The Information Resources Council (IRC) convened regularly on alternate Tuesdays for the academic year 1998-99. The council deliberated over a range of issues and offered recommendations on the following matters:
- Ann Henderson and Phil Cifarelli informed the Council of College investment
in and deployment of enterprise software designed to modernize the College
database, and install web-based access to administrative information resources
on campus. Deployment of the system proceeds at a pace consistent with the
capacity of people to install, test, and debug new software while continuing
with the routine work of every administrative office on campus. In June,
'99, the College selected OASIS, an evolving Oracle product to become the
Student Information System, an environment likely to support campus registration
by spring of 2001. Description of these systems provided helpful context
for IRC as it worked to understand the significance, complexity, and costs
of the software in order to arrive at endorsement of the recommendations
being made by the team charged with selecting these resources.
- The Council reviewed capital-budget recommendations from CITS for FY2000.
We endorsed spending for modernization of digital technology in Ladd 207,
the Lanzit center, Gannett, and Emerson Auditoriums, TLC 301, Dana 181,
Psychology Perception Labs (funded in part with an NSF matching grant secured
by Professor Hugh Foley), for replacement of the Scribner Library on-line
catalog, and for deployment of the Oracle database system to support financial,
payroll and Human Resources operations. The proposed capital budget for
in IT during FY2000 is $1.25M, representing a 54% decrease in this expense
compared to that of FY1999 ($1.93M). Of this reduction, the College is transferring
$130K to a reserve for information technology, a transfer (variable from
year to year) aimed at meeting the costs of replacing campus IT when it
becomes obsolete.
- The Council drafted policy to govern responsible use of campus e-mail,
circulated the draft to CAFRA, president’s staff, legal council for the
College, Human Resources, and ACC. The modified and endorsed policy is now
in operation. It may be read at the CITS link on the College home page.
The Council drafted policy to guide the community with respect to intellectual
property rights on campus. That draft was transmitted to legal council for
the College, and we await response and recommendations.
- The Council considered a policy that would require every Skidmore students
to own a personal computer, and rejected the notion.
- The Council observed a display of laptop computer and projection technology
exhibited by John Danison, aimed at providing faculty with portable, consistent,
reliable, familiar resources when they wish to employ digital technology
in their classrooms. The display was promising, and IRC encouraged CITS
to pursue this strategy as a way of solving a vexing problem of IT reliability
in the classroom.
- Jeff Caron visited the Council to explore issues of web page design on
campus, to deliberate with us about consistency of design from page to page
(campus home page, departmental pages, faculty pages), and the desirability
of such uniformity. We arrived at no conclusions.
- Leo Geoffrion described a newly formed "depot" on campus charged
with the responsibilities of purchasing and distributing all computers on
campus. Depot operations replace the computer store in the Skidmore shop,
provide a web-based interface for ordering of new computers, and consolidate
purchasing in ways that provide economies of scale for the College. The
Council endorsed this strategy and looks forward to a report on the effectiveness
of depot operations.
The following people were members of the IRC in ‘98-99:
Pola Baytelman (Music)
Karl Broekhuizen (VP for Business Affairs)
Ruth Copans (Acting Chair, Scribner Library)
Alice Dean (Mathematics & Computer Science)
Bob DeSieno (Mathematics & Computer Science)
Leo Geoffrion( Director User Services and Academic Computing, CITS)
Mike Gittleman (Class of ’02)
Ken Hapeman (Director CITS)
Ann Henderson (Registrar & Director of Institutional
Roy Meyers (Biology)
Vivana Rangil (Foreign Languages & Literatures)
Phyllis Roth (Dean of the Faculty)
-RPDS
August 25, 1999
.