Georgia Perimeter College

Office of Information Technology

3251 Panthersville Road

Decatur, Georgia 30034

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

TO:      Felita Williams, Vice President for Advancement and External Affairs

Ron Carruth, Executive Vice President, Fiscal Affairs & Administration

            Susan McKinnon, Interim Director of Educational Technologies

Julius Whitaker, Director, Learning Resources Decatur

            Glenn Sierko, Electronic Technician, Center for Distance Learning

            Pamela J. W. Gore, Professor, Sciences

            Ingrid Thompson-Sellers, Instructor, Business

            Brenda Dial, Systems Scheduler, Enterprise Support Systems

            Marcella Reid-Morgan, Administrative Sectary, Academic & Student Affairs

            Ken Moss, Instructional Technologist, Educational Technologies

            Connie Aston, Administrator/Coordinator, Center for Continuing & Corporate Education

            Valerie Schroeder, Vice President, Student Government Association

 

From:   Susan McKinnon, Acting Chair, Information and Instructional Technology Policy Council

 

Date:            November 11, 2002

 

Ref:      Minutes of October 29, 2002 Information and Instructional Technology Policy Council Meeting

 

            Members Present: 

McKinnon, Moss, Dial, Schroeder, Sierko, Aston, Whitaker

 

Visitors Present:

Bill Purcell, Tim Roseberry, Hunter Eidson, Bill Woodall

 

AGENDA  ITEMS:

 

I.                    Welcome (Meeting called to order at 3:20 p.m.)

II.                 Introductions (Revised agenda given to attendees)

III.               Shared Governance and the IITPC (Overview of the relations of Shared Governance & IITPC)

IV.              Discussion about Policies to Create

A.    Technology Master Plan
The council discussed the need to develop an updated College Technology Master Plan that will meet all guidelines required by the Board of Regents and would provide departments a plan to work from in developing individual technology plans.  It was mentioned that the BOR provides a template for colleges to use to develop this plan. Bill Purcell agreed to forward to the committee a copy of the template used by the BOR in developing this Master Plan. It was agreed that departments that need to develop technology plans could do so without the IITPC having a master plan in place.

B.     Classroom Technology Standards
Susan continued the discussion concerning a Classroom Technology Policy of Standards for all classrooms.  The last one was old and needed a revision based on current and future technology needs for educators and students. Bill Purcell mentioned the problems that are being dealt with due to lack of planning and standards for the technology needs in construction of new classrooms.  Glenn mentioned that money could be saved if a standard infrastructure policy was in place to be used by all campuses for future construction.  Julius mentioned the need for standards to be used for the new Rockdale Center construction that will be taking place soon.

The Classroom Technology Policy of Standards should include grades that all classrooms could be classified by, such as grades 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.  The standards for each level should list the specific equipment necessary for the new classroom to be assigned a particular level. It was agreed that if the standards were not implemented and maintained, that a standards policy for classrooms would be of no benefit.  The discussion concluded with an agreement that the policies proposed by the IITPC would need to be presented, reviewed, and signed off by the College Advisory Board to gain college wide support and implementation.

It was also agreed that policies should be documents that changed based on the college's changing needs and the BOR requirements.

C.    Telecommunications
The problems with the college phone system was discussed. Possible solutions need to be explored so that we have greater flexibility and capacity with our telecommunications system. The need to develop a plan of action to investigate these solutions was discussed.

V.                 Wireless Policy

Bill Purcell distributed a draft copy of a proposed Wireless Policy. A discussion took place on the need to develop this policy and have it approved as quickly as possible. Tied with this policy are some concerns on networking safety issues in general, especially in light of recent security breaches. The BOR has recently hired a security auditor specialist that is available to the colleges to examine the security concerns or problems at any school that request his services. Bill will get an appointment with him to look at GPC security needs and concerns.

It was determined that everyone would read over the proposed Wireless Policy and submit any comments to Bill Purcell. A streamlined version would then be proposed to the next IITPC meeting for possible submission to the College Advisory Board for their January 2003 meeting.

VI.              Final comments

A.    Susan suggested that throughout the year, the committee look back over previous policies and handbooks that have been created by the IITPC. All of the policies listed on the web site are over two years old and possibly need to be updated with the changes in technology. It was also noted that in previous minutes of the committee, there were discussions about a policy #1106, Student Technology Fee Policy that never seemed to have gotten approved through the College Advisory Board. Glenn mentioned that Tas had most of the information concerning the Student Technology Fee Policy in his files.  He offered to make copies for Susan to review what he had on the progress concerning this policy. Susan said that she would also check with Ron Carruth to see what he knew about the status of the policy.

B.     Julius mentioned the instructors that are teaching Distance Learning courses were interested in the college providing either free or at a discount such items as a computer for home use, MS Office loaded on home computer, and DSL service.  It was determined that many faculty and staff other than Distance Learning instructors also work at home, and the benefits mentioned are not available to them. For this reason, it might be more feasible to look at partnering with a company that provides services to get a reduced rate for everyone. It was also mentioned that our current Microsoft Campus Agreement License does allow for faculty and staff of the College to install MS Office and some other MS programs on their home computers. Educational Technologies is working on a process of allowing requests to be made for these programs.

C.    The question was asked about the time line for replacing the old computers with the new ones.  It is assumed that after the faculty computers and lab computers are replaced, the rest of the college computers will be gradually replaced over the next year or so.

D.    The next IITPC meeting will be around December 1st.  One more meeting is needed before the end of the year.  All visitors were invited to attend any or all meetings of the IITPC.

VII.            Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 5: 15 p.m.