Faculty Senate University Computer and Electronic Communications
Committee
Tuesday, Mar. 11, 12:00 - 13:30 Room 911-15, Campus Center
                                  AGENDA
I. Minutes
    A. Approval of the minutes of Feb. 11, 2003.
      posted at http://people.umass.edu/fsucecc/

II. Announcements.
    A. Chair Review of month's activities.
    B. OIT (Rosio Alvarez)

III. Old business
    A. Review of OIT (Rosio Alvarez, The Associate Chancellor for 
                       Information Technologies and Planning) 
     
    B.  Security of the Network (Scott Conti, Network Operations Manager)
            1) Internet Explorer security holes.
               Why is IE routinely used as a browser model for SIS
                database access?
               Why can PeopleSoft implementations not be made to
                work reliably with other browsers which do not have
                the security holes.
            2) Does OIT have any intention of recommending against
                routine use of Outlook Express, which is virus prone,
                on administrative machines with sensitive data?
                The Development Office encourages Outlook use.
            3) Administrative routine attachment of .DOC files.
               Should administrative units be asked to avoid this
                vulnerable file format and encourage text or RTF files?
               Some faculty routinely refuse to open DOC file attachments. 
                Is this a bad habit?
            4) What would be considered a severe enough embarassment to
                discourage widespread use of vulnerable software on
                campus? What is a worst case senario at present?
            5) At what level is/should virus filtering be done?

    C.  An SIS Liaison Group (Faculty Senate agenda item)

    D. Remaining Agenda Items for consideration in order this year
      1. April 8  UMass Online (Jack Wilson, CEO of UMOL)     
         a. MOU UMASS Amherst with UMOL.
         b. Questions for Jack Wilson.

      2. May 6 Beyond Simple Classroom Connectivity (Late Spring)
         a. Teaching Development Center (Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Assoc Provost 
                                          for Teaching & Faculty Development)
         b. Academic Computing (Patricia Kochin, OIT)
         c. Pew Grant Research (Steve Brewer)

      3. Email Lists (Senate Request) as ready
         a. Recent Jan 28 broadcast to all-faculty list

IV. New business