ITAC
March 7, 2000
I. We looked at the "Dell?s Deals" document from Eric Evans, which describes how we approach recommending a computer for students to purchase. Eric proposes that we recommend only Dell units. The Compaq computers that the university buys for its own use are generally not available from retail or on-line-order channels. It was noted that the Dell University Program entails no formal contractual arrangement. The main benefit to Denison is having the entire software image loaded prior to delivery. IRAB gave the plan an "OK to Proceed" pending confirmation with President Knobel.
II. It has been proposed that the annual Summer Workshop for Faculty be aimed more at using CourseInfo than at desktop applications. It was noted that a collateral benefit of this plan would result in more courses on the web for students.
III. We quickly looked over the EDUCAUSE Guide to Evaluating Information Technology on Campus and agreed to read our way through it at the next meeting. The plan is to produce a Denison specific response to the question and publish it on our website for interested prospective students and their parents.
IV. The latest version of the computing equipment requests/budget was looked at briefly. At the next meeting we hope to agree upon projects that are top priority (and those that might be lowest priority) in order to get the approved requests closer to the likely budget total (determined at the April Board of Trustees meeting) - tentatively 900K$, 1.1M$ if the amount for the Knapp Lab(s) is included.
The possibility of moving to a 3-year replacement cycle for student lab computers was discussed. A modified version of the computing equipment budget Summary page was distributed. It includes a new column that puts a "3" in for the number of years in the formula for replacement cost in the A and H-Pool rows. The result is that the annual replacement costs, the minimum starting point for building the annual budget, goes from $ 757,200 to $ 824,900, an increase of $ 67,700 (+8.9%).
While there was sympathy for the need to replace computers after the 3rd year in the Economics, Math and Modern Language labs (the major items on this year?s list), the suggestion that we treat these request as exceptions to the standing 4-year replacement plan (for now) seemed to attain consensus approval.