University of Minnesota

Institute of Technology

Minutes of the ITICC Meeting,

December 13, 2001

3:40 p.m., 170 Physics

Present: Graham Allan (Phys), John Baxter (Math), Andrey Bayrashev (ECE), Tracey DeLaney (Astr), John Hall (Math), Philip Kachelmyer (ADCS), Satish Kumar (ChEn), Jerry Larson (ADCS), Larry LeMay (ADCS), Kent Mein (CSciE), Daniel MacEwan (Chem), Karen Swanberg (Geo), Dale Swanson (ECE), Douglas Victoria (CCE)

- Dean Peter Hudleston was absent while travelling; meeting chaired by John Baxter.

- Thomas Chase and Jeremy Pape were unable to attend because of a

time conflict.

1) Announcement

John Baxter conveyed the announcement from Peter Hudleston that the Proposal for Lab Improvements for Fall 2001 had now been passed by e-mail vote.

2) Final Presentation of the Walter Proposal

Jerry Larson (ADCS) passed out copies of the latest version of the Proposal for IT Labs support for the ADCS computer lab in Walter Library. He briefly went over the main details of this plan, which is also available online at:

http://www.itlabs.umn.edu/iticc/ADCS-walter-prop.pdf

Jerry noted that the proposal included hardware costs for 15 Suns which would meet IT needs directly, and that the other machines would meet IT needs indirectly, for example by connecting to IT Lab computers. The Walter Library lab will have 3 consultants during the day and two at night. The proposal requests that IT pay 15% of the consultant costs during the next four years. In response to a question, Jerry said that this figure was based on experience with the level of IT use in other labs. Over time, if usage appears to be different, it might be appropriate to propose altering the level of support requested from IT.

In response to questions about other funding, Jerry mentioned that CLA has committed $212,000 in funding for hardware costs. Some of the staffing costs will be met by funds released as labs in Lind 26 and at 201 Union [incorrectly listed as Lind and Coffman in the minutes distributed by e-mail] are closed.

After the discussion of this proposal, John Baxter noted that Peter Hudleston will conduct a vote on the proposal by email.

3) Other Business

Phil Kachelmyer (ADCS) brought two items to the attention of the committee. He noted the license renewal for Microsoft's Campus Agreement was nearly finished for this year. There was some interest in obtaining an IT-wide license, but this was unlikely to happen right now. It was something to consider before the next renewal, a year from now. Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Aerospace Engineering are currently participating in the Campus Agreement. Chemistry has committed to participating for the coming year. Other IT departments have considered joining and have opted not to do so at this time. No units have committed to using the student option. This would be something to consider for the next renewal.

Phil also announced that an agreement had been reached to provide Norton Anti-Virus software to all university students, faculty and staff. Students, faculty and staff would receive a license to use one copy on a home machine. All university machines would be covered under this agreement. No fee will be charged to users for this software, since it would be cumbersome and might discourage total coverage, which is felt to be very desirable.

4. Andrey Bayrashev (ECE) mentioned that some users in the IT labs appeared to be abusing the ability to lock their machines. It was noted that the Unix machines should automatically log off users after 30 minutes of idle time, and NT machines should offer some options also. Consultants can call support to log out users if the problem is brought to their attention, but students may not always feel ready to do this. Jerry Larson and Larry LeMay of ADCS will explore ways to minimize inappropriate locking.