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Minutes of Meetings:
September 20, 2001; Steinmetz 237, 1:30 pm

Present: Cossey, Keller, Klein, McFadden; guests Thomas, Knowles

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Review of last meeting's minutes

1. International Programs (and other) web sites.  In response to a question from the Administration, B. Thomas and M. Knowles joined the committee to discuss posting information online about our security measures related to terms abroad.  This led to discussion of the status of a new International Programs web site.  Apparently a site was created as an assignment in Prof. Almstead's Software Engineering course, and was being developed further by T. Smith's office.  [After the meeting, Doug did a search of the Union web and compiled a list of international program links.]  

We agreed that pending completion of an International Programs site, we should post a page with:
- a letter from the Administration;
- our policy for canceling or recalling a term abroad;
- a link to the State Department travel warnings page.

Doug is undertaking a survey of Department and Program web sites in order to find where they are, who is responsible, and to help ensure that each has a way of maintaining current content.  The survey instrument is online, and you can examine preliminary responses by downloading this Excel spreadsheet.  This worksheet contains the URL and webmaster of each reporting Department and Program.  Our concern is that many of these sites:
- are out of date, and/or do not indicate when they were last updated
- do not indicate, or do not have an identified webmaster
- of those which do indicate a webmaster, many are faculty.

2. Monk-cam.  A team of Buddhist Monks will be on campus from October 18 through October 23.  One event will be the construction of an elaborate sand mandala in the Nott Memorial, followed by its ritual disposal.  We are exploring with East Asian Studies the possibility of monitoring the progress via a web-cam in the Nott.

3. Internet connection.  Verizon has contacted Dave C. to warn that because of the attack in New York, our OC-3 line connection has again been delayed.  [On top of that, the nimda virus which began spreading Thursday, Sept. 20 is eating into our remaining bandwidth, indeed into the bandwidth of the entire Internet.]

4. Emergency Power.  Dave C. distributed a memo to Facilities Services asking the feasibility of putting critical ITS systems (including air conditioning) onto an emergency generator.  During a recent power outage, temperatures in the machine room rapidly rose to nearly 80 degrees, a temperature which Dave considers unhealthy for the equipment.

We did not discuss the several outstanding issues in our notebook computer policy.  We will consider them at a later meeting:
(1) treatment of notebooks bought with both College and personal funds,
(2) if, when, and for how much faculty or staff can buy the notebook from the College.  

Regarding (1), it seems fair that if the notebook user leaves the College within 3 years, and has spent personal money, the College will reimburse on some pro-rated basis (e.g. using straight-line 36 month depreciation).  

Regarding (2), we did not resolve the circumstances (if any) that a notebook user should be able to purchase it.  One suggestion was simply to say no.  Another suggestion was to allow purchase after 3 years for a percentage (25% or 30%) of the original College contribution.

The meeting adjourned at 2:15

NOTE:  NO MEETING NEXT WEEK
Next meeting: October 4, 2001, 1:30, Steinmetz 237

© 2001  Union College, Schenectady, New York
Page maintained by J. Douglass Klein, Associate Dean for Information Technology.
Last updated 09/24/2001