Technology Committee

 

Meeting Minutes

Columbia College

October 11, 2007 – Tamarack Hall Staff Room

 

Attendance: Wendy Link, Fred Grolle, Ryan Brady, Marty Gang, Melissa Colon, Josh Bigelow, Ida Ponder, Robert Gritz, Tim Elizondo, Mike Torok, Laurie Sylwester, Nate Rien, Rick Rivera  

 

1.      Computer Replacement Plan

a.       Fred presented the new Computer Replacement Tier Schedule. The tiers have been simplified and renumber to Tier I, II, III and IV.

b.      A list of the number of computers and their location for those computers that are out of date was included in the document provided by Fred.  It is recommended that the following are replaced in the next replacement cycle:

                                                  i.      21 Computers for Fir 1 Lab

                                                ii.      ITC computers after consultation with Melissa Colon

                                              iii.      40 Library Student use computers

                                              iv.      34 computers from Tier III

                                                v.      3 network servers

 

2.      Status of Printers and Monitors

a.       Many printers are out of date and failing.

                                                  i.      30 DeskJet printers need immediate replacement

                                                ii.      5 LaserJet printers need immediate replacement

b.      Secure centralized print options should be explored where feasible and instructor/staff support for such the shared printing paradigm is supported.

c.       Some CRT monitors are still in use and should be replaced with LCD monitors

                                                  i.      40 LCD monitors should be purchased to replace the CRT monitors

 

3.      Technology Consultant Visit – Schedule Times to Meet

a.       The consultant hired to help draft the new Information Technology Plan (Chris Martin from Northwest University) will be on campus Monday, October 15, in the morning to meet with staff and faculty to gather information. Those who want to meet with Chris, please contact Marty to arrange for an appointment. Chris will also meet with central service IT personnel in the afternoon. If you are unable to meet on that day, please send thoughts or comments via email to Marty.

 

4.       ITC Report – Melissa Colon

a.       Things are going well. Will plan to do an open house in the near future to educate Faculty and Staff as to the activities and equipment available.

 

5.      Distance Education Report – Melissa Colon and Marty Gang

a.       On Friday, October 5th, Melissa, Marty, Dr. Smith, the administrative team and other Columbia personnel met with the Title III Grant Writer. The Title III grant will focus on Distance Ed for Columbia College. We broke up in groups to brainstorm strengths, weaknesses and needs in 3 areas, instructional, administrative, and fiscal. From this brainstorming objective and goals were identified.

b.      The next DE Committee Meeting will be when we can schedule time with Pat James, the DE Plan Consultant. We need additional A&S committee participants.

 

6.      Student Email Update and Possible Policy Considerations (Marty and Susan)

 

a.       Student email is being tested by a wider group, including students, starting next week and will be available in the Spring semester. However, it will not be publicized and formally introduced to students until the Summer 2008. Instructors who wish to introduce their class to students email can contact Marty Gang for information on participation in the Spring pilot for students.

b.      Central Services IT is working to include the office student.yosemite.edu email address on the class rosters sheets.

c.       Currently Central Services IT and Columbia College have no process to easily automatically create distribution lists for classes. Therefore, if an instructor wants a distribution list for their class they will have to create the list themselves. It was pointed out by one instructor that this would place an undue burden on the instructors and would cause many to not use student email. We should encourage central services IT to explore alternative that will automate a course list for student email addresses so that instructors will be able to easily communicate with their classes

 

7.      Additional Items

 

 

NEXT MEETING DATE:  October 25, 2007, 1:00-2:00 P.M., Manzanita 18-1, Community Education Room

 

 

Computer Tiers Document

Report from Fred Grolle

 

October 10, 2007

 

Computer Tiers – Best Case Replacement Schedule

 

 

Replace           Tier 1: Computers that should not be over 2 years old

 

21                    Fir 1 lab (21 each)

1                      Jeff Tolhurst (1 each)

10                    HTC (10 each)

1                      Kelley Marshall (1 each)

5 pc, 4 lap        ITC (10 pc & 6 laptops)

                        Sequoia 8 lab (28 each)

 

Tier 2: Computers that should not be over 3 years old

 

40                    Library Student Use lab (80 each)

                        Fir 4 lab (24 each)

Computer Science Instructors (4 each)

                        Buckeye 4 lab (28 each)

                        Buckeye 4 Instructors (2 each)

1                      AAC lab (10 each)

21                    ATTC lab (21 each)

                        IMC (2 each)

                        Technology & Media Services Staff (4 each)

11 lap              Technology & Media Services laptops (20 each)

           

Tier 3: Computers that should not be over 4 years old

 

34                    Remaining computer labs (roughly 85 each)

6                      Network Servers (11 each)

99  pc              Bulk of Faculty, Staff, Admin & others (roughly 175 pc & 30 laptops)

 

Tier 4: Computers that can be as old as the hills

 

                                Tear apart computers in Fir 4 and Cisco lab

                        Doorstops

 

 

 

Printer and Monitor Status

Report from Fred Grolle

 

October 10, 2007

 

Printer Replacement

 

Columbia College has about 190 printers which serve our students, faculty, staff and administrators.  Nearly half of our printers are old, slow and increasingly defective.  These printers waste our time and resources.  It would be a good idea to begin replacing some of our printers each year just as we replace some of our computers each year.

 

We currently have about 90 desk jet printers and 15 laser printers that are more than 5 years old.  Rather than replace them all this year, we could replace a third of them each year, targeting the worst of the worst for replacement.

 

We could start with the DeskJet 670’s which print at a blazing 3 pages/minute black and 1 page/minute color … if they print at all.  We could replace the printers as they break, run out of ink, or as needed.  We should purchase 30 of them in bulk to save us the expense and bother of ordering one at a time. 

 

Old laser printers are found in our computer labs as well as in some of our offices.  They are not nearly as slow as the old desk jet printers but are starting to fail … they need to be replaced before they fail.  We should purchase 5 laser printers and replace the worst out there.

 

 

 

CRT Monitor Replacement

 

We have replaced nearly all the old, big, desk-space-wasting, energy-wasting computer CRT monitors with flat panel displays.  The only lab left with CRT’s  is Calaveras and there are also a few CRT’s scattered about our campus.  We should finish the job by purchasing 40 more flat panel displays which will replace them all.