Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

August 16, 2002

Committee oversees campus information technology

by Linda Charles
Whether it's wired or wireless, if it has to do with information technology, the Information Technology Steering Committee will be involved.

The committee, which has broad representation across campus, works closely with various university units to develop information technology strategies and policies.

"The committee collects information in a variety of ways to ensure the most broad-based input on campus information technology issues," said John Kingland, committee member and director of telecommunications. "The committee comes together regularly to deal with the ongoing issues facing our information technology environment."

Recent issues have included:

A wireless policy. "Wireless computing is an emerging technology," said Dorothy Lewis, director of academic information technologies and also a member of the committee. "With any technology in this stage of development, there are a number of options and formats available, some of which are incompatible with each other." Telecommunications Office staff worked closely with the committee to develop policies for wireless computing that will reduce potential problems, Lewis noted.
Wiring standards. Though wireless networking will provide flexibility and convenience, the wired network will continue to be the "workhorse," Lewis said. During the past year, the committee reviewed wiring standards proposed by telecommunications staff that call for the most up-to-date materials and a wiring strategy that will provide extended capacity for the near term and be easier and more cost-effective to update.
Electronic class lists. The project puts current information on class enrollment at the faculty's fingertips, Lewis said. "Just as soon as the initial version of the electronic class list system was in place, faculty were there to recommend enhancements." In response, electronic class lists now include student pictures, Lewis said, allowing faculty to match names to faces before the semester begins.
Internet 2. Known also as the "research network," the concept was started by a consortium of universities, industry and government organizations to develop and use advanced network applications, Lewis said. While primarily used for research, Internet 2 can be used for other non-commercial network traffic. Last year, Internet 2 was expanded and the committee recently supported an upgrade that facilitates the flow of research traffic between Iowa State and the University of Iowa.
E-mail and electronic document back-up policy. The committee recently established a policy setting one year as the maximum amount of time to keep backups of e-mail and electronic documents. "It is important to note that this policy relates specifically to backup copies of files -- in other words, how long we keep the media necessary to restore e-mail and other files in case of an infrastructure failure," Lewis said. "It is not intended to affect e-mail or files that are saved intentionally by a user for long-term use or archival purposes."
Mass e-mail. The committee developed a set of mass e-mail guidelines and encouraged the development of an alternative to multiple mass e-mails on campus -- the implementation of the new electronic digest, "Inside Update," which is sent weekly to all faculty and staff.
Desktop computer standards. The standards recommend a minimum configuration for new PCs and provide a cutoff point for support of older equipment. "Together, the two standards are intended to reduce costs and improve desktop computing," Lewis said.
Microsoft campus agreement. Last August, the university signed an agreement that provides access to the most up-to-date versions of Microsoft software products, such as Microsoft Office or Windows. All university-owned equipment falls under the agreement, which provides updates of Microsoft products as often as wanted or needed to take advantage of new features or remain compatible with other products.

The committee also is involved in several new or continuing projects, said committee member Maury Hope, director of the Administrative Data Processing Center. These include:

University portal. "Initially, the primary audience for a portal is our students," Hope said. "A portal will provide a way for students to find available resources in an organized fashion and provide a method to deploy new services. Later versions of the university portal can be customized to the needs of other groups, including faculty, staff, alumni and other audiences." The Portal Task Force, a subgroup of the committee, is guiding the design of the portal.
Laptop computer initiative. The colleges of Design and Education have led the way by offering laptops to students in specific programs, Hope said. This fall, the committee will facilitate discussions among faculty, students and others to assess the feasibility of a campus-wide laptop program.
Monitoring progress. An important task for the committee is to continue monitoring progress on 44 goals involving information technology in the 2001-2003 information technology strategic plan. Evaluating projects and setting priorities has become even more important under the current budget constraints, Hope noted.

Additional information on committee membership, policies and current initiatives is available on the committee's Web site, http://www.provost.iastate.edu/itsc.