Meeting Minutes for
October 14, 2002
A meeting of the University Information Technology Advisory Committee
was called to order at 3:07 p.m. on October 14, 2002, in the Dean’s
Conference Room at the Lyons Building on the MCV Campus. Dr. David
Sarrett, co-chair, presided. Members present were Dr. Timothy Broderick,
Dr. Lynn Nelson, Ms. Fran Smith, Dr. James Shultz, Ms. Veronica
Shuford, Dr. Phyllis Self, Mr. John Ulmschneider, and Mr. Mark Willis.
Dr. Robert Mattauch and Mr. Carl Gattuso were absent.
I. REVIEW AND APPROVAL
OF MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 9, 2002
Minutes were approved as prepared.
II. OLD BUSINESS
a. UITAC Annual Report
Transmittal memo forwarding the UITAC 2001-2002 Annual Report to
the vice presidents was distributed for review. The memo was approved
as written, signed by the co-chairs, and will be forwarded to the
Vice Presidents. The report will also be sent to the president of
the Faculty Senate.
b. Committee Charge and Membership
A revised version of the “Charge and Membership” of
the committee was distributed for review. The revisions included
increasing the number of members appointed to the committee by a
total of nine as follows: eight instructional/research faculty members
instead of four, six administrative staff instead of three, and
six ex officio members instead of four. The proposed new non-voting
members would be the President of the Faculty Senate and the President
of the Staff Senate or their designees. The number of student appointees
would remain at three.
Also, under the Terms of Membership, a bullet was added stating
that two-year terms will be staggered so one-half of faculty and
administrator members will be appointed each year.
Discussion by the committee members resulted in the following suggestions:
1. Recommendations should be made to the Vice Presidents about committee
membership. The consensus of the committee was that having more
members would increase attendance at the meetings and provide broader
input on IT issues.
2. Under Committee Charge, in the first sentence, the word “information”
should be added after the words “guidance for the development
and use of” and before the word “technology.”
3. Under Membership, the number of administrative staff will be
changed to seven instead of six. The seventh person would be “one
appointed by the Vice President for Research.”
4. In the footnotes at the bottom of the page, remove the words
“Approved by President” and change the first footnote
to read “First Approved by President: April 10, 2000.”
The newly appointed faculty and administrator members will serve
two years and the current members will continue for another year.
The changes will be made and the document will be forwarded to the
vice presidents for consideration and approval.
c. Budget Update
Handout of an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled
“10 Ways Colleges Can Cut IT Costs” was distributed.
Mr. Willis went over each of the 10 items listed and referenced
what VCU was doing in relation to each of the suggestions. For almost
all of the items, VCU has already implemented the strategies.
He also stated that he was waiting for the Governor’s
speech on Tuesday, October 15, before announcing budget cuts in
Administrative Information Technology. Dr. Self stated that she
had laid off 12 people in Academic Technology and Mr. Ulmschneider
stated that the library staffing is at very low levels at this point.
III. NEW BUSINESS
a. State IT Strategic Plan
The State IT Strategic Plan was announced about three weeks ago.
Mr. Willis distributed a copy of the “Executive Summary of
the Commonwealth of Virginia Strategic Plan for Technology.”
The Executive Summary is very large (about 150 pages), and the full
report is available on the web.
The Plan focuses around three major roles and
eight initiatives (which are listed on Page 5). Initiative #2 (Consolidate
IT infrastructure and provide centralized services as a technology
utility) has received the most attention. The State has 34 data
centers in the Richmond area and this proposal would centralize
them into one. At this point, institutions of higher education are
not included in the State plan. However, the Secretary of Technology
(George Newstrom) has charged the higher ed CIOs with developing
better means of collaborating and sharing resources.
b. E-Mail Filtering and Internet Monitoring
Mr. Willis distributed a handout of a memo that he wrote to Mr.
Paul Timmreck, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration.
In the memo, he stated that we do not routinely monitor internet
or e-mail use. There are times when, in the course of their regular
work, AIT staff will come across evidence that computing resources
are being used contrary to State and University policies and regulations
(usually evidence that a machine has been used to access sexually
explicit materials). In these instances, the technician will notify
the appropriate manager. At other times, departmental managers have
requested filtering or blocking software be placed on individual
machines that limit the sites an individual can go to on the Web
from the specific machine.
State policy allows limited personal use of computing resources
but bans access to sexually explicit Internet sites without the
authorization of the agency head. VCU’s policy is consistent
with state policy.
Some management issues for consideration are:
• Should staff be treated differently from faculty
• Should faculty and staff be treated differently from students
• Should management and enforcement be left to the schools
and departments
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
There was no other business.
There being no further business, the meeting was
adjourned at 4:55 p.m. |
