Attendance: Bazewicz, Candiotti (chair), Erb, Huber, Pollock, Stam, Yardley

Guests: Jen Christ, Neil Manegold, Laura Sanders

 The meeting came to order at 12:05 p.m. in the President’s Dining Room.  The minutes of
the November 6 meeting were accepted as written.  Alan Candiotti introduced Jen Christ and
Neil Manegold, the co-chairs of the SGA Technology Committee who had responded to the
committee’s invitation to come and discuss student issues.  The presidents of the Graduate and
Theological Student Associations had also been invited, but declined.  They are interested in
keeping up with the minutes of the meetings.

 The main issue that Jen and Neil addressed was training for students.  Both of them work
at the Aide Station and are aware of training issues both as students and as part of the student
support staff.  They urged that training in the use of the network occur as early as possible after
students arrive and that as much information about using the network as possible be disseminated
during the orientation week.  They also reinforced the idea that training and support were related
and that effect training made software and network support more tractable.  The committee
discussed the issue and some members suggested that training might include some self paced
problem sets.

 Neil asked about the schedule for changing the e-mail system.  Alan responded that a
committee to recommend a new e-mail system, chaired by Scott Wood, would begin meeting in a
few days and would attempt to oversee a participatory evaluation process and make a
recommendation by the end of December.  That would allow migration to the new e-mail system
for faculty, staff and continuing students, along with appropriate training, to begin in the spring.
Neil noted a concern among members of the junior class in the College that they would have to
pay for network cards while later classes received them with their computer packages.  Alan
mentioned that the price of computers had dropped enough between 1996 and later years that it
was possible to include the network card in the price of the package in 1997 and 1998, but not in
1996.  With network cards becoming necessary for connectivity to University computing systems
after July 1, 1999, we hope to offer continuing students an option to lease the cards from the
spring of 1999 through graduation on favorable terms.  Finally, Neil and Jen mentioned mediated
classrooms as a technology priority for students, and observed that they thought they learned
more and enjoyed classes more when faculty took advantage of the network and classroom
mediation.

 Alan introduced Laura Sanders, the Director of Human Resources, who responded to the
committee’s invitation to discuss staff issues related to technology.  Laura mentioned the
replacement of the administrative system as an important issue that would affect the working
conditions and productivity of many staff members.  She then also discussed training issues,
especially for new staff members.  The committee discussed with Laura the desirability of having
required basic training in technology for new staff members, scheduled on a regular basis, and
including a certification that the staff member had completed the training which would be kept
on file.  Laura also discussed the desirability of listing required technology skills in job
descriptions and having a standard categorization of technology skills required, from basic level
to more specialized levels, that could be referenced in job descriptions and recruitment
documents.  She also discussed with the committee the desirability of a more thorough
orientation in technology for managers.  Finally, she mentioned the need to have a coordinated
system of accounts which would indicate who works in which departments and be up-to-date
with actual personnel.  The committee discussed the desirability of having such accounts
authenticated through the network so that it would be possible to make additions and deletions in
one place that would be effective for all accounts pertaining to an individual.

 The meeting was adjourned at 1:20 p.m. and the next meeting was scheduled for Friday,
December 4 at noon (later rescheduled for Thursday, December 3 at noon.)