Committee meeting - October 12, 2017

Darren Bondy
Secretary to the Committee­­­
October 20, 2017

Present: 

Steve Bourque (Chair), Darren Bondy (Secretary), Bill Baer, Andrea Chappell, Marko Dumancic,  Erick Engelke, Dave Kibble, Robyn Landers, Andrew McAlorum, Paul Miskovsky, Omar Nafees, Jason Testart

Regrets:

Trevor Bain, Colin Bell, Daryl Dore, Adam Savage

Agenda

  1. Chair’s remarks [5 min.]
  2. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of September 14, 2017 [5 min.]
  3. IST Strategic Plan update (Dave Kibble) [25 min].
  4. Other Business [5 min.]
  5. Roundtable discussion – all [20 min.]
  6. Next CTSC Meeting

[Will be held Thursday, October 26, 2017, at 1:30 p.m., in EC2 1021.]

Chair’s Remarks (Steven Bourque)

  • Welcome back to Marko Dumancic.
  • Thank you to Don Duff-McCracken for his contributions to the committee over the course of Marko’s absence.
  • IST Newsletter launched today; please check it out and let us know what you think.

Approval of the minutes of the previous meetings

The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted as distributed.

IST Strategic plan (Dave Kibble)

Dave Kibble provided a high level overview of the IST strategic plan. Topics included:

  • Scope and components
  • 6 questions
  • Mission, vision, goal
  • 5 compelling areas for action & 1 goal.
  • What happens next?

View the full presentation on the IST Strategic Plan (PDF)

Comments & discussion

  • CTSC faculty representatives, along with many other contributors, provided input into the development of the IST strategic plan at a workshop on February 17, 2017. UCIST members were also consulted. Sometimes CTSC faculty representatives were at the meetings with the UCIST members (at the discretion of the UCIST member). The UCIST consultations, the CTSC workshop, the pre-existing IT strategic plan were amongst (but not limited to) the contributors to the current IST plan.
  • If any members have questions regarding the IST Strategic Plan they can contact Dave Kibble or Connie van Oostveen.

Other Business

Software licensing group

  • Is there a need to revive the software licensing group?
    • Could be done as a mailing list or a Mattermost channel.
    • Involving Sandra Laughlin in this is a good first step; Laughlin manages and facilitates all site licensed software as well as some area specific software.

RFID reader

  • Some members expressed interest in doing more with the RFID’s in Watcards.
    • Contact the Watcard office for more information.

Roundtable Reporting

Math (Robyn Landers)

  • Requesting that members ask their software experts about the potential need for a software like Overleaf.
    • Does not seem like a lot of interest at this point, Math may eventually look into getting their own license.
  • Continuing work on use cases for central email redirection.
  • Is the sub-committee for the Identity and Access Management project still meeting?
    • Have not met in a while because nothing has changed.
    • Jason Testart will touch base with Connie van Oostveen to set up a meeting with that group; we still want their input on the project.

Instructional Technologies and Multimedia Services, IST (Andrea Chappell)

  • Teaching and Learning Spaces committee will be meeting next week to review the results of the survey we ran for instructors on how they feel about the classrooms on campus. Will bring the results back to this committee as well.
  • The course evaluation project went to senate on September 18 and they endorsed the project report.
    • Phase 2 will start soon.
  • Another survey will be sent to instructors about the online learning environment.

Environment (Marko Dumancic)

  • Had issues with our physical security system that was reliant on an older machine which recently died. After trying to replace it with a newer machine we ran into issues running the software so we have since passed the entire system over to IST to run.
  • All incoming undergrads had no N: drives; the issue has since been resolved.
    • Several graduate students also did not have N: drives.
  • We have been testing out our new colour printers from Retail Services; works well with PC’s but has not been working with Macs. Accepts the print job and the payment but does not print anything.

Technology Integrated Services, IST (Steven Bourque)

  • Posted an RFP for the VPN replacement; closes next week.
  • Rogers internet feed is being physically installed right now; should be provisioned by the end of the month, tested and then brought online.

Arts (Bill Baer)

  • IST is doubling the bandwidth capacity for the Stratford campus since it hit its capacity on the first full day of classes this fall.
  • Reaching out to uPrint to discuss potentially using it for staff and faculty.
  • Will be starting as the President of the Staff Association as of October 27; secondment created for my position during this time.

Client Services, IST (Andrew McAlorum)

  • Launched the IST newsletter today, please check it out and let us know what you think.
  • Discussion recently at the Web Steering Committee regarding faculty representation on the committee.
    • Have previously had representation by Associate Deans of Computing but they have only typically attended a meeting or two.
  • Released Office 365 for staff and faculty; have not promoted it very much yet but there have already been 1000 accounts activated.
    • Bruce Campbell has asked me to lead an Office 365 advancement team.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held on October 26, 2017 at 1:30pm, in EC2 1021.