UITAC Home

Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes for April 22, 2004

A meeting of the University Information Technology Advisory Committee was called to order at 3:04 p.m. on April 22, 2004, in the Dean’s conference room in the Smith Building. Dr. James Shultz, co-chair, presided. Members present were Dr. Henry Rozycki, Ms. Fran Smith, Dr. Robert Mattauch, Ms. Veronica Shuford, Dr. Phyllis Self, and Mr. Mark Willis. Dr. Lynn Nelson, Dr. Dianne Simons, Mr. Charles Anderson, Mr. Rahul Khanna, Mr. Carl Gattuso, and Mr. John Ulmschneider were absent. Mr. Scott Davis, Manager of Client Services, was also present.

I. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM MARCH 25, 2004 MEETING

Minutes were approved as prepared.

II. E-MAIL PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND POLICY ISSUES – Scott Davis

Mr. Scott Davis, Manager of Client Services, presented an update on the project. A handout, entitled “E-Mail Policy & Operational Procedures Issues,” was distributed.

Several e-mail issues were discussed, including e-mail forwarding, client/browser support, quotas, restoration of deleted mail, PDA/Blackberry support, duplicate accounts and automatic archiving.

Highlights follow:

1. Permit e-mail forwarding - Students have been encouraged NOT to forward their e-mail to addresses outside of the University due to reliability concerns with outside providers, particularly free services. Preliminary recommendation: Do not allow forwarding on student accounts.

2. Supported Clients – Standard IMAP and POP clients can be used with the new platform. Preliminary recommendation: Supported clients will include those supported by the central IT units (Notes, Outlook and Mozilla) and any others supported by school/departmental IT staff. Web access will be provided through iNotes and simple Web Mail. Pine will no longer be supported.

3. Quotas - E-mail quotas have not been enforced in quite some time. Preliminary recommendation: A four-tiered system of quotas will be adopted and enforced (UG students, GR and PR students, general faculty/staff, exceptions). Exemptions from the quotas will require administrative approval*. Users who exceed quotas will still receive incoming mail but will not be allowed to send mail.

4. Restoration of deleted mail - Recovery of inadvertently deleted mail is a costly process (both staff and hardware resources). “Soft delete” capabilities should reduce the need for restorations. Preliminary recommendation: Restoration would require administrative approval.

5. Mobile access – There are currently no standards for supported PDAs at the University. Preliminary recommendation: Mobile access to e-mail will be provided for Blackberries, cell phones and devices with WP browsers. PDA support will be provided the two most predominant devices/operating systems.

6. Duplicate accounts - Some users have multiple individual e-mail accounts. Preliminary recommendation: Each individual will be permitted one individual e-mail account. Special and departmental accounts will continue as needed.

7. Auto Archiving – The new e-mail platform has the capability to archive mail (move to off-line storage). We could establish central rules for archiving e-mail to reduce the amount of active storage needed for mail and increase system performance. Preliminary recommendation: This needs to be investigated further for future implementation.

*Administrative approval: Requires authorization of dean or administrative equivalent and approval of Vice Provost for Academic Technology (academic users) or Assistant Vice President for Administrative Information Technology (administrative users).

III. WIRELESS SECURITY PROPOSAL FROM ATFAC – Phyllis Self

There was a proposal from the Academic Technology Faculty Advisory Council (ATFAC) that all users of the VCU wireless network be charged the same amount for the security software.

Currently, there is no additional cost from the VPN vendor for Windows clients. These are distributed at no cost via the Web at no cost to users. Mac and PDA clients must be purchased from a third party. An initial set of Mac and PDA licenses was purchased and are being distributed at no cost. However, once all of the initial licenses have been distributed, users will be required to pay for the license unless another source of funds is found to pay for them.

Dr. Self agreed to ask the Student Advisory Committee about using the Student Technology Fee to fund student licenses for Macs and PDAs. UITAC recommended that departments pay the cost of Mac and PDA licenses for their faculty and staff.

IV. IT STRATEGIC PLANNING – Phyllis Self and Mark Willis

Dr. Self distributed a copy of Academic Technology’s “AT Strategic Plan” and asked that committee members review it prior to the May meeting. Appropriate components will be used as part of the overall IT Strategic Plan.

V. OTHER BUSINESS

Dr. Self will check with her AT group to see if they can give a demonstration of VCU Files at the next UITAC meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:55 pm.