MEETING MINUTES

 

Present: Eric Brewer, Robert Buchele, Glenn Ellis, Thomas Laughner, Eric Loehr, Katwiwa Mule, Herb Nickles, Nicholas Russell

 

Absent:  Nicholas Howe, Alan Marvelli, Charles Staelin

 

Guest: Barbara Pliska

 

 

Minutes of October 20, 2006

 

The minutes of the October 20th meeting were approved with minor edits from Tom Laughner with regard to the NITLE funded visit to the University of Puget Sound.

 

FCAP computer configuration recommendations for next year – Barbara Pliska

 

Barbara Pliska, Manager of Smith Computer Store, gave the committee handouts with the current bulk buy Apple and Dell desktops and laptops for consideration next year.  Dell has a new 745 which has 2Gb RAM included; Barbara asked the committee if they might want all FCAP machines to come equipped with 2GB RAM.  If Parallels is going to become standard on campus, 2GB RAM will be necessary.  The other issue is that most faculty members are asking for 20” monitors rather than the 17” FCAP standard. The FCAP budget is $176,000 this year and increasing the computer standards means decreasing the number of computers available for faculty upgrades.  Eric Brewer said that he feels all new computers should have 2GB RAM.  The committee requested that Kate Etzel, Director of User Support Services, supply them with a new distribution list so that they will have a better idea of the replacement costs.  Mule asked if it would be possible to look at the costs of including tablets on the standards list of options.

 

 

 

 

CET grant initiative requests

 

1)                     Sam Intrator & Don Siegel – their request for 4 handheld video cameras for Project Coach was approved for $4,600.00 with the understanding that the equipment would be the property of the CMP (Center for Media Production) and would be loaned to them for the academic year and then returned as Smith inventory and to be serviced at year end.

2)                   Ellen Kaplan – this request for digital audio recorders for the AIDS Radio Project was increased in order to purchase 4 recorders with the same understanding that this will be considered Smith property to be returned to the CMP at the end of the academic year and held for loan to other programs.  The request for funding for audio editing software was not approved as it was agreed that there is a lot of free software available.  The ETS will work with Ellen to identify software that will work for her program.  The committee approved $1685.94 for audio recorders and microphones.

3)                   Thomas Ciufo – this request for 6 portable flash recorders, microphones, speakers, audio interface, and production software was approved for $6,200.00.  His request for funding to purchase an Apple computer and monitor was not approved as it was determined that there are existing computers that could be beefed up to meet his needs.  Tom Laughner will work with Tom to make this purchase and to use Tom’s expertise to purchase the digital audio recorders requested in the first two requests.

4)                   Robert Newton – his request for upgrading the software being used in the Campus Pond Data Monitoring Project was approved for $195.00.

5)                   Jon Caris – this request for a 42” scanner, stand, warranty, and operating software was approved for $12,720.00.  The committee agreed that departments should be encouraged to view grant funded equipment as Smith property available for everyone’s use when not being directly used by the requesting department.

6)                   Mary Harrington – this request for a laptop PC computer to be used for fMRI experiments in the Psychology department was not funded as the committee did not feel there was an appropriate need.     

 

 

Report from the Director of ETS – Tom Laughner

 

Tom spoke about the issue of privacy in Moodle; he said that very little valuable information could be gathered by monitoring student logins to the course management system as you wouldn’t know how long they were logged on.

He also told the committee that on November 30th there would be an avant garde play from China being performed via Internet II to Notre Dame and Smith and he encouraged anyone interested to attend.

 

There being no further time for discussion, the meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.  The next meeting of CET will be December 8th in Stoddard Hall G4 conference room.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Constance McGinn, recorder