Academic Research and Computing Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes
May 19, 2003

Attendance: Andy Albritton, Clare Billman, Caro Cassels, Roman Cibirka, Jim Dias (for Mark Litaker), Rick Hall, Van Haywood, Anne Hinton, Fred Lupien, Rod Mackert, Richard McIndoe, Fran Omar, Mimi Owen, Kevin Plummer, Kenda Rindt, Kristy Stephens, David Wardlaw, Chris White. Absent: Gayle Bentley. Guests: Beth Brigdon, Onley Howser, Ron Long, Mike Miller

The bi-monthly meeting of ARCAB was held in the President’s Conference Room, AA-302. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. by Rod Mackert.

The minutes of the March 24 meeting were approved.

Dr. Mackert introduced our guest, Ms. Beth Brigdon, the new Vice President for Information Technology / Chief Information Officer for MCG. Ms. Brigdon discussed some of her strategic initiatives for the coming months.

Ron Long, the Manager of File Server Administration for ITD followed with a presentation on new workgroup productivity tools from Novell. These include iFolder, a tool that allows your personal data files to follow you wherever you go and iPrint, a printing solution that allows you to effortlessly send documents to printers anywhere within the network.

Classroom Services. Mr. Omar reported that new equipment is continuing to arrive for the classroom technology upgrade project. Also, the second half of the classroom performance system (CPS) has been acquired, enabling utilization by up to 64 class participants.

Office of Educational Design and Development. Ms. Billman gave a summation of the recent technology fair. Evaluation forms indicated 98% satisfaction with the event. There was $481.11 in residual funds from vendor contributions. She recommended keeping it in a special account for technology demonstration purposes. Finally, in evaluating return on investment, it was determined that the cost of this event was extraordinarily high. We need to evaluate the efficiency of this method of exposition and explore alternatives.

Library. Ms. Stephens reported that Student Technology Fee funds were used to replace computers and upgrade software in student computer labs in the Library.

Dr. White inquired about the current status of wireless LAN access. Ms. Brigdon and Mr. Howser indicated that this is currently being re-examined to determine a strategic direction.

Dr. Miller shared that the cost of mandatory student computer ownership can be factored into the total cost of instruction and can be covered by student financial aid.

School of Allied Health Sciences. Ms. Owen briefly discussed a recent demonstration of a classroom multimedia delivery system known as Tegrity.

Mr. Hall aired some lingering frustrations with the firewall implementation and discussed the need for providing stud ents with free or low-cost internet access.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 21 at 1:00 p.m.

Reports from Classroom Services, Office of Educational Design and Development, the Library, and the School of Allied Health Sciences were presented during the May 19 meeting. Additional reports conveyed by email are as follows.

For some, online chat carries a stigma as something that is intrinsically bad. Are we impinging on students' academic freedom by assuming that they have no valid need to participate in chat rooms? Are online game sites necessarily inappropriate for use as a diversion during the students' precious free time?

I can see perfectly valid arguments on both sides of this issue. I present this here because I am interested in hearing the perspectives of my colleagues. I am a strong advocate of maintaining the integrity of our computing environment, but I am an equally strong advocate for students and their quality of life while at MCG. What are your thoughts?

Response by Mimi Owen (5/20/03):
[Item #1] In a related firewall issue. Students rotating at clinical sites in Atlanta and Athens are frequently not able to access WebCT and occasionally, the MCG website from their institutions. [Item #2] This is a HUGE problem, as they need to be proctored for online testing from these sites.

Additionally, they must be able to access an online time and attendance application that is on the MCG database server to log in and out of their clinical sites. This function is an integral part of documentation for program accreditation purposes.

[Item #3] Lastly, we share grant funding with Emory University Core PET Center for the development of an online teaching Case Study database which must be accessible from the Emory PET site.

I guess we need some mechanism for coordinating these issues with outside institutions.

Response by Doogie Howser (5/20/03):
Item #1: We did have some initial problems over the first few weeks of the implementation, but have not heard of any further issues relating connectivity.

Item #2: Can I get some details about the "MCG database server" and what that is and where it is and the IP address, an account I can test with, etc.

Item #3: Same info on this access is required.

Still thinking about the student issue that David Wardlaw approached me with.

The big issue with PeopleSoft, I believe, is that it did not provide timely information to Researchers about the status of their grant funding, etc. This is a MAJOR complaint from people with grants.