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Academic
Computing Steering Committee
(AcCSC) Minutes of Meetings: Present: Batson, Cossey, Davis, Keller, Klein, McFadden, Sener, Traver Review of last meeting's minutes 1. Laptop Policy. The main item of business was a discussion of a new faculty/staff laptop policy. Diane presented an overview of the current replacement policy, including the definition of minimal supported machine, numbers of faculty currently at or below the minimum (and hence eligible for an upgrade), upgrade preferences from some of the faculty now eligible, and a brief overview of the current budget climate. Dave introduced a draft laptop policy, based on our old policy, the draft recently circulated by Felmon, and conversations with John Skumurski on how to create a self-insurance scheme. We discussed the rationale for allowing only ITS-supported laptops. The main reasons were (1) purchasing power, (2) software support, and (3) hardware support. While company warranties might solve (3), the repair time is likely to be much longer since there would not be the opportunity for "hot swaps" of defective parts, and regarding (2), ITS did not feel comfortable having to tell faculty/staff that their software questions were not supported. ITS remains sympathetic to helping faculty meet their computing needs. At the same time, faculty recognize the severe resource constraints under which ITS operates. Felmon suggested that the Steering Committee help devise a long-term strategy to relieve some of these constraints. Dave mentioned that P&P was committed to closing the gap in the replacement budget, although closing the staffing gap would be an even greater challenge. Regarding laptop insurance, ITS agreed to establish a self-insurance pool, and faculty/staff will be (in general) responsible for a $200 deductible on each claim for loss or damage not covered by warranty. We agreed that there could be some circumstances in which the computer might be stolen from on campus, when the faculty/staff member had taken all proper precautions to secure it, that it might not be right to impose the charge, but there was a general feeling that some personal financial responsibility was important to help insure that those precautions were always taken. To assist faculty in keeping their laptops safe and secure, ITS will draft a set of recommended laptop precautions, including recommended data backup procedures. Click here to read the new policy. 2. NITLE Report. Doug and Dave described the recently held NITLE conference, held in Chicago. The conference had two objectives. (1) to showcase recent NITLE-funded initiatives at Mellon schools, and (2) to introduce the concept of Ithaka Harbors, a new umbrella organization that Mellon hopes to spin-off into a self-funding organization that will supply to Mellon schools the kinds of teaching-with-technology support that NITLE has done for the past three years. The funding would come from membership fees charges to subscribers. Those fees are currently set at $40K per year (half price for the the first two years). In addition to workshops and training, Ithaka will also support the development of major software initiatives such as JSTOR and ArtSTOR, and has joined in a number of major open-source software development initiatives, including Chandler, and Sakai. (There was a recent Chronicle of Higher Ed. supplement on open-source projects, many of which are receiving Mellon/NITLE/Ithaka support.) Click here for the agenda and presentations from NITLE 2004. 3. Music Archives.
Last meeting Doug reported that Tom Olsen in Performing Arts is
working with a student to develop an online music archives. Tom
McFadden noted that the Library currently has a trial subscription to an
existing music archive, Naxos: Next meeting: TBD |
© 2003 Union College, Schenectady, New York |
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