A (10 Mins) Review of budget process and set calendar for Spring 2000 meetings to work on budget for 2000/2001. Bring your calendars.

B (5 Mins) Announcement of IT workshop/retreat for the science division and plans for similar meetings for humanities and social sciences.

C (60 Mins) Strategic Plan (due 1/10/2000).

C-1 Background on University plan and the computing plan.

C-2 Items for discussion:

A. Plan for Spring 2000

The agreed-upon meeting dates and times for Spring 2000 are as follows:

January 28, 2:15 - 3:30

February 11, 2:15 - 3:30

February 25, 2:15 - 3:30

March 24, 2:15 - 3:30

April 28, 2:15 - 3:30

The two meetings for February are during periods of high budget activity, although only one meeting might actually be needed.

A subcommittee comprised of Melissa, Jim Siedow, David Smith, and Phil Morgan agreed to meet over lunch in January to update the category assignments for the Computer User's Survey.

B. IT Workshops

The IT workshop for the science division takes place on February 4. Karla Holloway, Melissa, and other deans are working on similar workshops for the Social Science and Humanities divisions. The committee agrees these workshops could be very productive and useful, as there are many important issues in common across departments within each of the three divisions.

C. Planning

Melissa gave an overview of the planning process, both short-term and long-term. She noted in particular the importance of supporting graduate student computing, which is not explicitly recognized in the current budget formulas though adjustments are made for departments with extensive computer use by graduate students. She also apprised the committee on the status of security, hardware support, and the broad model for user support. She distributed a "Fuzzy Diagram" that depicts all aspects of Computing Support for Arts and Sciences.

The committee received a new set of Standards for Media-Equipped Classrooms. These standards are quite detailed and will form the basis for a new plan for IT in the classroom. The new plan replaces an old inventory model that simply classifies classrooms on a coarse 1-2-3 scale for audio/visual suitability. The committee was generally quite positive about the new standards and approved them by consensus. Some faculty remain concerned about the potential for unneeded equipment lying idle in classrooms, when the funds could have been used for other purposes. Implementation of the new standards should be on a watchful cost-effective basis.

The budget model based on responses to the Computer Users's Survey will still determine departmental allocations of computer funds. The budget model computes a required level of funding for each department. This requirement, after some minor adjustments for unforeseen anomalies, is an effective tool for making departmental computer needs known to administrators and for allocating funds across departments once the funding levels are set by the administration. The committee needs to address the issues of the appropriate ways to work graduate support and departmental clusters directly into the budget model and the final departmental allocation.

George Tauchen adjourned the committee meeting at 3:15. This meeting is the last of his term as chair, which began in 1996-97. Jim Siedow takes over effective January 2000.