University of Minnesota

Institute of Technology

Minutes of ITICC Meeting

January 14, 1999

3:30 p.m., 131 Physics

Present: Bance (ADCS), Barnes (CE), Belik (Math), Cooley (CSE), Gao (Geol), Garrett (Math), Hudleston (IT Stud Aff), Kachelmyer (ADCS), Larson (ADCS), Li (ECE), MacEwan (Chem), Martimbeau (Phys), Mein (Syst Staff), Moshier (CSE), Osborne (ITSB), Rusack (Phys), Shield (AEM), Skillman (Astro), Speakman (Phys)

1) General Status reports

There was little to report from either ADCS or the System Staff in CSci. Larson said that labs had opened late on several mornings due to weather. Mein said there had been some delay in getting accounts opened during the initial rush at the beginning of the quarter. He reminded instructors that if they required more disc space for students in their classes they should send this information to <operator@itlabs.umn.edu>.

2) Retired Workstations

Hudleston reported that he had finally got the letters out to student organizations offering them the workstations retired last fall. He explained that the machines are on indefinite loan, rather than gifts, since they are still official university property. The student organizations are required to pay the annual license fee (at the reduced UofM rate) to maintain the operating system and other software that comes as a UofM package.

More machines are being retired this quarter as the machines ordered last fall arrive. These will also be made available to student organizations (and any left over to the departments). Since retirement of computers is now going to be an annual event, there was some discussion about whether this should be done once or year or on an ad hoc basis. It was suggested that student organizations would like to get there their hands on machines as soon as they became available, and that immediate pass on of the machines would solve potential problem of storage in the labs.

Hudleston mentioned that two of the PCs being retired this winter are bring sent to Rochester for use in the IT-supported lab there by students in the Unite program (who pay the IT fee). These are needed for a particular course being offered this quarter. They may or may not stay in Rochester, depending on need.

3) Lab Opening Hours

Larson said that he was planning to keep ME308 open for longer hours (until 2 a.m. like EECS 4-204) in the latter half of the quarter, following the discussion about operating hours at the last meeting. We may also keep 4-204 open for several hours beyond the 2 am time during the same time period.

Hudleston said that he had not yet carried out the survey of students to see how many experienced problems last quarter. He still plans to do this.

4) Other Business

None