SUFFOLK COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

COLLEGE COMPUTING COUNCIL

MINUTES

December 1, 2006

1:30 p.m., Distance Education Rooms

Members Present: Paul Basileo, Shonda Wilson, Leslie Wieman, Pete DiGregorio, Kevin McCoy, David Quinn, Randolph Manning, Gary Ris, Jeanette Bravo, Jordan Neus

Members Absent: Charles Stein, Carl Kirschner, Ed Hassildine, Liz Foley, Faye Lourenso, Nick Hoffman, Joanne Braxton, George Gatta, Robert Barta, Allen Keener

Representatives Nina Leonhardt, Drew Rabinowitz, Richard Johnston, Steve Clark

Present:

I.  Minutes

a.  The minutes from the previous meeting held on October 6, 2006, were approved after the following change:

i.  Under Networking Subcommittee Report, Page 6, Section ii, a) ….from 831 to 851 (changed from 871) model…

II.  Campus Computing Council and Technology Deans Reports

a.  East Campus – Leslie Wieman – No report

b.  Ammerman Campus – Paul Basileo

i.  Progressed with the installation of smart classrooms.

a)  Mildred Green room, Montauk Point room and several classrooms in the Southampton Building are complete.

ii.  Still have issues with security and keys

a)  Another data projector from a cart was lost.

iii.  Waiting for the semester to end to install the new computers.

iv.  There is a new lab going in courtesy of Vatea.

a)  Converting one of the rooms into a Business/Computer Science classroom and expanding the number of student seats from 24 to 28 – will be part of the E-Portfolio Business Program. Displacing some machines that have two years left on their replacement cycle and using them in areas where we would have had to pay for replacements.

(1)  Steve Clark had a question about whether anyone is working with the Grants people at the beginning of the planning process when these grants become available to make sure they are aware of the other pieces that are needed within the area, i.e., wiring, special carts, different application pieces, software, replacement, repair, etc.

(a)  Paul said he has had conversations with Margery Oldfield and the campus technology administrators are supposed to be kept in the loop when there are any additions.

(b)  Perhaps there should be more of a formal committee structure. A Grants Committee with a technology representative would make sense.

(c)  Gary has also had conversations with Marge and she is aware of what is supposed to be happening.

v.  Steve talked about an install that has been started that makes the connection point a little easier and neater for a smart classroom. It is more like a wall mount jack instead of cables running down the wall and across the floor.

a)  He suggested this be discussed at the Standards Committee for consideration in the smart classroom standards.

b)  Steve would like to finish up the application he has started and then get a list of all the other smart classrooms from the other campuses and continue it as an open-ended scheduled project until it is finished. For the new installs coming up in the summer, he will try to schedule having the cables run before the classrooms get installed.

c)  Rich will also provide this information in the specs for the Culinary Arts Center the next time he meets with the electrician.

d)  Drew asked if the jacks and cables would be labeled .

(1)  Steve said they are labeled by the installer and that these wall jacks should be included for the purchase of smart classrooms.

c.  Grant Campus – Pete DiGregorio

i.  Pete agreed with Paul about the need for making the ETU aware right from the beginning stages when PC purchases are being done through grants.

ii.  The 11/14 Grant Campus Computing Council meeting minutes are posted on the website(can be accessed through Governance).

a)  Doug Kahn, Drew Fawcett and Mary Lou Araneo met with the committee to discuss the departmental website template. They distributed a handout entitled, “Website Development: History, Today and the Future.” (Attachment 1 in Minutes).

b)  Many committee members are concerned about the situation with departmental websites and Red Dot not being deployed in a timely fashion. Doug expressed that the College does not have adequate resources at this time to update departmental websites and the overall SCCC website. Doug noted that all IT resources are currently devoted to Banner implementation, Middle States issues and routine maintenance. He also said that Central IT has had a Project Manager position vacant for some time. The committee expressed support for additional IT personnel that could perform needed additional work at the College and campus level.

c)  Doug Kahn gave an excellent demo of Red Dot, a new program that allows members of the College community to publish a website without extensive technical expertise.

(1)  He gave a time line of 2 to 3 weeks for training to begin.

(2)  The TLC was offered as a campus resource to work on training for Red Dot.

d)  The Skills Center has had a large increase in activity this semester (26%).

(1)  They had a PowerPoint workshop which was a great success.

d.  Academic Standards Subcommittee– No Report

e.  Standards Subcommittee– No Report

f.  Student Technology Fee Subcommittee – Paul Basileo

i.  The price for projectors is set – we are getting a good bulk rate price of under $900.

ii.  Discussed next year’s budget:

a)  Were not sure how much money to ask for in terms of certain projects, ie., wireless network, the network infrastructure, bandwidth, possibly starting the replacement of the Nortel 450s with something else on the educational side.

(1)  Discussed wireless needs with Steve Clark who said they will need a little bit more money budgeted than last year.

b)  ID card project – will budget the same way.

c)  On-line data base – will budget same levels.

d)  Put in the same range for the replacement computers.

e)  XH06 funded at the same level.

f)  New projects

(1)  Revisiting student information system using the existing equipment.

(a)  We do have some of the equipment that could not be sent back that we could use to start a small pilot.

g)  The committee now has a student representative who was recommended by Carl Kirschner who attended the meeting. He will be able to bring some things back to the committee to offer more of a student perspective.

h)  Discussed the messaging system. There is a separate messaging committee who will decide what is appropriate in terms of messaging for students.

(1)  Should we continue with an email system that we provide? A phone system?

(2)  The current system is becoming very expensive and a lot of students are not using it.

i)  Will also be looking at course management

(1)  Will consult with Randy Manning.

(2)  The Interim SLN Director is coming in next week to discuss Angel and what our options are there.

j)  Steve Clark asked if there was any STF money left now to purchase an additional five or six 851 routers. We should put one at Sayville, Culinary Arts, and a few other places.

(1)  Paul will add to the agenda for the spring.

g.  Training Subcommittee – Nina Leonhardt

i.  The committee did not meet but one outstanding question that has to be resolved is PA tech training.

a)  Will hold off the training on Vista and will see what happens after the initial implementation to see if anyone develops training material.

h.  Networking and Services Subcommittee – Rich Johnston

i.  Completed the roll out of the high-end model phones

ii.  New fiber optic cable has been installed between the Sagtikos and the Multipurpose building – cutting over next Friday,12/8.

a)  Doing the Field House wireless upgrade at the same time

iii.  The Vet Sci Day Care fiber has been installed.

iv.  Had a fiber optic cable installed for the College Road Guard Booth which is now in service.

v.  Grant Campus Internet will go down next Friday, 12/8, for about two hours in the afternoon.

a)  Open Access will be switching campus from 18 meg wireless connection to the fiber optic connection.

b)  Notices will go out regarding any outages.

(1)  Steve Clark said they will put some analog phones out there in case of emergency.

vi.  Selden Campus – all buildings have been converted over to 450s.

vii.  Gary asked if there was any progress made on the issue with DNS on the Ammerman Campus.

a)  Rich said the Nat issues have been contained until we can split the router sometime during Intersession.

viii.  Rich said usages on the campuses have increased dramatically and we have to find out what the faculty are going to be doing as far as streaming.

a)  Steve Clark said that if the classrooms are moving to a more Internet based setting, the LAN project that we did would have to be duplicated and we would have to look into building two separate networks. Have to have separate network paths – one for EDU and one for ADM.

ix.  Paul Basileo got a request to install the Google video player on an educational system and wanted to know what the policy is on this.

a)  Steve Clark said that the policy specifically states that they have to be notified and as long as we can accommodate them, it is not a problem.

(1)  The public has to be made aware of the fact that there may be problems with it, especially if there are other major events scheduled for that day.

b)  Pete said the language labs are also beginning a trend to moving more on-line. Accounting labs are also doing this.

(1)  Gary said there has to be some communication before something is committed to that says whether or not they can do it.

(2)  Rich said the academic computing groups on each campus started looking at how to work with the faculty and collect what they need for their course work so it can be put on servers and be available in the classroom.

(a)  Gary will talk to Rich and Steve.

(b)  Gary will also bring it to Planning Subcommittee for discussion on how we can manage the expectations on the faculty side.

i.  Policy Subcommittee – Gary Ris

i.  Did not meet but the upgrade to the utilization policy was not approved by the Board of Trustees.

a)  Will be reviewed again on the 14th.

j.  Planning Subcommittee – Gary Ris

i.  There is a questionnaire getting ready to go out to the faculty on Smart Classroom use preferences, roadblocks to using the technology, etc.

ii.  The committee is also looking at the College’s current Technology Plan and getting status reports.

iii.  They are also reviewing the Educause Core Data Survey and comparing the College’s responses to our peers.

k.  Wireless Subcommittee – Steve Clark

i.  The committee did not meet but some issues were discussed via email.

a)  The committee asked a student to be a part of the Wireless Subcommittee.

b)  The development of the registration process has not been completed but they are trying to improve the process.

(1)  More than one laptop can now be registered.

(2)  There are 204 access points and 10 switches

(3)  There is no less than 85% coverage in every building.

(4)  There is a total of 1542 total registered users.

(5)  ADM network is separate.

c)  On the Grant Campus, a VLAN was put in place specifically for the events center. Pete has access to add and remove users.

d)  Some requests were made for Play Station which were denied because they were not for educational purposes.

e)  Some requests for PDA style phones were made and accommodated because they are used as a laptop would be.

III.  Old Business

a.  Technology Guide – Jeanette Bravo

i.  All revisions are in – will meet with Ray Roses shortly.

b.  Smart Classroom Update – David Quinn

i.  Will get some information from the survey and will find out the number of smart classroom uses that we had last year.

ii.  The idea that we should be using 50% as a goal, as was discussed at the Student Technology Fee Subcommittee, makes sense.

c.  Update of College Technology Plan

i.  Should have some data to look at by the beginning of next semester.

d.  A procedure is being developed for the lab areas to follow when network services go down either during the week or on the weekend.

i.  The informal plan has always been to call the local person first and then whoever is above that person.

ii.  One problem is that we just don’t have the coverage available at all times that the College operates, i.e, weekend classes and early morning classes.

a)  It should continue to be looked at by the Academic Computing Subcommittee and it should be expanded to technical support in general, including networking, distance educations rooms, computing labs, classrooms, etc.

b)  Something should be developed and recommended by the Academic Computing Subcommittee to the Planning Subcommittee for inclusion in the College’s Technology Plan.

e.  Student Email

i.  The group has been meeting and looking at this issue.

ii.  The are looking at messaging in general and looking at some free products that are out there.