FACULTY SENATE UNIVERSITY COMPUTER & ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE DRAFT MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF March. 1, 1999, Room 804-08, Campus Center
Approved: with corrections March 31, 1999. Present: S. Brewer, E. Cutting, J. Dubach, G. Fisher, G. Forman, A. Gaylord, C. Giloth, G. Hough, E. Hurn, T. Jackson, J. Kunkel, B. MacDougall (Chair), B. McCandless, N. Sims, M. Wingertsman Bruce MacDougall called the meeting to order at 10:35 AM 1. Approval of Minutes: The Committee approved the minutes of the Dec. 11, 1998 Meeting 2. Announcements A. Emily Hurn reported on the acceptance of the Joint Special Report on TLTR by the Faculty Senate. (1) In a surprise to our committee in general, it was revealed that UMass Lowell already has had a TLTR for 3 years. (2) Our campus has received an invitation to send a representative to a UMass Boston TLTR organizational meeting. John Dubach will attend and bring back information about the process. (3) TLTR is now in the Provost's hands. B. Bruce MacDougal commented on recent saturation of modem lines by 4 PM.
C. John Dubach reported (1) Addition of 92 new 56 kb lines in March should alleviate some of the modem pressure. (2) A 'new model' for connectivity is being looked at for September. (3) In recent past 3200 Taus were in service. Now there are 2700 Taus and 2800 Ethernet connections. The crossover has occurred and Taus will be a thing of the past. (4) Media One internet connectivity is in S. Hadley, Granby, and East Hampton. There is is no projected arrival in Amherst or Northampton. (5) Bandwidth of data transfer is being upgraded. Recently off campus commercial internet, Ic, lines were upgraded from 9-12Mb. The next two steps of upgrade will be 45Mb and 155Mb. Internet-2, I2, is at 45Mb now. On campus connections to the backbone are 10Mb switched. 100Mb switches have been installed. The backbone now at 100 Mb will go to gigabit this summer. Anyone needing 100 Mb connections to the backbone can get it based on need and cost of wiring. (6) Meritorious Operations of I2 applications can still obtain special arrangements for on campus aspects of speeding up transmission by application to Dan Blanchard. 3. Old Business A. Order of Business for the Spring Semester (1) Margo Crist will report on Library issues at our March 31 meeting.
(2) Mandatory Computer Ownership Policy a. The major reason for having a policy is to allow this expense to be considered in financial aid applications. b. A major roadblock to establishing a policy is the official resistance to any policy that will increase the cost of a UMass education. c. The SARIS report on Computer Usage by the student body will be out imminently. (65-70% of students use computers) d. Savings margins in the computer industry are no longer there for suppliers to create good deals for our students. Bare bones deals are already available to the general public. e. What is our role? - General recommendations to incoming students? - Departmental recommendations to majors? - Most computer purchases are made prior to coming to campus. f. Charge to a subcommittee on Mandatory Computer Ownership: MOVED: The subcommittee on Mandatory Computer Ownership shall list and describe the pros and cons of establishing a policy of mandatory computer ownership for our undergraduate students. The motion was seconded and voted with unanimous approval.
(3) Software Site Licensing a. There is a need for a fact finding process. b. The facts should include a glossary of terms, an inventory of software and a discussion of the potential of centralization of licenses and how that might benefit the University.
MOVED: The subcommittee on Software Site Licensing shall initiate a fact finding process to establish a glossary of site licensing terms and issues, initiate an inventory of site licenses among University units and discuss the implications and feasibility of centralization of licenses.
The motion was seconded and voted with unanimous approval. 4. New Business A. Password compromise on campus:
(1) Joe Kunkel raised the issue that it might be ill advised to use the PPP login ID and passwords as access to sensitive University documents such as student information. It is his contention, one shared by several system managers on campus, that the PPP accounts are used without adequate care for security in many households that log onto the Internet using the PPP account of a University employee.
(2) Art Gaylord presented the OIT position that the PPP accounts should not be used by unauthorized users. Further he suggested that schemes of multiple passwords for infrequently used access resulted in worse security problems. He said that the password scheme for the SIS system to be implemented in the coming year had not been decided as yet.
B. Subcommittees were formed by voluntary signature to lists: (1) Software Site Licenses list volunteers. Members: Cutting, Brewer, Gaylord, Hough, Kunkel (Chair), Wingertsman. (2) Mandatory Computer Ownership list volunteers: Members: Fisher (Chair), Forman, Cutting, Gaylord, Giloth, Wingertsman. 5. The meeting adjourned at 12:01 PM. Respectfully Submitted Joseph G. Kunkel joe@bio.umass.edu last updated 4/09/99