Faculty Senate University Computer and Electronic Communications Committee
Thursday, Dec 16, 12:15 - 13:45 Room 804-08, Campus Center
                          Draft Minutes 
Attendance: Bradley, Brewer(Chair), Canavan, Hood, Kunkel(Sec.),
            May, Stidham, Stoia, Zucker

I. Minutes
    A. Minutes of Nov. 18, 2004 are posted at URL:
           http://people.umass.edu/fsucecc/
           The minutes were approved as posted.

II. Announcements and Question period.
    A. FSUCECC Chair (Steve Brewer).
       Steve noted the absence of a representative from OIT.
    B. OIT (no rep).
    C. SIS LIAISON (Howard Stidham)
       Howard reported that the minutes of the last meeting were being
       prepared.
    D. Ad Hoc Committee on the Student Information System (ACSIS)
       Steve reported the meeting of ACSIS Dec 10 at which Niki Stoia
       led the committee through a demo of problems she identified in
       her roll as an academic advisor at the academic dean's level.

IV. New Business
    A. Discussion of Niki Stoia's presentation to the ACSIS group.
       1. Quick fix scenario of particular problems. 
          The benefit of having a high official from SIS present was
          demonstrated when Heidi Dollard could respond to particular
          perceived problems with on-the-spot analysis and triage of
          what issues had a quick-fix and which would be problematic.
          This triage with major players present is the type of scenario
          which had been envisioned for the Level-II SIS Liaison Group.
          If this type of approach could be established with a rotating
          membership of staff, deans and faculty stake holders, then
          many SIS problems might be identified and perhaps fixed more
          efficiently.

       2. Can three tier Liaison Group be conflated to two tiers?
          No rigid committee structure was envisioned by the original
          charter, but the spirit of the three tier system is not being
          carried out.  We need to examine how the Liaison structure is
          functioning and make recommendations to the Senate this spring
          that identifies problems that continue to exist in the SIS 
          implementation.  We have not been able to identify any
          effects which the Liaison Committee has had on SIS
          implementation to this point.  This may change with further
          reports from our, now 2, representatives on the Level I 
          Liaison Group.

       3. Issues for a "Must do list".
          a. Students need to be able to do a search for GenEd courses.
          b. Provide a means for a complex query of the course database.
          c. Provide users with some description of what flexibility is
             available to us in constructing Crystal Reports.

    B. A test of the SIS Trouble Ticketing 
       1. Steve Brewer's test case. 
         A trouble ticketing system exists which allows a user to state
         a problem and receive comments from the help desk and a
         specialist that it might be referred to for comment.
         The ticketing system may be of sufficient internal use to OIT,
         but the problem was not resolved and was considered finished as 
         soon as OIT deemed the problem was in another domain. This often
         places the problem back in the SIS user's lap with another
         bureaucracy to face to obtain a solution.

    C. GAMS software OGCA will use to track grant applications.
         We will pursue having a meeting with an OGCA representative
         to discuss the implications of this substantial step in
         computerizing the Grants Application and Administration 
         process. There was an initial indication that the software
         would only be certified to work with Internet Explorer which
         could be a severe problem since IE is no longer supported on
         Macs and has severe detractors on PCs.

    D. Discussion of the PeopleSoft/Oracle Merger
         Initial reports suggest that Oracle will be committed to
         maintaining its service of the software that PeopleSoft
         provides its customers.  It is not clear whether there will
         be dramatic changes in the number and frequency of revisions.
         The issue of HR&Financials vs the SIS software as well as add-
         on software is still unclear.

    E. Email List documents are posted at our website for member review.
      a. Educause posted Bulk EMail policy statement by Pace U.
      b. Educause posted U. Michigan Policy Website on "Targeting of Data"
      c. Educause posted U. Conn "Official Electronic Communication Policy"
      d. Educause posted U. Virginia "University Policy on Using Electronic
         Communications for Large-scale Notifications and Distribution of 
         Information"
      e. Ed Cutting's 2001 analysis of the issue.

    F. An Educause report on Higher Ed IT funding is posted on the
         website.

V. The meeting adjourned at 13:45