Faculty Senate University Computer and Electronic Communications
Committee
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 12:00 - 13:30 Room 911-15, Campus Center
                                  DRAFT MINUTES
Attendees: 
George Avrunin (Math and Statistics), Scott Lee Bradley (Engineering),
Steve Brewer (Biology), Andrew Effrat (Provost's Office), Murray
Eisenberg (Math), Marilyn Hanley Billings (Library, secretary), Gary
Hough (Library), Tad Jackson (ITS), Joe Kunkel (Biology, chair), Dave
Powicki (OIT), Randy Sailer (OIT), Ed Stanek (Biostats and Epidemology),
Howard D. Stidham (Chemistry), Michael VanKleef (Undergraduate,
Management / Plant and Soil)

I. Minutes
 A. Minutes of Nov. 21, 2002 approved.
 B. Minutes of Dec. 12, 2002 approved and posted at
http://people.umass.edu/fsucecc

II. Announcements.
    A. Chair Review of month's activities.
      1.  Meeting with FNSM Managers.
      2.  Meeting with Liaison with Worcester, Jackie Watrous,
          UMass Amherst Administrative Systems Director and 
          Deb Gould, Applications Analyst.

During the month of December, Marilyn and Joe met with FNSM managers,
including a representative of the Dean's Office. We received excellent
information on the Liaisons Group for the PeopleSoft HR and Financials.
This group is facilitated by Jackie Watrous, who is that group's liaison
to Worcester. We also met with Jackie and Deb Gould who described the
startup and functioning of the liaison's group. Joe met with Rosio
Alvarez and the OIT Help Desk staff who want more interaction with
faculty and users about the PeopleSoft SIS implementation

    B. OIT (Rosio Alvarez) - unable to attend today's meeting. 

Randy Sailer gave a brief report: Many classrooms are now activated.
Students use the online Netreg procedure each semester to register their
machines on the campus network.

III. Old business
A. Review of OIT - postponed to March 11, 2003
B. SIS Liaison Group - major agenda item this month
           1)  Experience of HR/Budget Liaison Group
           2)  Draft Resolution.

SIS Database Implementation Liaisons Group discussion: the PeopleSoft
implementation has focused on students; disempowering faculty and
departments from being able to do their work successfully (registering
students for the appropriate classes and sections, reviewing prereqs,
working with transfer students, etc) and providing a quality experience
to the student. What is the outcome we want: a good experience for
students. Emphasis has been on the end user.
PeopleSoft HR/Financials Liaisons Group structure consists of three
groups: users, OIT, and the functional areas, such as the Registrar.
Recommendation: that we create a Functional Group for Academics.
Identify the stakeholders, issues and problems that need to become
priorities and pursue them until they get resolved. Examples of
membership include: 
academic department schedulers, deans or designees, registrar, advising,
representative from the administration (possibly John Dubach). 
Charge: Identify conflicts with Registrar's policies and dislocations
that result when the university switches from the current version to
version 8. Discuss report-writing capabilities such as Crystal reports
that are bundled in to the software.
Problems with the current system include:
	How to get identified problems brought to the attention of those
who can resolve them and how to influence the decision and problem
resolution process.
	Identify the requirements for the next version and how to get
these requirements included in the next version in a timely fashion
Liaisons Group will identify problems and share ideas. It will provide
an advisory function as well.

Action item: Joe will draft a document to present to the Faculty Senate.

Future meeting agenda topics:
      March 11  Security of the Network
         a. Critical Explorer security hole.
         b. Administrative routine attachment of .DOC files.

      April 8  UMass Online       
         a. MOU UMASS Amherst with UMOL.
         b. Questions for Jack Wilson.

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

      May 6 Beyond Simple Classroom Connectivity 
          Pew Grants (Brewer)
          Center For Teaching (Sorcinelli)
          Academic Computing (Kochin)