CCFIT > Calendar & Minutes > 2004-05 Minutes > March 14, 2005

Excused: John Bruno, Rick Catalano, Bella Corbin, Karen Hull, Rob Kerner, Stan Nosek, Martine Quinzii, Celeste Rose, and Wes Wallender.

Guests: Frank Wada, Maria Migles, Jan Dickens, Rick Sprunger, Tor Cross.

Staff: Babette Schmitt

I. Approval of Minutes - Chair Bledsoe

Chair Bledsoe invited comments on the minutes from the February 14th meeting. No adjustments were suggested. The minutes were approved.

Andy Jones, Chair of CCFIT's Educational Technology Subcommittee, provided an update on the project to survey UC Davis instructors on their use of technology. Jones reminded the group of the purpose of the survey as well as the proposed timeline and publicity plans (see Faculty Survey Summary) before soliciting feedback on the draft memo announcing the availability of the survey. Council members provided the following suggestions:

• Clarify the language describing the types of awards offered by IET-Mediaworks and how they will be allocated;
• Consider including in the list of recipients graduate instructors, in addition to members of the Academic Federation and Senate;
• Consider eliminating the reference to the LEAD acronym (was deemed unnecessary; if used, spell out what it stands for);
• Keep the announcement short and to the point so that responders can scan and read it easily.

Next steps include making the suggested changes, checking with the Chairs of the Academic Federation and Senate, finalizing the Web-based survey, and releasing the announcement both electronically and via campus mail as soon as possible, possibly by mid-April.

• Course Management Tools Working Group - Ann Orel
  Ann Orel, Chair of the CCFIT Working Group on Course Management Tools (CMT), reported on the first meeting on March 8th. The group has agreed to meet weekly in April and May. They have been charged by Chair Bledsoe to study options and develop recommendations to guide the selection and development of the next generation of course management tools for campus use. The group is expected to submit their recommendations to the Vice Provost-IET by June 1st (see charge letter). CCFIT will discuss the group's report and recommendations at their final meeting on June 13th when the Provost will be in attendance.
  Following discussion with Council members, two additions will be made to the working group's membership: a representative from University Extension (to be identified by Dean Pendleton), and Professor Dick Walters, Computer Science, an emeritus faculty member with experience and interest in course management tools.
• Faculty Merit and Promotion Project - Dave Shelby
  Dave Shelby, Assistant Vice Provost-IET, provided an update on the project to develop digital faculty dossiers in support of campus faculty merit and promotion processes. This project (Faculty Merit and Promotion, or FMP), headed by Academic Personnel, was discussed on several occasions last year and was the focus of several recommendations by CCFIT.
  AVP Shelby distributed hard copies of the project's timeline and discussed several upcoming milestones (see FMP Project Timeline). He noted that the pilot is making very good progress and that, in its current iteration, the project involves a number of departments (from the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, the College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, the Division of Biological Sciences, and the College of Letters & Science).
  The next major milestone is scheduled for July 1st when a decision will be made regarding the current pilot. Assuming the decision is made to move forward with a broader implementation, a production server will be acquired and set up, data will be transferred to the new production system, and documentation and training will be finalized. The system is expected to start operating on the production server by September 1st.
  The project team is working with campus departments to make functional enhancements that will align the system more closely with their local business processes. In addition, 230+ staff from various departments are entering data into the system. The data will eventually be transferred into the final system. There are reports from some departments that some of the data are already being extracted and re-formatted for purposes other than the faculty merit and promotion process.
  Addressing comments from Council members, Dave Shelby noted that, given security/privacy concerns, Academic Personnel decided that highly sensitive documents (e.g., extramural letters) will NOT be included in this phase of the system/project and that online voting will NOT be available at this time. Those issues will first need to be discussed in detail with the Academic Senate, the Academic Federation and other groups.
  Peter Yellowlees commented that the UC Davis Health System has been using MyInfoVault for some time. He voiced his strong support for the system, noting major time savings, ease of use, and other practical benefits. Ann Orel mentioned that the pilot did not last the length of the full campus faculty merit and promotion process that was completed this past January. Dave Shelby agreed and noted that the pilot focuses on a specific set of re-delegation activities. Academic Personnel will review the data gathered during this pilot and determine whether enough was learned during the pilot to prepare for a broader implementation. In addition, Dave Shelby noted that no major technical, infrastructure, or functional issues have surfaced to date that would warrant terminating the pilot or deciding against a broader deployment.

Bob Ono, IT Security Coordinator, announced that registration for the 2005 IT Security Symposium will open on April 4th. The symposium, to be held on campus June 22-24, was designed primarily for UC Davis technical staff although an invitation will also be extended to colleagues from other UC campuses. Like its first offering in 2003, this year's symposium is expected to enhance the abilities of technical staff to improve campus IT security.

Ono handed out hard copies of the draft schedule and program (see IT Security Symposium handout). Following the keynote address by Scott Charney, Microsoft Chief IT Security Strategist (the address will be broadcast over the Web at the URL below), 40+ instructional labs and lectures will be offered. Topics range from securing systems and networks to patch management strategies, intrusion detection, and a discussion of the proposed campus security policy and minimum security standards. In addition to those interactive sessions, the planning committee has arranged for six gift certificates (each worth $1,000 in security training) to be awarded as door prizes. A Web site is available with more information and an online registration form (see http://itsecuritysymposium.ucdavis.edu). The registration fee is $85 per participant.

Chair Bledsoe noted how great it was to see UC Davis offer such an important training opportunity and suggested that a similar offering be considered for average users, perhaps in the Fall.

Caroline Bledsoe announced that she recently asked John Meyer, Vice Chancellor for Resource Management and Planning, to provide Council members with a campus budget overview. VC Meyer welcomed the opportunity to provide a series of budget briefs to help this group understand where its work fits within the context of the campus budget. The first installment of these briefs focused on the decision process for the budget cuts that were made two years ago, the magnitude of those cuts, as well as the various areas affected by the campus budget reductions. Meyer noted that the campus was faced with the complex challenge of having to accommodate dramatic budget reductions while enrollment was still growing. A portion of the campus budget, culled from different funds, is dedicated to technology initiatives. Last year, $2M were allocated in one-time funds to several technology projects/initiatives.

Chair Bledsoe noted that in the past CCFIT made recommendations to the Provost and the Vice Provost-IET. She observed that another role for CCFIT is emerging - a role as a 'broker of deals', bringing various campus units and perspectives to bear on important technology-related issues and needs, then exploring the extent to which partnerships can be forged to address those issues.

On behalf of CCFIT's Educational Technology Subcommittee, Tor Cross presented an overview of personal response systems (see PowerPoint presentation) as well as a proposal to identify the 'single most viable' system, purchase six faculty receivers, and subsidize 1200 student response pads (see Proposal). A discussion involving Council members, the Registrar's Office (which typically funds classroom enhancements), and IET-Classroom Support representatives followed. Issues regarding the lack of scalability and portability of the two hard-wired systems currently in use in three classrooms were raised, as were concerns about requiring students to pay for those devices. The Registrar's Office, IET, and the TRC offered to investigate the options available and report back at a future meeting of the CCFIT.