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Academic & Research Computing Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes
September 24, 2001
Present: R. Mackert, Chair, C. Billman, C. Cassels, R. Cibirka, V.
Haywood, A. Hinton, M. Litaker, M. Miller, F. Omar, S. Vogel, C. White.
Absent: A. Albritton, R. Baker, G. Bentley, D. Hatmaker, M. Owen, K. Rindt,
K. Stephens
The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm.
The minutes of the August 27, 2001 meeting were approved as distributed.
Faculty and staff input to ACAB from each school or unit is listed below:
| Allied Health Sciences: | No report |
| School of Dentistry: | No report |
| Graduate Studies: | There is no specific forum available for the solicitation or dissemination of information. The conversion from the POP server to GroupWise continues to yield some difficulties. |
| School of Medicine: | The Faculty Senate is not turning out to be an effective forum and e-mail is also inefficient due to the wide spectrum of utilization. Hence, an effective means for information communication will be a difficult. |
| Staff: | No report |
Dr. Mackert initiated a charge to review and
prioritize the Tasks and Issues list along with assigning individuals with
the responsibilities for task completion. The input is as follows:
Fran Omar noted it would be helpful to have a predictable annual budget to
allow strategizing technology services and upgrades each fiscal year.
Van Haywood suggested technology upgrades be prioritized based on needs and
utilization.
Chris White felt it imperative to stimulate faculty excitement about
technology and its use in the teaching mission.
Mike Miller reported the Educational Strategic Planning Committee would
benefit from being informed of faculty needs to assist its development of a
report to the President.
Van Haywood suggested the need for a resource area to assist in the
transformation of conventional technology to digital technology. He noted
this process is very time intensive and prohibitive if outsourcing is to be
purchased in most departmental budgets within the School of Dentistry.
Van Haywood queried Fran Omar regarding utilization of computerized
presentations on campus versus conventional 35 mm slides. Fran Omar reported
approximately 50% of lectures on campus are data projection and 50% are
conventional slide imaging.
Steve Vogel suggested two barriers experienced by faculty for the use of
technology. The first being the resolution of the digital image is not as
good as 35 mm slides, and the second being the lack of technology
availability to all faculty members. Many faculty members do not have their
own laptops and experience difficulty or inexperience with borrowed units,
increasing their frustration and possibly steering them away from converting
their teaching methodology.
Chris White noted that faculty will search out technology if interested in
this teaching mechanism.
Discussion regarding a possible request from the ACAB to the Student
Technology Fee Committee was initiated. One possibility supported was
consideration of upgrading data projectors according to a strategy developed
by Fran Omar based on need and utilization. Additionally, it was suggested
that classrooms demonstrating "high visibility" and student utilization
should be prioritized due to the nature of the funds.
Clare Billman requested support from the ACAB to discuss development of a
policy regarding access to Web courses. This was precipitated from a
Department Chair who requested designer access to all the web courses in the
department. This type of access was upsetting to some faculty in the
department.
Steve Vogel revisited discussion of the ongoing conversion from the POP
server to the GroupWise system. By report, the conversion process was
working well with a Eudora front end, however, following a virus attack the
prior week and resultant service interruption, the system has not been
working since. It was expressed that GroupWise and Macs continue to have
compatibility issues.
Chris White added that a Eudora front end might be a great opportunity for
student access and e-mail forwarding. Additionally, students should have a
mandatory requirement for GroupWise access and utilization.
The next meeting of ACAB will be held at 1:00 pm on October 22, 2001 in room
AB-211 in the Library.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Roman Cibirka
Secretary, Academic and Research Computing Advisory Board.