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ITICC Lower Division Operating Procedures

Preamble

All lower-division students of the Institute of Technology (IT) are required to pay a computer fee. Current information on computer fee requirements are published in the University of Minnesota Class Schedule. The fee is explicitly intended to support instructional computing for IT lower-division students.

The distribution and supervision of these funds is carried out by the IT Instructional Computing Committee (IT-ICC). The task of the committee is to ensure that these funds are used to provide the fee-paying students with the best possible instructional computing facilities.

The membership of this committee consists of representatives from each of the departments in IT and from related programs. The voting members of the committee are equally distributed among faculty and students to guarantee accountability of IT-ICC funds management to fee-paying students. The committee is chaired by the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, hereinafter referred to as the chair.

All lower-division IT students are required to take service courses organized by the Math and the basic science departments. In addition lower-division IT students take courses which need classrooms equipped with computers, or which require them to use computational tools only available in the IT public computer laboratories. The disbursement of the fee collected from the lower-division IT students should reflect these different instructional needs.

There are unmet needs for the instruction of lower-division students which can be satisfied with additional computer resources: the Chemistry and Physics departments need to provide modern instructional laboratory facilities for their service courses; a large classroom equipped with computers is needed by the Math department for instruction in the Calculus sequence and by all departments in IT for the instruction of lower-division students in non-service courses.

It is recognized that the technology of computation and its use in education are rapidly changing. It is also recognized that departments need to formulate plans spanning more than one year to make effective use of these funds. Consequently, the distribution of funds between the various departments and the procedures adopted for its distribution need to be re-evaluated at intervals of approximately three years.

At the lower division level, the service courses taken by IT students are frequently taken by students from colleges other than IT. Thus we anticipate support for the use of computers for instruction from these colleges.

Part I: Operating Procedures

1. The Institute of Technology Instructional Computing Committee (IT-ICC) shall manage IT lower-division Instructional Computing funds. These funds shall consist of:
   1. All IT Computer fees collected from lower-division students.
   2. Other sources, if any
2. The voting members of the IT-ICC are comprised of: one faculty and one student member from each department within the Institute of Technology, two members at large designated by the IT Student Board, one representative for the Bachelor in Networking program, and one representative for the Rochester Center. In the case that a voting member can not attend a meeting of the IT-ICC, the voting member may designate a proxy. Departmental staff members may serve as proxies. However, the total number of voting members from any one department may never exceed two. A quorum shall consist of a simple majority of voting members.
3. Total lower-division funds managed by the IT-ICC shall be sub-divided into the following categories:
   1. 75% of the funds shall be used to support instructional computing in departments offering courses for IT lower-division students. Management of these funds is described in Item (4).
   2. 25% of the funds shall be used to support the general computer needs of lower-division students. Management of these funds is described in Item (5).
4. The resources for instructional computing in courses shall be distributed as follows:
   1. The IT-ICC shall maintain a set of general guidelines defining what constitutes the appropriate use of funds for these courses. Proposed amendments to the general guidelines must be submitted to the chair a minimum of 30 days prior to a regularly-scheduled meeting of the IT-ICC where they will be scheduled for vote. Amendments must be approved by a two-thirds majority of all voting members of the IT-ICC.
   2. Proposals of no more than five pages describing the general details of a three year program of improvements to the instructional computing facilities for lower-division students will be solicited from each department by the IT-ICC. At the discretion of the chair of the IT-ICC, new proposals can also be requested in any year when changes in funding or needs seem to warrant such a request. The proposed improvements must meet the following criteria:
      1. The program described should have an identifiable educational merit.
      2. They should meet a need that cannot be met by already existing facilities.
      3. The facilities should be for use primarily by lower-division students.
      4. A budget covering the proposed funding period should be included.
      The proposals will be distributed to the IT-ICC at least 15 days prior to the meeting where they will be discussed.
   3. After presentation of the proposals to the IT-ICC, some of the proposals will be recommended to the IT-ICC chair for funding by the full members of IT-ICC. In order to receive a recommendation, a proposal must receive a favorable vote from at least a simple majority of the voting members of the IT-ICC. The chair will then select the programs which are to be funded.
   4. A sub-committee composed equally of faculty and student representatives will then be nominated by the chair to prepare and administer a plan to carry out all, or part of the improvements defined in the selected proposals.
   5. This plan shall be delivered in writing to the chair at least 10 days prior to the IT-ICC meeting where ratification of the plan will be discussed and voted on.
   6. In the event that the IT-ICC does not consider the proposed plan to have met the IT-ICC guidelines defined in Item 4(A), the IT-ICC chair shall submit written notification of the committee's objections to the chair of the subcommittee. The sub-committee shall prepare a revised plan, taking note of these objections, for later ratification by the IT-ICC.
   7. Proposed amendments to these operating procedures must be submitted to the IT-ICC a minimum of 30 days prior to a regularly-scheduled meeting of the IT-ICC where they will be scheduled for vote. Amendments are approved by 2/3 majority of all voting members of the IT-ICC.
   8. Changes in the membership of the sub-committee, defined in Section 4.D, will be proposed by the chair and ratified by the IT-ICC.
5. Resources to meet the general needs of the IT computer laboratories, defined in Section 3B, shall be managed following the guidelines given in the procedures document for the management of the upper-division fee: "Operating Procedures, Institute of Technology Instructional Computing Committee Funds Management".

Part II: General Guidelines for the distribution of funds for IT courses:

1. Every three years the committee shall request proposals for the maintenance and operation of the existing teaching laboratories. The subcommittee described in Section 4D shall develop, in collaboration with the participating departments, a three-year plan for the maintenance and operation of the computers to aid instruction in the lower-division teaching labs. Items that may be included in these plans are replacement hardware, software upgrades and personnel support to ensure the operation of the computer aided instruction in the teaching laboratories. Continuation plans shall be submitted to the chair of IT-ICC at least 15 days prior to the IT-ICC meeting where they will be discussed.
2. Every year the committee shall request proposals for new initiatives designed to improve the learning experience of lower division IT students through the use of computers. Only departments may respond to this request for proposals and the duration of any project funded with these funds may not exceed three years. The committee shall evaluate the proposals and make recommendations to for funding to the chair of IT-ICC based on their individual merits. Proposals submitted in response to this request shall be submitted to the chair of IT-ICC at least 15 days prior to the IT-ICC meeting where they will be discussed.
3. Any funds awarded in either of these programs shall be used to enhance the learning experience of lower-division IT students through computer-aided instruction.
4. The plans will include:
   1. A technical description and explanation of the proposed instructional improvements.
   2. A budget for all the years for which funding is requested.
   3. The number of lower-division students who will benefit from the proposed improvements to the IT instructional facilities.
   4. Details of departmental cost sharing, if any.
   5. The annual maintenance costs that will be required on completion of the project.
5. Costs that will in general be allowed for any new initiatives are computer hardware, software and effort for implementation.
6. At the end of each academic year all departments that received funds are required to submit a accounting of the expenditure during the prior year, and a budget for the following year, to the chair of IT-ICC. This must be received a minimum of 10 days prior to the meeting of IT-ICC where the subsequent year’s funding will be discussed.
7. Distribution of funds in any year are contingent upon receiving the report of expenditures by the department in the prior year to IT-ICC, and the approval of the following year’s plan by IT-ICC.