SUFFOLK COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
COLLEGE COMPUTING COUNCIL
MINUTES
OCTOBER 6, 2000 MEETING
MEMBERS PRESENT: P. Basileo, J. Bravo, D. Coscia, M. Crosley, P. DiGregorio, E. Hassildine, M.A.
Miller, G. Ris, M. Russo, S. Schrier, M. Weissberg, R. Williams
MEMBERS ABSENT: R. Arrigon, R. Barta, J. Braxton, J. Canniff, W. Connors, F. Lourenso, J.
Pryputniewicz, C. Stein
REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT: C. Harris, K. Riley for N. Leonhardt, D. Rabinowitz
ATTENDEES: E. Friedman, R. Manning, K. McCoy, F. Parrella, J. Rice
COPY TO: D. Quinn
I.
MINUTES – Minutes from the May 12, 2000 meeting were accepted.
II.
CAMPUS COMPUTING COUNCIL REPORTS
1. Campus Reports
Ammerman Campus – J. Bravo
 ETU Unit underway – Has received positive feedback as to what good shape the labs are in
and thanked P. Basileo and his team for all their work.
 Replacement Policy
 There is a lot of confusion about replacement policy in regards as to what needs to be
replaced and what the policies are. They have been instructed to go to the Website and
are given a hard copy but still are confused. Therefore, Paul and Jeanette are drafting
another simple and to the point instructions that if they are getting a new computer they
will be responsible for recycling computer, that it should come back to the campus and
that it doesn’t belong to them because it comes out of the college’s budget.
 Tech Plan finished. Will be printed and submitted to all administrators that need to see it
next week.
 Gary asked that the Tech Plan also be submitted to the Planning Committee and
Training Committee as well.
 Ammerman Computing Council has not met because a lot of memberships terms have
expired and are in the process of drafting a letter to them asking them if they want to still
serve and if not get representative from their departments. Also need to restructure
committee because there is not enough representation from all the departments.
 Computer Locks
 Locks cost $22.00 each and will cost approximately $4,000 to met her needs.
 Jeanette asked if payment of these locks can be from central, from the campus, or ask
each department to take it out of their budget.
 Jeanette mentioned she is inclined to say give it back to each department and let them
take it out of instructional supplies.
SCCC COLLEGE COMPUTING COUNCIL
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Jeanette asked if there was a way to get a better price on these locks.
Staples also has locks.
It was suggested that locks be ordered when ordering new computers.
Make sure all keys are keyed alike.
Gary suggested that it be tabled and looked into at another time.
West Campus - P. DiGregorio for Randi Manning
 Committee met last week
 Have web page for Western Campus Computer Committee
(www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/West/WCCC).
 Two out of four labs working.
 Math Lab and HIT Lab now working.
 Nurse and Open labs will hopefully be available in the Spring. Still waiting for equipment
to come in.
 Concern on replacement policy.
 New computer PA on campus. His name is Ed Chropufka.
 Working on wireless with Symbol Technology coming into lecture halls and the Field
House for convention and shows.
East Campus – M. Miller
 General concern about equipment budget available to follow the computer replacement
demand.
Tech Deans Committee – D. Coscia
 Don mentioned that Ammerman Campus had a major change in culture in terms of how
they deliver services. Thanked Jeanette for her leadership role in bringing about the
changes to the Ammerman Campus.
 Thanked Randy for his leadership role in bringing the new building on board.
 Thanked M. Miller for keeping her campus going while the new instructional building is
being built.
 Jeanette also thanked Peter, Paul, Ed and Drew for all their assistance.
 Don stated there is a structure now that really seems to be working and need to support this
concept by hiring additional people.
 Three forms of Distance Education being offered: On-line, telecourses and classroom
courses.
 Offered for Fall semester are 4 sections of on-line courses.
 For Spring there will be 14 sections of on-line courses offered.
 Currently have these 14 faculty members in training.
 Put together a marketing plan for Distance Education Program, which was presented to
Distance Education Committee on October 5, 2000.
 Gary and Don meet on monthly basis to coordinate what plans are being considered on the
academic side and what support is needed in order to implement those plans.
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III.
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SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
Academic Subcommittee – M. Russo
1. Report on meeting of September 27, 2000
http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/Central/IT/CompC/aca_comp/acc_mins_9_27_00.doc
 Number of workstations in the labs has increased dramatically without a subsequent
increase in PA support staff.
 Discussed Blackboard SUNY Learning Network software that will be supported in the
academic computing centers.
 K. McCoy briefed committee on student access to SCCC library databases from outside the
college’s Internet domain.
 Major problem accessing outside of the campus because exchange server not installed on
east and west.
 Don Coscia asked why and when exchange server will be purchased and installed on
the east and west campuses.
 It was explained that they were put on PO last spring and due to funding problems were
not purchased. They will be purchased this month and will be installed at west and east
campuses.
 Demo by Steve Clark on LinkSys device. Device will cost $189 each and will allow up to
256 users to use a single IP address.
 It is recommended that the college look into installing them where feasible.
Networking and Services Subcommittee – Given by Gary Ris
1. Report on meeting of October 6, 2000
http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/Central/IT/CompC/network/Net-Subcom-Report-Oct00.doc
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Lines between West and Selden campuses operate at over 90% of capacity between 8 a.m.
and 4 p.m.
Lines between East and Selden campuses have also peaked over 90%.
Alterations in routing equipment to insure priority traffic delivery has been made but
systems are heavily loaded and we have exhausted all methods to increase efficiencies.
Trying to get 45 meg between the campuses.
R. Johnston trying to improve College WAN infrastructure, interconnecting routers and
campus switch centers.
Funding will become available this year to obtain new routers and switches.
In process of identifying technologies, such as Microwave, VPN and point-to-point DS3
connections to replace T1 lines.
Planning Subcommittee – Gary Ris
1. Report of October, 2000 meeting:
http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/Central/IT/CompC/planning/Minutes%20for%20Planning_9
_6_00.doc
 Committee is working on the following that will be discussed under the New Business
section of the minutes:
 Forming Ad Hoc Committee to review the need for a portal and to identify a portal
strategy.
 Review of document “Beyond Universal Access: Integrating the Technology”.
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Policy Subcommittee – S. Schrier – No report.
Standards Subcommittee – J. Rice
1. Report on meeting of September 7, 2000:
http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/Central/IT/CompC/standards/Standards%20Minutes%209700.doc
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Gateway is still vendor for another year.
Drew posted to web Computer Request Worksheet for current cycle.
Microsoft license is through Dell.
All new computers being purchased will have to be purchased with the license for Office
97 upgradeable to Office 2000.
 Reviewed software and hardware standards for purchase college-wide (see minutes for
criteria).
 Revised membership of committee by adding members from each of the campuses.
 Have Select agreement of all Microsoft products and have ability to put disks into place on
all computers in labs and offices to sample software. It you decide to keep software, a
purchase order will be sent to Dell.
 Gary explained that there use to be one purchase order submitted for computer and
software. Now there are two: one to Gateway for the hardware and 1 to Dell for the
software.
 Drew requested Standards Committee meet prior to November 17th because of problems
with Gateway.
 Standards Committee will meet directly after meeting to discuss problems with
Gateway.
 In the process of standardizing laptops.
 Drew will not repair or support these machines.
 DVD and NT not compatible and will have to choose which one you want.
 Repairs will be done by Gateway.
 Need standard for web and front page.
Don Coscia recommends from the Training Committee that front page become the
standard.
Gary asked anyone with recommendations to e-mail Jack.
Student Technology Fee Subcommittee – M.A. Miller
1. Report on meeting of October 3, 2000
http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/Central/IT/CompC/Tech_Fee/10300.min.doc
 Reviewing Student Tech Fee projects that are continuing from 1999.
 Looking at new projects funded for this year.
 Will meet again at end of October to review where we are with new and ongoing projects.
 Asked anyone interested in proposing ideas for future projects to please let the committee
know.
 Tech Fee budget for next year will be discussed at meeting at end of October.
 PC’s purchased on initial Tech Fee money are now coming up for replacement.
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Training Subcommittee – D. Coscia
1. Report on 9/00 meeting
http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/Central/IT/CompC/train/Computer%20Council%20Training%20Subcommittee
%20Minutes%209-15-00.doc
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IV.
Student Tech Orientation Plan
 Eastern campus successfully done and being promoted at campus.
 Chair of CS15 Delivery Committee informed Don that the orientation would not be
included.
 CS15 Delivery Committee met 10/5/00 and the recommendation that was going to
them was that this component would not be an out of class assignment, in would be
part of CS15. Don does not know if committee approved recommendation.
Would like to have an accessibility and website development training course offered for
Spring 2001.
Putting together a 3-day NT training program to be given in January for all IT PA’s. Once
plans have been completed will put out a notice.
Distance Education website now has a student, faculty and administrative help page.
Technology training through Continuing Ed courses was discussed.
 It was recommended that Continuing Ed courses run with 4 participants.
 If class falls below 4 participants, TLC will pay for the instruction.
 TLC funding will come from campus budgets, except for the student-training program,
which is funded in the student technology fee budget.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Review of Computing Council Membership
 Gary asked if Tech Deans and TLC Coordinators should be members of the Council?
 Don Coscia stated that TLC Coordinators are invited to Training Committee for
Suffolk Star. Campuses make decision if they can attend meetings and the Campus
might not let them attend committee meetings.
 Michael Weissberg suggested that they be put on subcommittees of Council and not the
Council as voting members.
 Recommendation from the floor:
 Review membership of Council at the next Planning Committee and bring back
recommendations to Council at their next meeting scheduled in December.
 Council unanimously agreed.
 Gary asked if Gobi Gopinath, Associate Dean for Instructional Computing should be
added as an official member of the Council.
 Recommended that Gobi be invited to attend but not be made official member.
 After much discussion a vote was made and unanimously carried that the Associate
Dean for Instruction Computing be included as an official member of the Council.
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2. Beyond Universal Access
http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/Central/IT/CompC/planning/strategic%20tech%20plan_CC_pl_sub_rec%20draf
t%20comments__.doc
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G. Ris explained that the Planning Committee met and the highlighted areas are unresolved
issues that need to be addressed by the Council.
a) Under Institutional Goals and Objectives, Goal #1, add Item #8.
 Gary explained that Item #8 primarily addresses the fact that we are doing some of
this and that there is a leadership role the Training committee is taking along with
the TLC’s and Continuing Ed. What we are assigning then is what in additional will
we be looking for if we did this.
 Steve Shrier stated he doesn’t like wording suggested for #8 because as a planning
document we should be looking for what we want to change rather than restate the
things that we are already doing well. He feels we should focus on what new
direction we want to take or are we satisfied that they are doing everything we
expect from them and just leave it alone, in which case it should not be in this
planning document.
 Don Coscia feels too early to make any recommendations and should keep Item #8
in document because it might lead to the funding for training.
 Suggested to change wording to read “provide leadership” instead of “continue its
leadership role”.
 Gary asked Don what is the biggest issue for the Training committee now?
 Don replied funding. They design a training program for the IT PA’s and there is
not money available to implement them.
 Steve investigating alternative methods of institutionalizing the delivery of tech
training programs.
 Steve Shrier suggested to amend Item #8 to read as follows, “The Computing
Council Training Subcommittee should investigate alternative methods of
institutionalizing the delivery of tech training programs”.
 Council voted unanimously to approved the amended language for Item #8 as
recommended by S. Shrier.
b) Under Institutional Goals and Objectives, Goal #3, Item #2
 Add wording “Within 5 years, every classroom should be equipped with these
capabilities and each campus should have a media server for instructors to retrieve
instructional material for in-class use.”
 Don stated he would like to have every classroom equipped with instructional
equipment within 5 years.
 In favor of adding within 5 years because it will insure that every faculty member
that is teaching in a certain block of time will have access to the technology?
 Question was raised as to how many classrooms we have in the college?
 College-wide it is estimated that there are 100 classrooms and if wording is
included in Item #2 it will cost approximately $300,000 to implement over a fiveyear period.
 The Council approved to include the above language.
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c) Under Institutional Goals and Objectives, Goal #3, Item #4
 Replace with following language: “The DL committee will evaluate whether
students need prerequisite knowledge of how to prosper in distance learning classes
and if so, determine how the acquisition of this knowledge may be accomplished.
 Don Coscia feels original language is adequate.
 Gary stated that the Planning Committee originally recommended that #4 be
removed and after further discussion decided to highlight the prerequisite issue.
 Instead of using DL use DE.
 Don Coscia suggested changing the language to read, “The DE committee will
evaluate whether students need prior knowledge skills and abilities to prosper in
distance learning classes and if so determine how the acquisition of this
knowledge may be accomplished,
 Council approved using alternate language as amended.
d) Under Institutional Goals and Objectives, Goal #4, Item #3
 Replace original language with, “The college should move toward providing
each full time faculty member with a dedicated computer.
 Gary stated original goal talked about in excess of 1 per office and the revision
is that we should be looking at one for each faculty member.
 Council members not comfortable with the word “dedicated”. Will this mean
that the computer will belong to that person.
 Jeanette stated we need to be careful with the word “dedicated, because we
don’t have support, alot of the rooms are not wired to have dedicated
computers.
 Council approved keeping original language which reads, “Desktop computers
in excess of one per faculty office should be permitted upon application and if
justified.
e) Under Institutional Goals and Objectives, Goal #4, Item #7
 Original language, “Bandwidth will be increased as necessary for the network to
handle the increased demand without slowing down”.
 Gary stated that the Planning Committee raised the issue that this should be
moved to a higher priority?
 Steve Schrier suggested to leave to budget process to decide what is a priority.
 Council approved keeping original language as is.
f) Under Institutional Goals and Objectives, Goal #4, Add Item #8
 Add Item #8 to read, “Continue to implement and to periodically review the
college’s PC replacement policy.
 Gary stated the issue of continuing to implement and the framework of the
document is that we really don’t want to highlight anything with just
“continuing” regarding the college replacement policy.
 Don Coscia recommended the language to read, “An annual periodic review of
the progress of the college’s PC replacement policy”.
 Council approved the amended language.
 Council approved submitting document to Strategic Planning Council with their
approved revisions.
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3. Portals
 Need to identify what a portal would do for the college and students.
 Need to identify what features we would need a portal to have, look to see how to fund it
and how to implement it
 Planning Committee felt an ad hoc subcommittee should be formed to address this issue.
 This ad hoc subcommittee would report to the Student Tech Fee Committee about funding
and the Networking and Services Committee on the implementation side.
 Planning Committee recommended the following membership for this ad hoc committee:
 Student services representatives from each campus
 Computer Center Technology representative
 Student affairs representative for business links (i.e., on-line registration, paying your
bill, etc.).
 Faculty representative
 Student representative
 Representative from Academic Affairs (for Faculty portal and links to Course
Management and Outcome Assessment system).
 Representative from Human Resources (for employee portal recommendations)
 Alumni Association (for Alumni portal)
 Council agreed that the above should be included in the membership but requested that
the following also be added:
 Representative from the Library
 Representative from Telecommunications
 Campus Tech Coordinator (ETU) representative college-wide.
 Student Representative should be one from each campus.
 Council unanimously approved developing this committee and the membership as
amended.
 Council recommended that the ad hoc committee update the Council at regular
intervals.
4.
E-Mail
 Should Student e-mail be an official form of communication?
 Jack Rice suggested that it be added as “an” official form of communication to
compliment what is already out there.
 Bills and grades cannot be e-mailed to students.
 There are technical reasons why this cannot be implemented (i.e. Osprey).
 Portals may provide the technology needed.
 Steve Schrier stated that we have to make a decision. The portal issue is a good
decision but still have to let know students how to obtain their grades. Will have to deal
with each issue individually and not broadly say that e-mail is the way information will
be disseminated.
 Steve suggested that portal ad hoc committee deal with what kinds of things do we
expect students to receive through portals and recommend a way to inform students of
what they will receive from the portal (i.e., your scheduled bill will available on the
portal on a specific date, your grades will be available through the portal on a specific
date).
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It was recommended that this issue be incorporated into the portal component instead
of dealing with it as a separate issue.
It was recommended and approved by the Council that this issue be tabled until the
Portal Ad Hoc Committee reports back to the Council.
Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.