Information
Technology Board Meeting Minutes
February
2, 1999
In attendance: Mark
Aldenderfer, William Ashby, John Bruno, Peter Cappello, Dorothy
Chun, Glenn Davis, Jeff Dozier, Gene Lucas, Alan Liu, JoAnn
Kuchera-Marin (for Everett Zimmerman), Elise Meyer, Joan Murdoch,
David Sheldon, Bob Sugar, Ronald Tobin, John Vasi, John Wiemann,
Michael Young, Jules Zimmer
Absent: France
Cordova, Jennifer Gebelein
Bob Sugar, ITB Chair,
opened the meeting, announcing that the minutes could be found on
the web at http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~itb. He then introduced Bob Kuntz,
Assistant Chancellor for Planning & Budget, who presented an
Overview of IT Funding at UCSB and Summary of FY 1998-99
Instructional Technology Allocations prepared for Meridith
Michaels, Associate Director of the Budget, UCOP. Bob Sugar asked
Bob Kuntz to provide more detailed breakdowns in some areas, and
they agreed to meet prior to the next ITB meeting. Discussion
about the presentation raised these points:
- Costs can easily be
missed. For example, labs are supported by whose salaries
are not counted as part of the lab budgets.
- It is difficult to
determine what is being spent, and therefore, what funds
are needed
- One must strive for
consistency in how different entities respond to the
survey
- Recognize it
is impossible to be exact
- Formulate a
set of rules to insure consistency
- It is hard to
translate the information into what is happening at the
department level. It may be useful to take snap shot
samples of various departments.
- In discussing
operating costs for staff, software and hardware, it
should be kept in mind that:
- Staff salaries
are not paid with IUC funds
- Salaries of
grad students who are computer gurus are not
counted as lab expenses, but they do provide
support
- Computers
purchased with research funds would be almost
impossible to track
- There is a disparity
of resources for small departments
- L&S takes
care of those departments that don't have
computing staff
- HUFA Computing
Facility provides IT services (future
presentation)
- There needs to
be a standard that indicates what resources a
good Humanities department needs
- Campus needs to make
commitment to core funding
- More basic questions
need to be asked
- How do we set
priorities?
- What is a
"seat"? What should it provide it?
- What resources
do we need to carry out the mission of the campus
in instruction,research and administration?
- We need to
determine what the campus provides, and what we
expect the students to provide.
Bob Sugar invited ITB
members to attend an ITPG meeting where Stuart Lynn, Associate
Vice President of Information Resources and Computing, UCOP, will
present the results of the 1998 Systemwide IT Survey, on February
5, Seminar Room, Building 406, 3:45-5:00 PM.
The following two
presenters focused on students’ access to computing
resources:
Glenn Davis, Co-Chair, ITPG
and Director, IS&C
Access: Computing Resources
at UC Santa Barbara
ITPG Workstation Survey
Mark Aldenderfer, Professor
of Anthropology
Summary of Student Access to
the WWW Data in a large enrollment class, Fall Quarter
1998
Discussion following the
presentations:
When we ask students
to be creative on the web, we will have an access problem
We should include
questions regarding access as part of teaching
evaluations
Approx. 70% of
students own computers. To what extent do these students
use university facilities?
There appears to be a
need for additional facilities for students to print out
material from computers. We should verify this with IC.
Past surveys have
indicated students use campus facilities even though they
have their own computers, because they are convenient and
their use is a social activity.
Campus facilities have
advantages, such as higher bandwidth connections to the
internet.
What level of services
is really needed for workstations and networking?
Only 10 out of 200 in
the Student Access to WWW Survey mentioned they used
laptops
We need to give
undergrads facilities to put up web pages - provide
students server space for this
"U Web Site"
will provide this
The campus needs
controlled forums where students can share, collaborate
on assignments, comment on each other's work, etc.
Microsoft client
licenses are exorbitant for students - campus clout would
help
How do we
systematically find out what resources people want and
need now?
We need to formulate
policies for instructional computing
Internet
Service Providers versus campus modem pool
Computer
ownership
As we make technology
available, we should build in contingency for
unanticipated use
What should be campus
policies - We can’t project until we know what the
policies are
Bren School is
investigating how to create an environment where students
have their own computer and ISP. The School provides
support services.
Residential Services
will be adding 800 beds. What hardware/software and
support should go into San Rafael dorm Technology Center?
Business hotels have
been grappling with this problem. We could extrapolate
from this.
The cost to
replace workstations has gone down over time
Networking and
services are the biggest problem
Target incoming
students to find out how they want to use computers; are
they bringing computers; what kind
Some may turn the
question back to us. Parents want the University to say
what they should buy
Formulate a standard
questionnaire for students to evaluate their personal
computer resources
Many students cannot
afford computers and ISPs - we need to address how they
will be served. Open access labs? Modem banks?
What kind of computing
support do faculty need when providing web-centric
instruction?
There should be 3
surveys - one for incoming students, one for students
already here, and one for faculty. Ron Tobin indicated
that Stan Nicholson could provide help with the surveys.
When looking at Budget
allocations (Bob Kuntz’s presentation), faculty
instructional resources is the lowest number
How can faculty
develop web-centric instruction?
Action Items for Next
Meeting:
Dorothy Chun and Alan
Liu will form a committee to develop a faculty survey
ITPG will develop the
incoming student and existing student surveys
Bob Sugar will collect
more detailed funding information