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.