Faculty & Staff
Self Governance » Technology Committee
Minutes
Thursday December 9, 2004 2:00 PM
Attending:
Kathleen Henson, Sara Brouse (by teleconference), Rhonda Akins (late-excused), Eugene Shek, Michael Veronin, David Watson, Brad Stanford (by teleconference)
Absent:
Patrick King, Neels Van der Schyf (excused), Brian Burleson
Kathleen Henson: Opened the meeting at 2:00 pm
Approval of the previous minutes was tabled till next meeting due to unavailability.
David Watson: Technology update. Purpose of this committee is to make recommendations for technology upgrades. In the past, funds were divided among the faculty and each faculty had the choice of how to spend their allocation. David suggested a strategy to essentially update all computers every 4 years by updating/replacing approximately 25% per year. Preliminary research was done by sending out a query to all faculty members asking for specks on their computers. There are two main ways to rank this information; 1) by processor and 2) by memory. David created a spreadsheet, see attached, categorizing each computer and grouping as "A", "B", or "C" in order of need. Computer services said each computer needs to be running at 512 MHz in order to properly run necessary software. Most faculty in the "A" and "B" can be up to speed by the purchase of 30 to 40 256 MHz sticks totaling around $3,000 to $4,000. We should expect to pay an average of $1,500 for each new PC.
Questions and Answers continued including Mac upgrades, PC's vs. Laptops vs. use, departmental responsibilities, and new hires.
The committee came to an overall consensus to use David's strategy and will be sending out upgrade recommendations to each department requesting feedback that will be used to assess which computers will be upgraded first. Recommendations to the dean need to be in by February 28th.
Other topics included the need for 3 more loaner laptops in Dallas. Computer services is also requesting to work with Dell to create a specialized, pre-configured computer that students will be able to purchase for a very competitive price. It will be highly recommended but can not be a requirement.
Next meeting will be tentatively moved to January 26, 2005 @ 2:00 pm.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:50 pm.