Information Technology
Coordinating Council

February 8, 2002 Meeting Minutes


Present: Don Spicer (USM), Jack Suess (UMBC), Peter Murray (UMB), Kent Buckingham (UMB), Suresh Balakrishnan (USM), Willie Brown (UMCP), Vijay Verma (UMUC), Stan Jakubik (USM), Tamara Petronka (USM), Greg Petr (USMSC), Marci McClive (FSU), Carolyn O'Neil (UMB), Jim Qualls (UB), Bill Leimbach (TU), Steve Ornstein (FSU), Beth Meeks (FSU), Ahmed El-Haggan (CSC), Julie Persell (USMSC), Rob Banz (UMBC), Jerry Waldron (SU).

  1. Software Licensing

Gartner Group: Don Spicer informed the ITCC that a 2-year license agreement had been signed with the Gartner Group. The core services are housed in the library system. Users must be library patrons to access these services.

Microsoft: Suresh Balakrishnan informed the ITCC that he and Don were meeting with faculty, student, department chairs, administrators, and staff focus groups at several USM campuses. The objectives of these meeting were to:

  • Assess the impact of the MS enterprise agreement
  • Clarify potential campus responses to the new licensing model

In addition, the CIOs at selected campuses were being asked to assess the effect of a different MS licensing model on support demands, interoperability, individual campus users, and upgrade cycles.

Julie Persell offered comments regarding the negotiations with MS. Don indicated that MS would have a higher education licensing specialist to work with us and that any agreements made with one institution would apply to all. In response to a question from Vijay, Don said that there were informal mechanisms in place to communicate with others involved in the contract. Jack Suess suggested that we assess how students make use of the enterprise licensing agreement.

Real Media: Kent Buckingham asked if the ITCC had an interest in a system-wide license for Real Media Servers. Jack asked if Kent had data on steam capacity for an individual server. Kent has not done that testing, however the product will allow for auto spill over to another server if capacity is reached. Jack indicated some interest at UMBC, but probably not before July 2002 due to budget issues. UMCP, TU, UB, and UMUC also indicated interested. SU did not have an interest at this time. FSU would like to look into renting or leasing access through another site.

PeopleSoft E-Apps: Stan Jakubik and Greg Petr updated the ITCC on issues related to the PeopleSoft E-Apps.

  1. Course Management Systems - Next Generation
    2.

    Don Spicer raised issues regarding Course Management Systems, including whether we were prepared to manage multiple platforms. VijayVerma indicated that UMUC would be pursuing enhancement and continued use of WebTycho. Jack indicated that there were new realities, including the potential move of Microsoft into the arena.

    Issues were raised that faculty had less concern with the platform than with the functionality within each vendor's offerings. Carolyn O'Neill, a faculty ITCC member, indicated that two key areas of faculty interest included the availability of testing databases to generate randomized exams and integration with student information systems, especially for enrollment information.

    Don suggested another course management day with updates from the vendors and a faculty forum to discuss exactly the functionality they need. He proposed scheduling the forum in late May. Jakubik and Petronka were asked to coordinate the Course Management Systems Day.

     

  2. BOR Digital divide Initiative

Suresh summarized the progress on this BOR initiative to increase the ownership of computers among students least able to afford one.

    • The Governor had approved $1.2M from the ITIF for the first phase, targeting financially qualified students at the 3 HBIs
    • BSU, CSC, and UMES had submitted plans, including the administrative infrastructure needed to acquire, deploy, support, and assess this program
    • Regent Wood had met with the HBI presidents and with key members of the legislature.

  1. IT Vulnerabilities Assessment

Suresh Balakrishnan distributed management letter comments related to IT vulnerability assessments from our financial auditors, Ernst and Young. E & Y had two primary recommendations:

    • Perform independent assessments of vulnerability to IT attacks, including penetration tests.
  • Review and update disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

Suresh indicated that the USM response summarized internal controls already in place such as access control software, reviews of security violation reports, and daily and weekly back-ups of critical data. In addition, the State was contracted in summer 2001 to undertake penetration testing of web servers. Suresh also mentioned that we agreed, in the response to the audit comments, to review the need for independent vulnerability assessments and to evaluate institutional business continuity plans.

 

  1. Technology Fluency Assessment Software

The ITCC had a short discussion on technology fluency assessment tools. Some campuses are interested in conducting IT fluency tests for entering students, while others are interested in an exit requirement. Suresh mentioned that Tek.Xam has a pilot program, offering 25 tests at no charge to institutions that want to participate in the pilot. Jack indicated interest for UMBC.

The discussion on Architecture was postponed for a future meeting.