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Technology Council
Minutes

Thursday, November 8, 2007
9:00-10:00
CL 735

Present: Diane Blohowiak, Sue Keihn, David Kieper, Kaoime Malloy, Dan McIver, Kathy Pletcher, Uwe Pott, Meir Russ, Jan Thornton. Not Present: Sharon Dimmer, Fritz Erickson, Scott Furlong, Scott Hildebrand, Tim Sewall.

The meeting was called to order at 9:00 am    

The Council reviewed three requests for lab computers:

  • Women’s Basketball Team Room  (3 computers) 
  • Men’s Basketball Team Room  (3 computers)  
  • Social Sciences Lab Extension  (1 computer) 

The requests for the women’s and men’s basketball teams were approved. The labs are being funded by the Phoenix booster club and so they will not need funding support from the central lab mod fund.  The purpose of the labs is to allow the athletes to do academic work between practices.  The Council questioned whether three computers would be sufficient since there are 15 team members.  Dan indicated that there was not enough space for more than three.  The Council approved the request and suggested that log data be reviewed periodically to monitor the utilization rate to assist in future planning.   

The request to add a computer to the Social Science Lab Project Rooms was deferred to the December meeting in order to gather more information.  The request indicated that there were six project rooms and five computers.  The log data showed that there were six computers in the project rooms.  The Council asked Diane Blohowiak to follow up with Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges to clarify whether an additional computer is needed.  The log data showed a 28% utilization rate for spring 2007 which is within the guidelines established by the Council. 

The Council reviewed the Lab Plan for 2008/09 and the lab utilization data.  Most of the labs are well used.   There was a question regarding the need for 50 computers in the Wood Hall, since only 41 computers were used during the spring 2007 semester.  Sue Keihn will follow up on the enrollments for those classes.  If the class is capped at 42 then the question is why do we need 50 computers in the lab.  It was pointed out that the lab is also used by students as an open access lab when there are no classes scheduled.  The Wood Hall lab is the only lab on campus that can accommodate 50 students which may be a reason to retain the number at 50.  Usage in the GIS lab continues to decline.  There is only one class scheduled in that classroom and the enrollment is between 6 and 11 students.  During spring 2007 there were only a few times when 5 or more students were logged in. There are sixteen computers in that lab.  Diane had met with Bill Niedzwiedz to discuss whether he could use the general access lab for the times when his class needs to use the computers.  His concern was regarding access to the maps.  The Council asked Diane to follow up with Bill and the Department Chair and Dean Furlong to further discuss the future of this lab.  If the GIS class were to use the general access lab, the sixteen GIS computers could be reallocated to other labs and that classroom could be used for general assignment.  There are several classes that are booked in the GIS lab each semester, but they can easily be accommodated by the other labs.  There is only one GIS class each semester, and since Bill is no longer using digitizers or special printers, that one class could be taught in the General Computer Access (GCA) lab.   The Remote Sensing classes that also use ArcGIS are already scheduled in the GCA lab. This would result in a $7,000 annual savings to the Lab Plan freeing up funding for other Lab Mod projects.  The Council will take action on the Lab Plan for 2008/09 at the December meeting.  Other changes that were discussed:  The Language lab is being reviewed since the Divaci software is no longer used (legacy of Ken Fleurant) and the Physiology lab will now use surplus machines.

The item regarding replacement cycle for the lab science computers was deferred to the December meeting when Dean Furlong will be present.

Next meeting:  December 6, 2007, 9:00-10:00am. 

The meeting adjourned at 10:00 am.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Pletcher, Chair

 

 

 

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