McNeese State University

Call to Order
T.J. Moore called the meeting to order at 2:30pm. Members present were
Morgan Verrette, Timothy Rye, Raphiel Heard, John O’Donnell, Bill Mungai,
Dr. Nikos Kirtisis and Dennis Stutes.
Members absent were Clayton Moreau, Dr. Todd Furman and Chad Thibodeaux.
Others in attendance were Bobby McLean and Brenda Gallow.

Minutes
Morgan Verrette motioned to accept the 11APR08 minutes. Tim Rye seconded.
The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

CITO Update
Dennis Stutes introduced himself as the Interim CITO.

Old Business
Other Departments:
Bookstore ($1,323.80) – Tim Rye wondered why the Bookstore needs a computer-what are the computer labs for? He felt the computer would be for faculty use rather than student use. After a brief discussion, Tim Rye motioned to deny the Bookstore request.
Raphiel Heard seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Library ($14,635.00) – Morgan Verrette pointed out this proposal was turned in late. Bill Mungai wondered how old the computers are. Morgan stated the Library is funded by the University plus they get an access fee. After some discussion, Raphiel Heard motioned to deny the Library proposal. Tim Rye seconded. The committee discussed further. Dr. Kirtisis suggested notifying the Library they were denied due to proposal being turned in late and not because of the request. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

University Police ($53,011.00) – After a brief discussion Morgan Verrette motioned to approve the University Police proposal. John O’Donnell seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Big Ticket Ideas/Proposals
The committee discussed the idea of an observatory and decided not to pursue at this time.

Biology ($76,211.00) – The committee discussed. Dr. Kiritsis pointed out the proposal was not prepared as required, while all other issuers followed the required format. Tim Rye stated this is not what he considers a “big ticket” item. Dr. Kiritsis wondered what the relation is between Biology and Agriculture. T.J. Moore clarified what he felt the relation is. T.J. said some of the environmental labs are in the Biology bldg.

The committee decided to move on to the next request.

Div. of Student Affairs and Dept. of Student Services ($94,138.57) - Tim Rye believes by putting access tvs in the dorm lobbies, someone will mess them up. Morgan feels the tvs are very beneficial, but are not being used to the fullest potential to warrant purchasing this many more at this time. Bill Mungai said there is training going on right now with the Offices of Media Services and Image Marketing. Bill said there are plans to put more information on them in the very near future. Tim thinks the committee needs to let the offices be trained and see to what potential the access tvs are used before purchasing more. Tim Rye motioned to deny the Div. of Student Affairs and Dept.of Student Services proposal. Raphiel Heard seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Write to Excellence ($74,056.00) – Raphiel Heard does not see the need for the request of 3 digital cameras (item 8). Raphiel said cameras can be rented for free on campus. Similarly, he does not see the need for 10 video I-pods (item 11). He thinks this many is unnecessary. T.J. Moore thinks these I-pods will go missing very quickly, no matter what type of security is used. Bill Mungai wondered who will do all the editing work.

Morgan Verrette motioned for the meeting to continue pass 3:00pm. Tim Rye seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Write to Excellence continued--
John O’Donnell proposed making podcasts for students who already have I-pods instead of purchasing so many and wondered why they are requesting an HDTV when the video cameras can’t record in HD. The committee agreed this is a great idea, but did have a number of concerns regarding the large amount of equipment they are requesting. John O’Donnell suggested Dennis contact the writers of this proposal with the recommendation to re-submit (and what to request) in the Fall with the new TASC committee. After a bit more discussion, Raphiel Heard motioned to deny the Write to Excellence proposal. Tim Rye seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Educational Leadership and Instructional Technology ($55,436.76) – the committee discussed the software requested. Bill Mungai wondered if there is a standard for the Adobe software used on campus. Tim Rye stated TASC does not normally provide licenses for Adobe. Tim feels this request should have been part of the College of Education proposal. He said in his opinion this is not a “big ticket” item. The committee agreed the computers do need update, but this request should be a part of the College of Education proposal. Tim suggested the committee define what “big ticket” items specifically are. He said it looks like the departments are just submitting additional proposals to try and get more than their allotted $50,000.

Morgan Verrette suggested moving on to the next proposal.

Bobby McLean asked if it would be appropriate to define “big ticket”.
T.J. Moore responded the committee would have to define “big ticket” for the last meeting in order to put in as one of the by-laws to be set in place for future committees.

Performing Arts/Visual Arts ($118,941.00) – Dennis Stutes stated this proposal is very well presented and laid-out. Tim Rye restated, as in the other proposals, this request is also upgrading a computer lab. Bill Mungai stated this computer lab is unlike the others because it is a high-end graphics lab, different that just upgrading a computer lab. Tim Rye agreed. After some more discussion, the committee agreed to review all other proposals before voting to approve.

Financial Aid ($8,871.00) – The committee discussed the type of computers at Financial Aid but agreed this proposal is not a “big ticket” item. After a brief discussion, John O’Donnell motioned to deny the Financial Aid proposal. Raphiel Heard seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

College-of-Engineering ($268,000.00) – There was a brief discussion and Dr. Kirtisis revised his bid to request the following equipment: 1) Continuous Distillation Pilot Plant, 2) Aerobic Digester and 3) Anaerobic Digester. Dr. Kirtisis said this proposal is for the entire College-of-Engineering. He said they are trying to allow the engineers to work together with technicians because this is what industry wants. This will also take McNeese students away from going to Sowela and doing labs there. Morgan Verrette said she liked the proposal because it affects the greatest amount of students out of all the “big ticket” proposals presented. Tim Rye agreed with Morgan, affirming this proposal fits his definition of a “big ticket” item. T.J. asked Dr. Kiritsis if any other equipment has been purchased. Dr. Kirtisis responded yes, and listed the following equipment as purchased: the Industrial Refrigeration, the 6 Pas Heat Exchanger, the Gal/Liquid Absorption Column and the modular Chemical Reacror System.

T.J. Moore suggested the committee deliberate on the open proposals next week.
The remaining open Big Ticket proposals are: 1) Biology, 2) Educational Leadership and Instructional Technology, 3) Performing Arts/Visual Arts and 4) College-of-Engineering.
Tim Rye motioned to table the bills until next week. Morgan Verrette seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

New Business
Tim Rye said he was approached by James McDonald (Holbrook Coordinator) about the possibility of getting IP cameras for inside the computer lab, so it could be monitored from outside the lab. Tim said the cameras currently there do not work and with the amount of computers and equipment that TASC currently have, it would be wise to get some kind of additional security. A committee member asked if there was anyway to figure out why the cameras don’t work. Tim said yes but they are really old and need to be updated. He said James asked him to present the request to the committee for their consideration. Bill Mungai asked if the committee should possibly look for a standard system that could be used for more than just the lab and Bobby McLean asked if the cameras should record. Tim Rye said recording could be useful, especially if James could check on the lab when he is at another location.

Morgan Verrette moved to go back into the Old Business. John O’Donnell seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Old Business
Morgan apologized for going back to old business, but she wanted to know if the committee thought about funding the Pine Haven residents for dial-up internet until July when the University gives the residents another option. This service would be for one month at a cost of $7,250. Dr. Kirtisis suggested purchasing service for each one of the 67 students with Suddenlink. The committee considered this option. T.J suggested finding out how many rooms are at Pine Haven and what is Suddenlink’s rate.
Dr. Kirtisis proposed someone from the committee talk to the apartment managers to get the needed information i.e…have the apartment managers talk to each resident to find out when they are graduating, when they are going to be here, who they are and have each manager bring a list of needs to the TASC committee. Dr. Kiritsis also suggested each resident go and purchase dail-up service for $9.95 and turn the bills in to TASC for payment. After further discussion, Morgan Verrette motioned to table until next week pending numbers from Pine Haven. Tim Rye seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

New Business continued
Tim Rye suggested getting more information about the IP cameras; obtaining the cost of a small system or looking at something that could be unified across campus. Bobby McLean proposed the committee purchase a system that is not so much high tech but something that actually works and may be low tech. Dr. Kiritsis recommended looking at what the College of Nursing has in their lab.

CoTASCO Update
Bobby McLean introduced himself as the new Coordinator of TASC and reported some of the TASC equipment approved is now being received for delivery to the various departments. Bobby said the Go-Print System is working and he would be happy to demo for anyone interested.

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 25 @ 2:15pm in the McNeese Room of the Library.

Adjournment
T.J. Moore adjourned the meeting at 4:03pm.

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