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Governance Minutes ArchiveFebruary 28, 1990
MINUTES OF THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK COMMITTEE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1990 3:00 P.M. CEC - CONFERENCE ROOM B Attending: Richard Alvarez, Dave Beagle, Erv Blythe, Theta Bowden, Tom Caceci, Ed Fox, Gail Gray, Tom Head, Bernard LaBerge, Don Mullins, Sue Murrmann, Lee Pyle, Mark Sanders, Art Snoke, Robert Sumichrast, James Wimbush, Pam Winfrey and Craig Woods Guest: Luke Ward Administrative Assistant: Dreama Webb MINUTES The meeting was called to order by Chairman Pyle at 3:06 P.M. He explained that Dr. Art Snoke had asked that information presented at the January meeting about the new organizational structure of Communications Resources be included in the minutes. Art Snoke asked Erv Blythe if the Scholarly Communications Project, headed by Lon Savage, is a fifth operating unit of Communications Resources. Erv said that it is part of Media Production Services. The revised minutes were accepted and the group agreed that the minutes should be forwarded to the University Council. TOWARD THE YEAR 2000 Lee Pyle indicated that he had recently received a copy of the publication "Toward the Year 2000" and had arranged for copies to be made available to members of the UCNC. The Chairman thanked Erv Blythe for providing copies for all committee members. SINGLE SYSTEM IMAGE/ELECTRONIC MAIL PROJECT Mr. Luke Ward presented an overview of this project indicating that a low cost E-mail service that could support 30,000 users has been in the development stage for some time. This system takes advantage of the distributed computing environment on the campus and is designed to minimize the central system load. The SSI/Mail System attempts to provide information resources to a user in terms of his/her environment and is based on the assumption that ISO/OSIX.400 standard for message handling systems will be the next point of evolution for the exchange of mail among users. The system currently exists as a pilot project that will be released within the next few weeks to a group of Virginia Tech undergraduate students for testing and evaluation. For more details, please see the attached report. In response to questions, Luke Ward said the number of users that can be supported on the available equipment is not clear. The present equipment will have to be upgraded. Also, the cost of the system and the whether there will be user charges has not been determined. Erv Blythe suggested that this service could potentially be supported as an overhead item. System security has not been fully developed at this time; however, this will be done before the system is released to the University community. Dr. Art Snoke indicated that this system could be beneficial by lessening the demand on the central computing unit. UNIVERSITY COUNCIL CORRESPONDENCE The memorandum from Larry Harris (attached) was discussed. Art Snoke indicated that the minutes from the UCNC meetings are presented to the University Council as information only. No specific action is taken on matters discussed in the minutes. The group agreed that the reporting structure to the University Council has been unclear and may continue to be less than ideal until the new organizational structure and reporting relationships are established. Ed Fox suggested that the UCNC Chairperson routinely ask the committee if discussions items need to be submitted as resolutions to the University Council. The Chairman agreed that this would be done. Ed Fox proposed that the past minutes be reviewed to identify policies that have been developed and an attempt be made to assign a level of importance to these policies. Motion: Fox/Sanders The Chairman prepare a compendium of previous policies developed by the UCNC and that appropriate steps be taken to assure that this manual has status within the University. For past and future polices, the operational unit(s) impacted will be asked to provide an implementation plan. PASSED Lee Pyle said he would review the minutes from past meetings and organize a policy manual. The UCNC members will receive the preliminary information prior to the March meeting. FACULTY ACCESS TO NETWORKS AND TRAINING Mark Sanders expressed concern about faculty access to networks indicating that it is critical for faculty to stay abreast of developments in this area so that the skills of the faculty can keep pace with the students and other members of the University community. In an informal survey, he said that departmental access ranged from 18-100%. There was considerable discussion about the communications entitlements of faculty. The survey and report on faculty communications services prepared by a UCNC subcommittee was discussed and the Chairman was asked to provide the details of that study to all members of the committee. Erv Blythe said he had spoken to Mike Williams about training programs for faculty and it has been agreed that training is a responsibility of User Services. There is not adequate documentation for many of the available services. Wendy Farkas in the Research Division has been putting together a list of list-servers. Art Snoke said it would be helpful if we could develop a central repository for information. Erv said he would talk with Mike Williams about developing a repository. The group returned to a discussion of faculty entitlements. Tom Caceci said it is not good management to charge faculty for access to the inbound modem pool because this discourages productivity and efficiency. He said it would be in the University's best interest to provide this service without any direct charge. Erv Blythe said the current plans call for the auxiliary to be a fully cost recovery operation. Bernie LaBerge asked if the current accounting system could be changed to allow the funding for the service to come "off the top." Art Snoke suggested that the 100% cost recovery mandate for CNS should be reviewed. The group agreed that the cost recovery matter is an example of the type of issue that should be forwarded to the University Council in the form of a resolution. Pam Winfrey reminded the group that the students are paying a significant amount of the cost of our communications system and attempts to reorder the present situation should take this into account. She said that currently 28% of the rooms are accessing the data connections. Lee Pyle agreed to locate the survey and report generated by the subcommittee chaired by Janet Walberg and distribute this information to all members. NAME CHANGE Dr. Art Snoke suggested that the name of the UCNC change to Communications Resources Committee to reflect the recent change of Communications Network Services (CNS) to Communications Resources (CR). The group was receptive to this suggestion. Lee Pyle asked that a vote be delayed until the March meeting so that Dr. Bob Heterick would have an opportunity to address this. The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 P.M. Revised 3/12/90
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