Attendance:

Karl Abrahamson, George Bailey, Dana Brooks, May Chang, Wendy Creasey, Jo Lynne Daughtry, Michael Dixon, Ray Drake, Karl Faser, Steven Forehand, Richard Kerns, Zach Loch, Charles Peele, Richard Ramirez, Len Rhodes, Clayton Sessoms, Joel Sweatte, Margaret Umphrey, Sergiy Vilkomir,  Biwu Yang

Opening Remarks

Wendy Creasey announced that she has been appointed chair of the IRCC. She asked to be notified of any membership changes for the 2011 term.  Wendy also announced that minutes from the 2010 term have been placed on the IRCC website for review at www.ecu.edu/ircc .

 Social Media Policy: (Wendy Creasey)

 A draft of the Social Media Policy has been prepared and will be emailed to the IRCC for input and/or suggestions. Once the IRCC approves the draft it will be forwarded to the FITC (Faculty Information Technology Committee) for review.   

Website Redesign Recommendation: (Clint Bailey)

Clint Bailey presented the website redesign recommendation on behalf of the Web Oversight Committee. There have been no significant changes to the ECU website since fall 2004. The W.O. is suggesting a redesign to improve the look and the functionality of the site. Some changes would include:

• Wider page. This will allow more room for content and provide an organized, cleaner design.
• Enhance navigation through better organization of links. This will make applications easier to find and allow for better use of the real estate on the site.
• Institute clear and up-to-date terminology. Replace or reduce use of icons whenever possible.
• Offer users more personalization through “myecu”. This will allow the user to group commonly used links for quick and easy access.

Jo Lynne Daughtry presented a timeline for the rollout of the new design.

• First rollout by summer 2011. Will present to small groups on campus for comments and feedback.
• Introduce a prototype that will run parallel to the current website by fall 2011. Users will have the ability to view the updated site then submit a survey with feedback and suggestions.
• Plan to rollout new completed website in January 2012.

 Clint and Joe Norris (current CIO) will present the Web Oversight recommendation to the Executive Council in an effort to seek their support for the redesign.

 The web redesign process will not ensure that incorrect or out-of-date pages will be updated. Jo Lynne’s team will carry that message forward but changes ultimately must come from individuals within that particular department/unit.

 Users should not experience any loss of text due to the wider screen format of the new design. Users could potentially notice changes on their mobile device but it is up to the individual department/unit to create mobile versions of their pages. ITCS has provided the tools for this to be done.

Blackboard Update:  (Wendy Creasey)

Blackboard will be upgraded to version 9.1 before the beginning of first summer session.  ITCS encourages everyone to attend a training session before the upgrade takes place. Training reminders are being emailed weekly.  Wendy is contacting the deans via email to ask them to encourage training in their respective areas as well.  The upgrade is receiving very positive feedback from the focus groups.

Social Media Tool:  (Wendy Creasey)

The Social Media Task Force has selected Yammer as the internal tool of choice for the university.  It was selected as an alternative to FaceBook and other outlets in an effort to minimize risks that can be associated with social media tools. Yammer has been a pilot product for over a year and is currently being used by over 500 people on campus. Yammer will not conflict with Inner Pirate.

Security Framework:  (Margaret Umphrey)

Margaret presented the group with a draft of the proposed Information Security Program for review.  The N.C. IT Department requires the university to comprise certain policies in regard to information security. Margaret’s group seeks to implement a formalized “Information Security Program” that will encompass the entire suite of policies that are mandated by state/federal regulations. Margaret asked the IRCC to review the Information Security Policy and offer feedback before she finalizes the Information Security Program. She will email the policy to the group and follow-up during the next IRCC meeting.

San Upgrade: (Ray Drake)

An upgrade for the SAN storage infrastructure was scheduled for the weekend of 1/22.  The upgrade provides performance and capacity enhancements for SAN attached servers, vmware and piratedrive.  Issues with the upgrade forced Ray’s team to go outside of their scheduled maintenance window, which is a rare occurrence. Notification options were limited given that email was disabled as part of the SAN upgrade. An announcement was sent via ALERT just after 6:00p.m. Primary systems were back online between 6:45 – 7:45pm and Blackboard was restored by 7:30p.m. Charles Peele commended Ray and his team for their outstanding work during the downtime.

Student account life cycle:  (Ray Drake)

Accounts are created once the student is admitted to the university and remain active until the student is not enrolled in the current semester. (summer sessions not included) Accounts will not be deactivated when:

• The student has been admitted for any future semesters
• The student has an active incomplete
• The student is doing thesis work
• The student is participating in a university internship
• The student is studying abroad.

When these circumstances occur the student should have their sponsor (advisor, professor, etc.) submit a request via the IT Help Desk to keep the account active. Accounts are deleted after two consecutive semesters of non-admission.  (typically around mid-October and February) IRCC members were in agreement with this process and no changes will be implemented at this time.

Email vaulting:  (Ray Drake)

Process was implemented in 2007 to provide more space in the user’s in-box and to reduce reliance on local storage due to corruption/loss etc. In fall 2010, the archived date was changed to 60 days with 7 year retention.  Any data in the archives will automatically live for 7 years.

They deployed the Windows version- 9 upgrade for work stations in December 2010.  An upgrade for the server site is scheduled for February 2011 to prepare for the Outlook 2010 conversion.

IT Student Advisory:  (Wendy Creasey)

The IT Student Advisory Group is a small group of students and IT staff that meet periodically to obtain student feedback and/or suggestions regarding campus technology.  The students have been eager to offer their thoughts on topics such as Blackboard, VCL and OneStop2.  Wendy’s group will submit a survey to the student population to solicit their input on campus IT initiatives.  Student feedback thus far has included:

• Students would like to see more printing stations on campus
• Students would like to see more virtualized software being used
• ECU website should be more vibrant

 Wendy will continue to update the IRCC with the status of the IT Advisory Group as information becomes available.

Web Oversight Committee:  (Wendy Creasey)

 A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education gave ECU’s website a low ranking on its ability to be accessed by the blind.  Wendy’s group corrected 98% of the items on the survey within the first week.

OneStop2:  (Steven Forehand and Zach Loch)

The name of the new OneStop portal has been changed from OneStop2 to Pirate Port.  Projected release date of June 2011 for perspective students. See Pirate Port objectives below:

Pirate Port Objectives

• Modernize the look and feel of the current Onestop portal (last upgrade was 10 years ago)
• Integrate mobile applications (cell phone, tablets)
• More widget based. (less text and more graphics)
• Pirate Port accounts will be available for perspective students as well as existing students
• Students will be able to customize page with their personal items of interest

Next agenda items

•  Project updates for new and on-going projects