Committee meeting - July 15, 2021

Carol Lu   
Secretary to the Committee   
July 15, 2021
   
Present: Andrew McAlorum, Don Duff-McCracken, Greg Parks, Jason Testart, Paul Miskovsky, Pratik Patel, Trevor Bain, Bill Baer, Lawrence Folland

Regrets: Andrea Chappell, Daryl Dore, Greg Smith, Erick Engelke, Robyn Landers, Steven Bourque, Adam Savage
 
Agenda   

  1. Chair’s remarks (Andrew McAlorum) [5 min.]
  2. Approval of the minutes from Thursday June 17, 2021 [5 min.]
  3. Confluence Cloud migration (Andrew McAlorum) [10 min.]
  4. Computer lab follow up discussion (Bill Baer) [10 min.]
  5. Cisco email security URL formatting (Lawrence Folland) [10 min.]
  6. Return to campus plans - all [10 min.]
  7. Other business and roundtable discussion – all [20 min.]
  8. Next CTSC Meeting [Will be held Thursday July 29 at 1:30 p.m.]

Chair's remarks

  • IST is approximately half-way through migrating IST client-facing queues from RT to Jira
  • The N: drive to OneDrive migration project is scheduled to be complete by September/October
    • A document was distributed via email with details on the N: drive unmapping process
  • The Mass email management project for internal and student communications is starting up again 
    • An advisory group will be created to provide access guidelines
      • Let Andrew know if a member from your department is interested in joining the advisory group
  • IST will be transitioning machine rollovers for IST staff; laptops will be the default instead of desktops
    • Desketop Rollover program budget will continue to fund $1300 towards qualifying rollovers

Comments and discussion

  • Goal is to have majority of IST queues active in Jira for the start of Fall term
  • Environment is interested in having department move from N: drive to OneDrive
  • Arts transitioned to laptop rollovers in 2020
     

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting 

  • The previous meeting’s minutes were accepted as distributed.   
     

Confluence Cloud migration (Andrew McAlorum)

  • IST is increasing the number of Confluence Cloud licenses as more groups move from on-prem to the Cloud
  • The University currently uses Confluence and Jira on-prem
  • The Confluence migration process is more straight-forward than the Jira migration process

Comments and discussion

  • For a group in Health is inquiring about using Microsoft Project, is there enough licensing currently for that group to use Jira instead? 
    • Yes the group can be added to Jira; there are currently 200 user licenses 
    • Groups that want to start using Jira prior to the start of the Fall 2021 term should note that support with extra configuration beyond the basic setup will not be available
      • Jira support staff in IST are prioritizing IST's RT to Jira queue migration

Computer lab follow up discussion (Bill Baer)

  • Has not received any feedback opposing the suggestion to not use keyboard covers in labs
    • Will proceed with the recommendation to not use keyboard covers and confirm with Kate Windsor that this can be done

Cisco email security URL formatting (Lawrence Folland)

  • Do Cisco email security URL rewrites confuse users since they are told not to click on suspicious looking links for security reasons? 

Comments and discussion

  • Emails with URL rewrites are tagged as [SUSPICIOUS] in the email subject
  • Rewritten URLs allow the email admin to track and trace if users are clicking the links
  • Steve can provide more detail in a future meeting

Return to campus plans (all)

IST

  • Will be doing a phased return to campus; Client Services, Technology Integrated Services, and Instructional Technologies and Media Services will be on campus in the Fall
    • There have been ~20 people in IST, mostly from Network Services and Instructional Technologies and Media Services, on campus throughout the pandemic
    • There will be ~ 36 IST staff regularly on campus in the Fall term in addition to ~30 IST staff voluntarily returning to campus 1-2 days per week as conditions permit
  • IST account reps will be reaching out to each faculty to coordinate return to campus plans

Health

  • Will have some staff returning to the office
  • Difficult to be hybrid since equipment (e.g. office chairs) need to be constantly moved back and forth; returning staff will likely be full time in the office in the Fall

Environment

  • Still confirming the details, will likely follow a hybrid model in the Fall but will depend on the staff member's role
  • Client facing roles will likely be returning to campus
  • 50% building occupancy is expected
    • Two computer labs will be open at 50% occupancy for lab session use only
  • IT support will continue to be remote even if staff are working in the office
  • Plexiglass has been installed at the help desk but there are currently no plans to open the help desk for the Fall term yet

Science

  • Planning on a hybrid model
  • Access to office areas will be restricted (e.g. no walk ins or public access)

Computer Science

  • Started meeting with staff members to ask about comfort level of returning back to campus
    • Staff are comfortable with going into the office 1-2 times a week
  • MFCF has installed plexiglass at the help desk
  • Staff would be more comfortable with returning back to campus if the University implemented a policy for staff to be fully vaccinated in order to work in person

WUSA

  • Will have 30% of staff back on campus at least once per week
    • Hoping to have one staff member per group
  • Open cubicle space may be an issue
  • Looking at options for a hybrid meeting environment
  • In-person service for SLC businesses is still being confirmed

Renison

  • Staff have been in the office periodically
  • Will likely be in the office close to full-time in the Fall in order to support non-degree instruction (3-4 days per week)

Other Business/Roundtable 

WUSA, Pratik

  • Will be sending out WUSA boxes to new incoming students
  • Can share the stats (e.g. # of students that picked up box in person vs. mailed) with CTSC once finalized

Health, Trevor

  • Set up WVD pool
    • Plan was to transfer applications from VDI (e.g. NVivo, SPSS) to WVD; not sure if Office should also be transferred
    • Users are not able to access certain file types (.xlsx) in WVD without Office, but there is concern that installing Office will encourage users to use WVD unnecessarily
  • Science plans on installing Office on WVD so links won't break when users try to open certain files
    • Working on determining what apps should be added to WVD without overlapping apps that students have already acquired themselves
  • Environment has Office installed on WVD

Environment, Don

  • Keith Peck will be the new Environment faculty IT rep; Keith is working on transitioning into his new role

Information Security Services, IST

  • ISS is looking to create a new position focused on research security
    • Working on coming up with specific roles and responsibilities, consulting with Office of Research and the Library
  • Creation of this role is a response to:
    • Government of Canada's new national security risk assessment checklist for research partnerships
      • If a researcher has a research partner and needs NSERC funding, they need to do a risk assessment to identify risks and provide a mitigation and cyber security plan or funding may be refused
    • Government of Canada's new data mangement strategy policy
      • Universities are being asked to have a defined strategy by 2022-2023
      • Office of Research and the Library are leading a working group for developing a policy