AITAP Meeting

June 10, 2008

 

Attendees: Michael Quiner, Kathy Yeager, Varga Fox, Mary Luckstead.

 

VoIP Update

           

All admin offices are now using the VoIP phones, except for the Division offices, which are in academic buildings. Academic buildings are being upgraded now.  Olin will be done this week and Hall of Science next week.

 

Datatel Secure Telnet

 

Have had mixed success with this Datatel Secure Telnet. Varga & Tyson are having trouble. WCTS is still working on that. Unchecking the ‘secure’ box at log in work, but it is unsecured and eventually it will all be secure. Half the time it works for Michael Quiner, just have to keep trying it, and it seems to eventually work.

 

About 3 to 4 months out from moving from Unidata to SQL. Ken Paine had to go through and clean up everything to get set up for SQL. It’s all cleaned up and starting to move stuff in. It should be ready before the end of the calendar year.

 

Equipment Replacement

 

Replacement for administrative staff will be in the fall and spring. WCTS replaces academic machines during the summer. However, if there are problems with administrative machines, they will be replaced rather than trying to fix them.

 

WCTS tries to take any machine that’s 4 years old or older out of service, this doesn’t mean that they are replaced with brand new machines, just want to get the oldest stuff out. Can reallocate machines within departments if that’s what is wanted, i.e. Student machines don’t have to be brand new.

 

Printers? Admission has a really old printer. Don’t have a lot of money to replace printers. If Rick Fletcher has to work on a printer and determines that the printer is too old to fix, it will be replaced. Michael Quiner doesn’t actually schedule replacement for printers.

 

Pandemic Tool

 

The College is gearing up for an avian flu pandemic. WCTS is working on a program to track staff when they are home sick or taking care of people who are sick. Not tracking traveling staff. This is more of a thing to track Whitman staff so that Cindy Waring will be able to tell departments who is out sick. Michael Quiner is going to need some people to test it to see how workable it’s going to be. How often should someone go on and track their status, etc. as not everyone has access from home. It’s been given to Michael Quiner as a priority. It’s not a question of ‘if’, but when the pandemic will get here. There are 7 documented cases of the avian flu world wide. Masks keep you from giving it to someone else, but not contracting it… a mask, unless sealed properly, won’t keep you from breathing the contagions in.

 

 

 

VPN Access

 

Virtual Private Network, which is used to work from home. It basically assigns you an IP address like you are on campus, so you can access applications from off campus. This will be helpful for off site staff. In the sense of a pandemic this would be very useful. A lot of companies are moving towards telecommuting to save on operating costs. We are trying to set it up so it’s an option for people to work more from home. Testing it with a couple of people in Admission and a couple of people on campus. Putting Varga on the list.

 

Scanning for Sensitive Data

 

About a year ago WCTS scanned all data for sensitive information such as SS numbers and will do it about once a year. If SS numbers and other sensitive data gets out we’re at risk, and we’re doing everything that can be done to protect it. Going to start looking at encrypting data stored on the K drive. Have to have SS numbers for Financial Aid and Payroll. The government shouldn’t be using SS numbers as identifiers, but still do. There is discussion of moving to other identifiers such as name and birth date. Will scan and give departments a report to make them aware of sensitive data they have stored.

 

WCTS Staffing

 

Bryan Lubbers has been hired as the Academic Consultant in Maxey, which is a brand new position. Claudia Jones is the new Academic Consultant in Olin. WCTS is in the process of hiring a new IT Consultant. Tristan Rupert is moving from part-time to full-time Consultant in IMS. Jon Loney is replacing Richard Sackett as IMS Manager.  Michael Quiner has put in a request for a new position in his area.

 

Pay Advices – Online/Emailed

 

Datatel has tools so that we can put pay advices (pay stubs) on line or send them via email. If email is an option, do we need to have them available on line? Kathy Yeager wants it to be clean in Datatel, don’t want to have to make changes every time there’s an update. Sensitive information has already been deleted from pay stubs. Email might be easier since people won’t remember to check online. Michael Quiner said they will work on getting them emailed out since that might be a simpler solution.

 

Flex Spending is separate and that pay stub would still be sent campus mail.

 

Addition to Standardized Image

 

When we deliver a new machine it comes with a standard image of software. Some other programs are needed. Power Archiver is needed for paymentnet for example. Another web browser, i.e. Netscape.