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Technology Advisory Council Meeting Minutes - Jan. 23, 2004

Attendees: Owen Owens, William Aguilar, Dick Botting, Tony Coulson, Joe Scarcella, Kurt Collins, Jason Reimer, Steve Cuddigan, Hermie Natividad

COMMITTEE REPORTS

New Initiatives Subcommittee ?Huge budget cuts and the possibility of cuts in BATS? funding has the Technology Advisory Council questioning the wisdom in moving forward with this. Other questions are should BATS fund existing projects/software or roll over funds? Several of the BATS members reported that their colleges have concerns and other goals

• Is new initiatives too piecemeal and how does it work into bigger picture?
• Some want the funding of computers to continue.
• Some want the money to be distributed so the colleges can do what they need to do because BATS?New Initiatives funding requires continued funding which they don’t want especially now.

Other thoughts included

• There is always the risk that New Initiatives may or may not provide money saving opportunities
• If BATS spreads funding through 6 or 7 entities the impact is very little.
• Establishing new initiatives in this climate does not make sense. The suggestion is to continue funding smart classrooms especially in TCs because they now have fiber.
• Current conversations in money cutting included: changing the format of Summer classes, not beginning CMS student module, another increase in tuition- 10% in undergrad, 20% increase in out of state, 40% in masters. However, it was pointed out that CSU fees are still substantially less than rest of country even with the increases and the increase in fees has not slowed enrollment. However, it was generally agreed to pull back the New Initiatives process.

Dr. Aguilar reminded the Committee that BATS should be a technological advisory committee and not a distributor of technology.

The Committee turned its attention on deciding how and where to spend its budget. Here is a list of suggestions:

• Build more smart classrooms because its advantage is that it crosses the boundaries of colleges. Potential amount: $100,000
• Roll over some of the funds
• Prepay some software renewals
• Give to colleges maintenance funds for technology given them by BATS
• Owen Owens requested $50k for a wireless tower.
• Look at routine chores and see how they might be improved by technology and what money might be saved.
• Spend some and put some aside

The transition from Meeting Maker to iPlanet was discussed. However, Owen Owens wasn’t certain that importing from Meeting Maker to iPlanet would work. An advantage to iPlanet is that everyone who has an email account would also have a scheduling account.

The Antivirus license for dorms was $2.00 per machine and this was a 2 year license. The campus license expires in February and the cost is approximately $8,000.

Note: The software BATS has funded are Meeting Maker, InnoculateIT, Citrix and Blackboard.

BATS has decided to cease funding of Meeting Maker and to eventually move over to iPlanet when it is ready. BATS needs info from Ramiro about what the impact of non renewal of Meeting Maker.

MOTION: BATS will fund antivirus software for the campus for the next 2 years as a one time purchase. Software recommendation will come from the Hardware/Software Standards Subcommittee. The motion was seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Citrix Subcommittee ?The Citrix administrator has been laid off. Fernando Gutierrez is new administrator. It has been concluded that CBPA could go onto Citrix without any problem. Question ?does BATS have any objection to breaking up the servers and moving part of the system over to CBPA? The current licenses are for 135 users on 5 servers. The College of Natural Science is interested in a centralized server solution.

Tony Coulson will submit a proposal to shift and split the Citrix system.

Minutes compiled by Michelle Behne

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