Members present: Professors Allen, Chen, Darden, Trautman (for Hoyle), Moody, Murphy, Reichardt and Thompson; Rod Welch
Others present: Debbie Fisher, Lesley Ogden, Robert Palmer, Rosey Gay

The purpose of this meeting was to receive Rod Welch's report. Highlights follow.

1. New computers for faculty (in accordance with last month's recommendations from the committee) are currently being set up; they have Windows 98.

2. Several labs have been upgraded to Pentiums. Next year, old pentiums are scheduled to be upgraded to new pentiums so the old ones can be redistributed.

3. Debbie is working on a lab survey to make improvements as needed.

4. Auditoriums in Duckett and Jenkins should be multimedia-capable in January.

5. A major change this year is the organization for delivering service to faculty and students. Jeff Wells is in charge of all service (i.e., hardware, software, and network) for students; ITS will have an office in Watts Barracks next semester. George Russ is in charge of all service for faculty.

6. Administratively, ITS is moving to a three-tier platform:
            Client Browser (takes care of most faculty work)
            VAX (houses most administrative data)
             Applications Server (translates between client browsers and VAX)
The applications servers currently has OS&D, SOS, PAWS, and Webmail; Degree Audit will be added soon (to handle a commonly-used SIS function).

7. Our service contract includes some Y2K converter programs; we are working out the bugs, but the process is time-consuming.

8. Three kinds of mail are currently available: VAX, Pop Mail (available, but not supported), IMAP (Webmail). Webmail is accessible from anywhere, but slower than Pop Mail.

9. ITS has 3 new permanent positions this year: one each in labs, multimedia, and barracks support.

Debbie offered some information on labs:

1. ITS is examining ways to allow instructors to control all lab monitors from a single location.

2. Letellier lab is getting wire protectors as a short-term measure to protect exposed wires.

3. ITS is examining interest in getting a Scantron machine in a lab (accessible to faculty).

4. Bond 256 is getting a new overhead projector.

5. New mouse pads have been ordered for all labs.

6. ITS is working on getting a new, higher-quality color printer for faculty and student use.

7. The Help Desk now has Visual Basic manuals.

The following questions were raised:

1. Can we link our vitas to personal pages rather than the gopher vitas? (Rod will work on it.)

2. Is SIS available evenings? (Until 8:00 weekdays and all weekend.)

3. What laptops are available for checkout? (A very good Gateway Solo, a 486 with Win95, and an old Mac.)

The meeting adjourned shortly before noon.