CSUSB - Technology Advisory Council

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TAC Meeting Minutes - Friday, May 05, 2006

Present: Lisa Bartle, Kurt Collins, Steve Cuddigan, Lorraine Frost, Ian Jacobs, Bob McGowan, David Randolph Jason Reimer, Mike Ross, Joe Scarcella, Bill Takehara, Dave Turner.

Welcome and Introductions
Joe welcomed everyone to the TAC meeting

IRT VP Report
Lorraine wanted to highlight the following achievements for TAC this year:

Lorraine and Joe’s presentation at Educause was well received – standing room only. Joe added that for the conference one of the main questions from other campuses was how we got everyone to collaborate. Joe suggested that next years chair should attend Educause.
The Provost suggested joint meetings with ATAC next year and possibly a joint retreat or chairs of each of the committees, Lorraine and the Provost could meet to discuss technology initiatives. ATAC wants to focus on how technology can be used to progress students towards a 4 year degree and also how to integrate technology on the 22 points of life. Bill asked how can you determine how technology affects progress toward graduation. How do you measure it or assess it? Bob suggested it could be tracked quantitatively by making assumptions.
Lorraine thanked Dave Turner for his specialty center report and discussed what needs to be done with budget to continue to support specialty center software.
Lorraine will send out information on CSU academic technology initiatives to TAC.
Lorraine announced that IRT will host a Tech day for Fall 2006.

Laptop Initiative
The Laptop Initiative was approved by the Provost. A few points to make note of are:

Kurt and Tony are starting to meet with people regarding materials and informing the students what the necessary requirements are for the program.
CBPA is looking into working with Citibank for student loans for laptops if students want to do a quick student loan and not go through Financial Aid. Everything should be wrapped up at the end of the month.
Bill asked what if a student refuses to buy one – not because they can’t afford it but if they have a desktop at home. Kurt said they will not be able to complete their in-class assignments and possibly fail. Students will need the laptop for class instruction and assignments – the laptop will act as a textbook.
Kurt indicated that classrooms won’t be outfitted with extra computers for students to use – it defeats the purpose of the program. Kurt would like to pursue the idea of having ASI provide loaner laptops. Bob indicated that maybe we need to go the extra mile on this for unique situations. The first two years of the program may be tough until it becomes a norm.
Bill asked if the Bookstore is going to sell the laptops – Lorraine indicated that we would like the Bookstore to be a part of this initiative however we need to make sure the bookstore has the proper customer service to support this. There needs to be support infrastructures readily available for the students.
Lorraine met with ASI regarding the possibility of them becoming a repair shop. She will go back and meet with them again.
Training for the laptop initiative will possibly be done in June. Lorraine indicated that there should be someone there from TRC, ODL and ACM at these sessions.
Discussion regarding software that CBPA may have problems with on an Apple.

Tech Committee Charter
Steve wanted to clarify whether or not the tech committee charter needed to be reviewed first by Lorraine, Mike or Ramiro Diaz Granados before he submits it to TAC to be reviewed. It was recommended that the charter be considered as a working group under a subcommittee of TAC.

Steve indicated that the purpose of the tech group in providing recommendations for technology decisions on campus. Steve indicated the importance of having the charter is to have a framework for incoming technical steering committee members.

The charter was tabled to the next TAC meeting on Friday, May 19, 2006.

Clicker presentation
The main issue with clickers is whether or not we need to have standardization. Standardization would make it easier for the students so they don’t have to buy different clickers for each of their courses. Additionally, clickers need to be faculty driven.

Steve said there needs to be some kind of standardization. If we wait, publishers will just go through faculty rather than through the university which will result in different types of clickers being used on campus.

Faculty may eventually adopt this norm as clickers are effective for students if it helps them understand the content better. It’s a better learning tool for students and a grading tool for faculty.

Jason will schedule a clicker vendor to attend the next TAC meeting on Friday, May 19, 2006.

Specification for laptop purchase
Tabled to next TAC meeting on Friday, May 19, 2006.

Committee and Sub-Committee Reports
Lorraine thanked Dave Turner again for his specialty center report. Dave distributed the report to TAC. He indicated that there is a strong argument for Compustat and CRSP which is a financial database used by CBPA. Lorraine noted that on page 6 of the report shows the increase in cost over the past few years and how it has been paid. Originally, IRT was paying for the software out of ACM’s budget. In recent years, IRT, Academic Affairs and CBPA have shared the cost.

Kurt said his students use Adobe photo suite. We could make a strong argument that there should be a site license for it since it’s an instructional material for class.

The license for SPSS can’t be put on students machines whereas SAS can be put on student machines. Right now, there are 102 courses at the university that use SPSS.

Dave said that CBPA wouldn’t be able to recruit faculty if they don’t have Compustat. It was also noted that Compustat use to be required for accreditation of business schools. Also, for Compustat/CRSP, if the CSU’s come together we could get a discount on the software. Dave indicated that the CSU’s that aren’t using Compustat/CRSP are using private accounting databases.

It was suggested that if these software licenses are centrally supported, then it should come out of Academic Affairs central account and not IRT’s.

Other Business
Joe indicated that he needs chair nominations – he would like nominations by the next meeting.

The last TAC meeting of the year is Friday, June 2, 2006.