SUFFOLK COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
COLLEGE COMPUTING COUNCIL
MINUTES
March 11, 2016
1:30 p.m., Distance Education Rooms
Members Present: Fara Afshar, Adam Bailey, Paul Basileo, Steve Clark, Peter DiGregorio, Davorin Dujmovic, Liz Foley, Susan Gambale, Troy Hahn, Mark Kenny, Susan Lieberthal, Gary Ris, Denny Teason, Helen Wittmann
Members Absent: Edward Chropufka, Cheryl Eldredge, Ed Hassildine, Vivek Kumar,
Nina Leonhardt, Alicia O’Connor, Kevin Peterman, Jane Shearer,
Representatives
Present: Grzegorz Fabiszewski, Christina Johnston, Thomas Kloss o/b/o Nina Leonhardt, Laura Levine, Drew Rabinowitz,
I. Minutes
a) The minutes from the previous meeting held on December 4, 2015 were approved.
II. Campus Computing Council and Technology Deans Reports
a. Ammerman Campus –No Report
b. East Campus – No Report
c. Grant Campus – Davorin Dujmovic
a) An inquiry was presented regarding student lab fees seeking clarification as to how the lab fee is assessed for each class. LL to follow up with Anna Flack to clarify.
b) The Nursing Department reported having issues in the Distance Education classrooms with technology they believe to be outdated. More specifically they reported dissatisfaction with the amount of time spent accessing the internet and time to log in vs. time spent teaching class. GR directed them to report the issue to the ETU as the issue occurs.
c) DD reported that the SCCC website has a number of pages that are untrusted. DD will provide URL’s to specific pages to GR for follow up.
d. Technology Deans Report – No Report
III. Subcommittee Reports
a. Academic Computing Subcommittee – No Report
b. Standards Subcommittee – Peter DiGregorio
a) The Lexmark MS811 laser printer and the Epson 99wh digital projector will remain as the current standard while available.
b) A secondary solution is being investigated for the digital conversion of electronic classrooms which may provide a significant savings when compared to the piloted Extron Systems.
c) Prompted by numerous complaints, the Standards Subcommittee requested that areas of the college adhere to College Policy and follow the College Technology Standard with regard to the purchase of technology. When a purchase not on the Technology Standard list is sought, the Committee requested that purchasers consult with Technology Administrators to determine feasibility and the availability of support, resources, and funds with consideration given for sustainability of future replacement prior to purchase. Special attention was requested of the Grants Department to include the Standards Subcommittee and Technology Administrators prior to the submission of a grant. GR to follow up with the Grants Department.
c. Student Technology Fee Subcommittee – Paul Basileo
a) The committee did not meet. At the request of STF Subcommittee members, future meetings will be scheduled to meet earlier, so as not to meet too closely to the CCC meetings.
b) A discussion ensued pertaining to the availability of funds for a computer order. The ETU will review and prioritize their educational computer replacement lists and GR will follow up with the Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs to determine if additional funds will be available for an end of year computer purchase.
d. Training Subcommittee – Pete DiGregorio
a) The committee met via conference call and determined that there will be a VMware refresher course for approximately 12-15 individuals targeted for June.
e. Networking Services/ Wireless Subcommittee – Steve Clark
a) Student Authentication is relatively deployed on all administrative and educational machines throughout the college, as well as Continuing Education and Workforce Development, with a few special exceptions. LIU, Adelphi, and Delhi became part of the process with one login for both wired and wireless. However, they must contact their own institutions for technical support. A single logon for wired and wireless for all guests is planned for the near future. Guest accounts are provided by our libraries and remain active until midnight of the following day.
b) Mac solution is still in progress due to the design and the way the applications function.
c) Grant initiatives – Career Services initiative is intended to bring a connection between the Department of Labor and Career Services on all three campus of the college which will provide spaces for students and the public to create resumes and job connections. Further discussions to take place between the Grants Department and the committee prior to the onset of this project. A cyber security grant has been granted to build a cyber security program in the Engineering Department for which we will be building out an area for them to hold these classes.
d) Cloud services standard –Development of a survey to assist in the evaluation of Cloud services, how it impacts the college and what steps are necessary to enable data transmission and access.
e) Video databases – The libraries are turning back some of the collections of some Films On Demand as a way of saving money. A service called Kanopy is being looked at as an alternative.
f) Distance Education classrooms – Clarification was requested pertaining to the availability of the Distance Education classrooms since some believed that the rooms were being decommissioned and would not be available in the Fall semester. Verification was provided that the rooms will remain available as long as they are in operation. However, funding has not been provided for replacement of the old system so there is no guarantee that they will not continue to fail along with the possibility that they may not be able to be brought back up and running. Additional requests for funding will be presented at the Executive level, highlighting the impact it would have on the CVC program and other programs and meetings if the DE rooms were to be decommissioned.
f. Planning Subcommittee – Gary Ris
a) The committee recognized and discussed the server too busy issue. At the recommendation of Ellucian, the Computer Center performed a major upgrade to the next version of Luminis. Since the upgrade, the issue has continued so a solution will be sought from Ellucian.
b) The committee discussed the new webpage status. Content provided for the new webpage in some cases is not matching the new focus of the webpage. This has slowed the continued work of moving content over from the old site to the new site.
c) A discussion pertaining to the computer replacement crisis ensued. The status of computer replacement needs were presented to the Institution and a response pertaining to the possibility of whether funding will be made available is awaited.
d) Educause Core Data survey – The IT Unit Review Committee participated in providing information. Access to the results has been made available from us and our peers. The challenge has been determining a good set of peer institutions to judge our data against because we’re different in that SCCC is a multi-campus college as well as the way our departments are divided. Once representative institutions have been identified to compare our data with, the results can be made available to individuals for feedback.
e) The Networking and Wireless Services Subcommittee requested that the Planning Subcommittee create a doctrine and a notification communication to the general public that a proper process has to be followed and that all areas that are impacted have to be considered within the decision making to bring those services or those particular components into the programs. The Planning Subcommittee will look into it.
IV. Old Business
a. Student Authentication status – Steve Clark
a) This topic is discussed in Section III. Subcommittee Reports, e. Networking Services/Wireless Subcommittee.
b. Print Management Software Status – Steve Clark o/b/o Ed Hassildine
a) EH is in the process of bringing up an ESXi host to virtualize the print management server. Once completed the migration of the print server services currently running can be migrated over to the virtual ware. The plan is to elevate where it sits more in the root section of our domain as opposed to where it currently resides in the Eastern campus’s domain. This should allow more free movement of space and replication and the ability to move it from one place to the other.
c. Office 365 Status – Gary Ris
a) Students now are being notified in the portal about Office 365. Technical questions from students pertaining to Office 365 are referred to Microsoft Help online. The Grant Campus ETU, in response to a number of student inquiries pertaining to Office 365 availability, inquired if there would be additional advertising to students. TH reported that notifications were distributed to the Business Computer Science Chairs. He will follow up at the Department Chair meetings and send out additional notifications to the academic department chairs.
b) Response to whether Office 365 will be made available to employees has not yet been received. A small group will take a further look at the risks that have been identified and the possible options.
d. SCCC Mobile App – Gary Ris
a) The SCCC Mobile App is now live and has been tested by a student pilot group in a beta setting. Student feedback from the pilot group was very positive. LL to follow up with Student Affairs to verify a timeline when promotion of the SCCC Mobile App to students will begin.
b) School Messenger Text Messaging Service is now live and students are being notified in a series of communications to sign up for it.