Technology Advisory Committee Minutes
November
1, 2007=
WCC 219 – 3:00 pm
Members Prese=
nt: Mark Jordano, Laurie Bednar, Micha=
el
O’Neill, Tim Downs, Ken Brundage, Cindy Duda, Susan Grande, Nick Pron=
ko, Jay
DiFrank, John Crandall, Jeff Taylor, Theresa Vitolo, Emma Donathen, Andrew
Voytko, Jessica Wilkes-Mobley
Members Excus=
ed: Val Bacik, Carolynn Masters, Ward
McCracken
Guests: L=
auren
Foltz (representation Val Bacik), Tex Brieger (representing Virginia Arp)
Approval of <=
st1:date
Year=3D"2007" Day=3D"4" Month=3D"10" ls=3D"trans" w:st=3D"on">October 4, 20=
07
Minutes (action)=
John motioned to approve the minutes as written and Ken
seconded them. All were in fa=
vor
with one abstention.
Recording Ind=
ustry of
America Action at Allegheny College (informational)
Mark tabled this until the next TAC
meeting.
Presentation =
of Plan
Ideas (informational)
Mark distributed a hand-out of the unit plan ideas to =
be
prioritized
- Electronic Forms – Jay
DiFrank – This will implement an electronic University wide on-l=
ine
forms system to alleviate forms being printed,
completed by hand, faxed, etc. It is to be used by internal and extern=
al
constituents with rule-based document routing and approval. This would be helpful in deal=
ing
with employee applications and have the ability to review and sign
documents electronically. Mark
asked if it is one solution and Jay answered that he is trying to find=
one
vendor that can do it all.
John checked with Novis thatcan just do applicant tracking and Image Now=
is
good at collecting documents. John stated that any forms on campus can
flow through this system. He will be doing further investigation on Im=
age
Now.
- Additional Help Desk Staffing
– Mark explained that this position is vacant. This is a request for a second
position who ideally will help in who will
address ITS issues with the goal of having nearly all calls answered b=
y a
professional, full-time staff member instead of students. Laurie asked how this will be
funded and Mark said it will need recurring funds. =
TAC
funds won’t be used. He just wanted TAC̵=
7;s
endorsement. Theresa asked what degree is expected and Mark said a
Bachelor’s is preferred, but an Associate Degree is OK.
- Imaging of Admissions Applicatio=
ns and
Supporting Credentials – Laurie explained that this initiati=
ve
would serve as an electronic filing system, cutting down on the amount=
of
physical storage of files and reduce the risk of lost files. It would =
give
the recruitment people ability to access files on the road. Theresa asked if the system w=
ould
be available for transcript viewing for department heads and Laurie
answered yes. Laurie sta=
ted
that this would start with the freshman population.
- Colleague Advancement –
Cindy Duda- This a new release of Benefactor which is integrated with
every component of Colleague.
To maintain current functionality, University Advancement must
implement the Colleague Advancement base solution and three optional
modules. This has to be done by July 2010. Datate=
l
said that several people go for training, not just one. They are looking for TAC endorsement.
- Financial Aid – EVA On-Line
application and Datatel Interface R=
11;
John said that this will allow prospective students to enter their
financial information and apply for Early Version Awards online and
interface the information submitted into Datatel<=
/span>
without data entry to expedite the process for early awarding. This al=
so
will allow our financial aid office to go out earlier than a lot of ot=
her
schools. You can apply online as well.
- Expand Lab Replacement Cycle
– Mark – This initiative allows us to replace PAC 2008 with
PAC 2023 to expand the number of lab PCs available to students and
faculty, and provide a larger space for teaching and/or on-line
testing. It will now inc=
lude
expanding the replacement cycle for carpet, tables, chairs, etc. Mark =
is
asking for TAC endorsem=
ent.
This initiative will need funds every year.
- Music Download Service ̵=
1;
Mark explained this was left over
from last
year. Several colleges provide
students the capability to download music and/or videos because it is enter=
tainment
desired by students and it discourages illegal downloading. Students can listen to music at no
charge. They pay to copy to a CD or MP3 player. Andrew asked which songs wo=
uld
they put on and Mark answered that he didn’t know. Jessica stated that this would be =
easier
for someone who is not download savvy.
- Ten new PCs to Support the Stude=
nt Telecounseling Program – Laurie –
Currently much of the valuable information gained from prospective
students is lost when it is summarized and entered into Datatel days later. This initiative would allow =
Telecounselors to record more details from the
conversation as well as access information from any previous interacti=
on
with that prospect. They have researched three vendors. They are asking
for ten PCs. John asked =
where
they would be located and Laurie said there is space in the basement of
GTNK. He also asked about replacement costs and she said they would be
replaced with the Admissions budget. The IT budget money would replace
them every five years. Cindy asked if all ten students work at the same
time and Laurie answered, sometime.&n=
bsp;
- Name to Address Verification sof=
tware –
Cindy in Development Services is requesting funding to purchase QAS
Quick-Address Names which is an add-on module to the QuickAddress
Pro desktop product purchased in 07-08. QuickAdd=
ress
Names provides name data to the product so that we can verify the addr=
ess
accuracy and format and make sure the address is for the right person.
Cindy stated that the cost may be $1000 instead of $2000. She will look
into that.
- Documentation Management and
Distribution – John explained that the completion of the IPM=
has
highlighted a need to be able to effectively provide on-line access to
up-to-date documents while providing a means to manage the revision
process. The University =
needs
this and ranks this as a high priority.
- Survey Creation/Management Tool =
–
John told the committee that we need a solution to do surveys. We
don’t have a University answer to do this. An ideal solution allows user=
s to
create surveys with a variety of question types easily, administer the
survey to Gannon and non-Gannon participants via the web with built-in
means to capture and analyze the results.
- Course Schedule Optimization –
Theresa told the committee that the TLTR discussed the benefit of havi=
ng a
system that departments could use to ensure they are offering the right
number of course/sections and at the right times to enable students ne=
eded
to progress toward graduation.
Theresa asked if the committee thinks that this is valuable for
support.
Mark asked the
committee if there were any other ideas.
Tex Brieger stated that the TLTR are investigating webinar software and webinar
capability. That became unit =
plan
#344.
Tim is asking for funding for multi-media studio PCs.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The Communication Arts Department =
has a
lab and this request of PCs is not in anyone’s budget. He would like to upgrade the lab; =
it
needs thirteen computers to start with to use digital cameras and have the
ability to edit digital photos.
Mike asked if this is a one time expense, and Tim answered it would =
be
every five years. Mark added that in the past, grant dollars were used to f=
und
this. The cost is between $13,000 and $15,000.
That became unit plan #345.
Mark then instructed the committee to prioritize the u=
nit
plans with the number five being the most important, on down to the number =
one,
being the least important.
He asked the committee to think about meeting two week=
s from
today, which would be November 15th, to discuss further all the =
unit
plans.
The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm.