Present: Mary Ellen Birkett, Eric Brewer, John Davis, Chris Gole, Nicholas Howe, Sam Intrator, Thomas Laughner, Gary Lehring, Eric Loehr, Katwiwa Mule, and Herb Nickles
Minutes of March 14, 2008 meeting
The minutes of the March 14th meeting were approved as written.
Report on Thomas Ciufo’s revised request
Nick Howe asked that we have in the minutes that Thomas Ciufo’s revised request was discussed by the committee via email and the corrected amount was approved.
Report on the status of the Banner/Job X change
Herb explained to the committee that the banner time reporting section is written by the vendor, SCT Banner. Smith has a policy against making modifications and doing so would negate our contract with SCT. Requests for modification have been submitted to the vendor by Smith and other schools and we have been told that they will be addressed in the next release.
Grant initiative requests
1) Jim Johnson: Jim has requested funding for a digital video recorder, DVD writer, and student assistance during the summer to record the 2008 Summer Olympics. When this project is completed, the equipment will be returned to the ETS department. The committee approved $1,700 for student wages and $830 for the equipment.
2) Nick Horton: Nick’s request for funding to purchase a Tablet PC as well as class recording software and setup was approved for $5,500. The request to fund a student research assistant was discussed and it was decided that the committee would discuss this further by email before making a decision. The equipment will be returned to the ETS department after one year.
File backup for faculty – request from CFCD – Herb
In the Science Center there are currently 30-40 faculty members on a separate backup system which is maintained for six months. Many faculty have expressed concern about the dependability of the “H” drive and are hesitant to use it to store research data. Herb said that ITS has a consultant coming in to review our backup system and make recommendations. He will bring information back to CET in the fall to review and give input. The committee requested that the consultant also review the current archive abilities and possibility of increasing email storage capacities. The TARA page related to backups has been re-written. Sam suggested that education of faculty and etiquette for use of the “H” drive would be very helpful.
Nominations for 2009 CET faculty
Division I: need 1: nominations are:
Ed Check, Ibtissam Bouachrine, and Jamie Hubbard
Division II; need 1: The committee has not found anyone to run at this time. Nick will get a list of all faculty in Div.II and have the committee email those not serving on other committees and come up with nominees in the next couple days.
Division III: need two: nominations are:
Bob Newton, Jim Johnson, Katherine Halvorsen, Gary Felder, and John Brady
Report of the ETS Director
Tom reported that the assistive technology lab is moving from Wright Hall to Seelye B9, He is looking for demand/ need to upgrade the TV studio in the CMP, ETS is continuing to install lecterns even as they sort out issues with the mini Macs that have the on/off switch in the back of the equipment, he is working on a redesign of Janige lab to meet demands for collaborative spaces like those in the Info Commons in the library, the computer lab in Seelye will change to an incubator classroom, computers will be upgraded, and finally he has bought an island in Second Life with the funding from CET for use in the faculty development workshops this spring.
Other business
Eric Brewer said that the Burton 209 lab is converting to a triple boot Mac classroom.
It was suggested that in the fall the committee discuss the number of faculty serving on CET and whether there should be a member from SSW.
The next meeting will be May 9th in Stoddard Hall G4 conference room unless otherwise specified.
Respectfully submitted,
Constance McGinn, recorder