ACAC Meeting of April 18, 1996
Present: David Phillips (Chair), Jim Campbell, Rick Fore, John Hawley John Lloyd, Sharon Lock, Worthy Martin, Kirk Martini, Bob Ribando, Tim Sigmon, Martha Sites, Rip Verkerke, Alice Howard UCIT ==== David recapped UCIT's ongoing preparation for their meeting with University Leadership on May 15: the discussion will have its roots in the future scenarios and also strive to cover the importance of IT now, the gap between growth and funding, the decentralized diffusion of computing/communication needs, support for labs/classrooms and the research climate, and the need for computing expenses to be included in the base-budgets for academic departments as well as other units. (NOTE: several committee members felt that it would be useful for the Deans to participate in this kind of discussion also.) ITC Futures Forum ================= Martha highlighted items of particular interest to ACAC members from the just-completed ITC forum: *Labs and Classrooms -- the 4-year plan for classrooms, assorted upgrades to existing labs, possibility of an "experimental" lab; *Automation of Computer Accounts Distribution for Fall 96 -- this is for 1st year and transfer students with training provided during Orientation; *Home Directory Project -- a way to provide some disk space to students, faculty, and staff that would be accessible from PCs and Macs (i.e. independent of computer platform) -- this project is still in the research/feasibility phase; (NOTE: the reliability of this concept was questioned by the committee.) *New Email (Simeon) Project -- about to go into pilot-testing for members of the original Email Selection Committee; (NOTE: committee inquired about the existence of a 32bit version of Simeon and whether or not it accommodates "long" filenames.) *Ethernet Card Installations for Fall 96 Students -- there will be several options including an installation kit or an ITG-performed installation -- bootdisks will still be available. Report for Expert Group on Information Technologies in Instruction ================================================================== Copies of this report were distributed with some subsequent discussion: Bob Ribando highlighted some problems related to obtaining support for existing department/school computing facilities; Worthy Martin inquired whether there was any ongoing relationship between the Classroom Evolution subcommittee and the "classroom planning group" headed by Kathy Reed. Looking ahead to next year ========================== The role of this committee still needs to be completely defined; the frequency of committee meetings seems about right; the need for departmental budgets to include support for information technology might be one topic to focus on; how to get information out to the Deans and to the school committees is another concern -- maybe the Deans could be invited to attend an ACAC meeting next year; David will ask Kathy Reed about the availibility of ACSP funds for the coming year; need a new Arts & Sciences representative as Peter Baker in unable to continue. David thanked the committee for a "productive year."[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]