as over 80%
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of users had moved to the new BU-mail.
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short notice and the problems of the BU-mail, such as email messages could
not be saved, left unsolved. Mr Tong reconfirmed that it was a decision of
IT Committee, and would ask ITO Director to officially notify users and
follow up with the vendor of any improvements to BU-mail.
BU-mail quota was enhanced.
Members pointed out the functioning of notebook WiFi was acceptable,
however that for mobile phones had to be improved.
Windows 7 was installed in the PCs of ITO labs and used for teaching SCI
classes.
An enhanced system for e-announcement posting would be issued to
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department/office secretaries.
Disposal of obsolete items would be handled by FO, instead of ITO.
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4.
Members were concerned of the
The Chairman asked about the low speed of internet connection happened from
time to time. Mr. Tong said that the switch should be changed to 100 mg bits
and Lawrence would handle it. The Chairman said that in future ITO could
give us in writing of the solutions/responses to our queries made. For this case,
there was a question if the proposal had been tested and other reasons could
account for the problem. Mr. Tong responded that more active and prompt
response would be initiated by ITO and Lawrence on technical reports received
from School staff.
5. ITO would liaise with Dr. Chang on VPN technology.
Tong for attending the meeting.
B.
The Chairman thanked Mr.
Brief report of 2nd round procurement for 2009-10 (App. 3-5)
6. The Chairman referred members to the appendices 3-4, showing a balance of
$447,244 brought forward to this new financial year. The breakdowns of the
purchases made including the renewal of dataset/software subscription were
provided in the attachment. New purchase items included a feedback controller
and amplifier to improve the sound system in WLB602, as discussed in para. 13.2
of last meeting minutes.
7. Also referring to para. 14 and 15 of last meeting minutes, the Chairman said that a
whiteboard had been installed in WLB601 and Acrobat files could be provided by
technical officers.
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III.
Discussions
A.
Summary and consolidated statement of 1st round budget requests,
2010-11 (App. 6.1-6.2)
8.
The Chairman provided the budget allocation for 2010-11 year including
brought-forward balance and yearly allocation of $841,000.
9.
The Chairman had discussed with Dean on the purchase requests and Dean had
agreed to provide 50% funding for CSMAR dataset, ie 50% of USD20,000.
The Chairman asked members of the usage of this China dataset which might be
funded by the relevant department(s) from its database funding of USD5,000
from the Computing budget. It was suggested that this item be moved to the
regular dataset item for teaching, as listed in Appendix 5, which was wholly paid
out from Computing budget, since the dataset was useful for teaching and
student projects in China studies/China business. There was however
comments on the high cost of this item. This item would be discussed in the
item below.
B.
10.
Individual purchase requests for approval (App. 7.1-7.2)
Members discussed and made the recommendations for the following requests.
Regarding equipment, the Chairman proposed and members agreed that PCs
which had been used for 5 years and more could be approved for replacement
without going through the committee vetting. For duplex printers, the
replacement should only be based on the model approved by Committee.
11. ACLW
- New PC for Dr Davy Wu, Dr Hu BB and Mr Wong KS approved; and Dr
Alex Lau would upgrade to 4GB RAM. The case of Prof Lin was not
approved because he should locate the original centrally-funded PC before
asking for a replacement. As per guideline, the request of Dr. Stella So was
not approved because her PC is less than 5 year old.
- Duplex personal printer of Brother model for Dr. Stella So and Dr. Davy Wu
approved
- PC for Man Ko and Fiona Lee – to use BCom ACCT budget for new
machines or keep using the old ones
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Worldscope: ACLW used their portion of dataset funding to subscribe this
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item, and also top up the difference with their budget.
Datastream: annual renewal by central budget
12 ECON
- Duplex personal printer of Brother model for Dr. Chan HL approved
- Datasets – International Financial Statistics in CD-ROM, Director of Trade
in CD-ROM, ICPSR: annual renewal by central budget
- Software – EViews: annual renewal by central budget
- Datasets – CSMAR: Members had a hesitation to fund it as a teaching
dataset from the central budget. The Chairman asked two departments to
use its dataset budget it together with Dean’s funding. The School would
need to buy a server as it would be moved back from the library. Members
suggested bargaining a lower price at USD10,000 and if successful, funding
is from the central budget.
13. FDS
- 23” LCD monitor for Dr Shi not approved; committee would only provide a
19” monitor according to the guidelines
14. MGNT
- New PC for Ms. Susanna Chui approved
15. MKT
- New PC for Dr. Zhang JF approved
16. IED
- Members asked for cost splitting since some of its activities were not
School-based activities. Tentative comments on the following requests
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were given, subject to discussion with Dean.
External harddisk of 1TB - acceptable
Mobile flipchart display stand – not a standard item so would not be
entertained
2 sets of walkie-talkie and headphone – would not be entertained because
similar equipment was bought in last round
USB flash drive 16GB – not a standard item so would not be entertained
Speaker for computer - acceptable
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Software: Photoshop – acceptable, but should compare the price for 4-10
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licences
17. IIBD
- PCs for secretary and new staff – to check with Dean for funding purpose
- External harddisk of 1.5 TB - acceptable
- Presenter – not supported because it is part of central items for loan
18. Dean’s Office
- 22” LCD for Pauline Ling not approved; only 19” is provided
- Software – Adobe Creating Suite 5 Web Premium, Corel digital studio 2010
& Video Studio Pro X3 approved
19. General Use
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4 items of presenter approved
2 sets of network printer for computer room WLB408 not approved;
recommendation was to buy one new printer and replace the other one with a
new tray at $6,000
2 items of tripod for replacement approved
3 new notebook computers were approved because existing stock only had
three units with less than 3-years old. However, Netbooks had a low
utilization rate.
IV.
Any Other Business
20.
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Signed as true record of meeting on 29 March 2011.
_____________________________
Dr. Vincent Chow
Chairman, School of Business Computing & Equipment Committee
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